Fred, that's very interesting. Do you suppose a return to the non-offending tape brand would be a case of closing the gate after the horse has bolted? In other words, would you imagine the damage has already been done?

Ian . . .

Continuing the idea that the brand of tape may be a factor in this problem. I have used perhaps 100 tapes over the past 2 years without (so far, fingers crossed) a single incident. I use exclusively TDK tapes.

Ian, I don't know about that since I have used the Maxell rewinder almost exclusively since I've had my GL2.

Fred, just bought one! I was expecting a ridiculously high price but for £13 it looks like you can't go wrong. I imagine Maxell will sell one or two more to other people reading this thread!

Thanks for the heads up.

Ian . . .

Hi all.

I have my XM2 for over 2 years. In this period I had the "zoom issue" which I solved by cleaning and eventually changing the zoom rocker (some of you might have seen the pics on this board, with my camcorder open to pieces).
Also, once in a while I get the "remove tape" issue. Like yesterday: ANY type I would try to rewind would give the message. The message appears when the tape is close to full rewind. Like minute 20 or closer to zero. For a short fraction of time before the message, the time code would show "-:--:--:--" like the camcorder looses the signal from the tape or something. While rewinding, as you get closer to the begining of the tape, the speed of the tape will increase making it harder for the heads to read the time code on the tape.
In my case the solution is simple: make sure the inside of the tape compartment is dry.
You see, every time I get back from a job (I doo weddings) I leave the camcorder with the tape compartment opened over the night (I put a cloth over the camcorder so dust won't get inside). I also have a big bag of silica stuff or what it is called (that absorbs humidity) that I put closer to the cam.
The night before yesterday I was to tired and forgot the cam into its bag (coming back from a wedding in the morning). Yesterday when I wanted to capture the tapes, I opened the bag and it smelled like an ashtray in there... I got the "remove tape" stuff with ALL tapes. I left the camcorder to dry over the night and this morning I could NOT reproduce the "remove tape" problem...

Long boring post, ha?! :)

Not boring at all, that's actually very useful information.

In case I get the rewind error problem (which I hope I don't), I will try use your trick to get rid of it - If anyone else tries it, let us know if it worked for you too.

My new-tome XL1s has been exhibiting the same problem. Here's my opinion:
I believe the problem is first an adjustment of the feed reel tension and then possibly tape binding within the cassette. Here is my reasoning:

Many years ago 7" reel-to-reel tape machines used a spring to keep tension on the feed side of the reel to prevent lateral slide across the record/playback heads. it also served to prevent a hopeless tangle of tape during fast forward/rewind as the feed reel began to approach the speed of sound.
Other techniques besides springs were used to maintain tension.

If a reel had been stored on its side or subject to a lot of jarring about the individual wraps of tape could slide laterally within the reel, causing increased friction. So much friction the machine could slow to a stop. I ran into this situation often with VHS tapes. The solution there was a fast foreward to end of tape and rewind to "re-pack" the tape.

In my case i feel the problem is tension on the feed reels. When i attempt to rewind a tape the camera exhibits so error messages until the motor switches to high speed. The viewfinder immeidately loses track of the time code and the "EJECT TAPE' message appears. Additionally, when playing tapes recorded on this camera on my GL1 I hear intermittent breaks in the audio track, which suggests not only transport issues, but alignment as well.

Rewinder
 

Where can you buy the Maxell or Firestore? How much do they cost? I couldn't find them on the internet.

FireStore
 

Check out the Focus Enhancements FireStore D.T.E. Recorders sub-forum under the Direct-to-Disk (Tapeless) Recording Solutions forum.

This link is to a post by a camcorder service guy--the first of it's kind I've seen on this issue. He says it's just shoddy design/part quality. His post is the fourth one on this page:

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/bbs/sho...=112967&page=2

Sometimes I open the cassette door and the tape does not eject from both my GL2's. I just close the door and reopen and it usually works. If the tape spools inside the cassette have a resistance of turning that prompts the unit to give an eject notification, as far as my VCR is concerned, I squeeze/massage/twist the cassette (of course not hard enough to do any damage). It usually plays fine after that. I believe I have done it with DV cassettes as well, successfully.

possible solve
 

Hi all!

I posted a few days ago that I'm always leaving the camcorder with the tape compartment opened over night, after each wedding. Well, it was not enough, it seems, so yesterday I could not rewind to the end a single tape from 5...

As I'm the DIY kind a guy, I opened up the camcorder ( again! ) to see what's happening in there.

What I found out: it is (at least in my case) a problem with the tape transport. It is not about head misalignments as I've heard. I uploaded a small video to show you what's happening. As you rewind the tape, the tape travels from right to left. You can see in the video that the collecting spool fails to take the tape at the rate it is supplied. I'm sorry but I don't know the technical names for the components so I can better explain,that's why I choose to let you see it and draw your own conclusions.

What I think: as the tape is supplied at a constant speed, the collecting spool has a variable angular speed (because the diameter of the spool+tape increases as it takes the tape). In order to spin at variable speed (when the motor spins at constant speed), the collecting spool has a kind of "clutch" - friction is employed here. Friction that it is lost because of dirt & grease & humidity...

After a couple of hours of trying to get the mechanical assembly opened (I didn't manage to do it...), I found a part that resembles what I was looking for and tried a desperate cleaning process: a drop of spirit (alcohol) between a plastic gear and a metal plate.


Luckily for you, you don't even need to open your camcorder to try this possible solution!
:)


I finally managed to rewind all tapes!

Yet another unprotected part of a canon camcorder..... (like the zoom rocker)

Wow, Cosmin. That's so plausible as a cause and a solution that I almost dare to hope. Songs will be written about you if your experience is confirmed by others.

I'd like to hear from others, yes. "remove tape" could have different causes... If you've seen the little video clip, you saw the tape jump out a bit. I tried that with several tapes and got the same thing happened. Sometimes the tape would flow out like crazy until the "remove tape" would show and the tape would stop. It actually jammed a tape... :(

Also, the drop of spirit I\'m sure it did remove some dirt... but a canon service would do a better job at cleaning the mechanism.

It is interesting that after over 20 messages in this topic, and 1400 reads, when I finally come with a possible diagnostic and a way to solve it, suddenly there\'s no interest in the subject!

Probably the problem went away by itself, for all canon users...



Anyway, I got more tapes rewinded without problems so far.