Mmm - the 'upside down' fix sounds interesting!

I've just got my XM2 back from Canon at a cost of £232. In their defence I found them to be fairly helpful on the phone.

I got a photocopy of a report with the following advice - don't re-use old/damaged cassettes and keep the heads clean. I was a bit taken aback by this as I always shoot with a brand new tape, and use a tape head cleaner on a regular basis.

So, I spoke to a technician explaining the above and pointed out that from the internet it appears that this is well-known problem. In response to the tape question, given the use of new tapes and keeping it clean, he stated that it was probably a torque problem with the gears, and that the repairer had 'probably' installed stronger gears. As to this being quite a common problem he stated that it could be several different problems that give the same error, and people end up thinking it's the same problem (judge that for yourselves!).

Final advice - keep cleaning, never re-use cassettes, and return it for a service if it's getting a lot of use. Cleaning the heads before 'mothballing' the camera for periods is also recommended.

Well, I'm going to see how things go from here. One thing I've decided is to use another cheap camcorder to rewind cassettes. I don't intend to do it in the XM2 again.

A new vic.
 

I just want to add my story to this thread for cathartic reasons...

I purchased my GL2 in the US, Dec - 2003 and have been in Tanzania on assignment (not shooting, I'm a linguist!) since January 2004. The 'remove cassette' message has showed up periodically from day one but I never thought much about it. I would just pull the tape out, smacked it around a little, (an old habit from my cassette-wound-too-tight days as a child), put it back in, and voila, problem solved.

After six months or so I had my first chewed tape. I 'blacklisted' the tape thinking that was the problem. After a couple more chewed tapes I thought it was a TDK issue and decided to commit the brand-change-sin to FUJI tapes. I had a pile brought over from Canada but the problem has resurfaced on those cassettes as well.

-The camera has had no more than 30 hours of recording time.
-It lives in air/water-tight Pelican 1520 with 1527 soft insert.
-I baby this thing because I know I am far from a Canon service rep.
-I've reused three tapes but only once each. All other tapes have only been used once.
-I've never left a tape in the transport when not recording, even for an hour.
-Having no secondary deck I do use the camera for log-and-capture / rewind-playback.

One thing I can rule out for sure is the moisture/humidity issue. I live and work in the Tanzanian Southern Highlands and the problems persist in the dry season when you can't even keep your eyes moist here.

Things have only gotten worse and I was driven to start searching on the web yesterday when a brand new, fresh tape got chewed right out of it's package. Couldn't record an important event. After reading what I have in this and other forums, I basically feel like my video recording days are over until I return to Canada late 2007 when I can purchase a different brand of camera for my next assignment. :-(

I had a pixel problem fixed under warranty. This is a good thing. Then why did they also replace the transport mechanism? Something they know, that we don't? Oh yes, I was NOT having transport issues!

Grazie

I'm starting to hope that my new GL2 has some issues so I can send it in under warranty. Better now under warranty than later with $250. I have no clue if there's a Canon repair center in Greece or not. Here's a thought - maybe we've figured out the reason Canon has been giving $250 rebates on GL2s for the past few years.

Steve

Wow. Quite the thread going here. I'll give my 2 cents of experience.

I've owned my GL2 for about 2 1/2 years. First tape I used was a Panasonic. Every tape since has been Fuji. Also, I always use 60 minute tapes...never 80 minute.

I've only experience the "remove cassette" error twice. First time was within a month of purchasing the camera. The second time was about a year or so later. I was shooting outdoors each time, during the summer. It was probably in the 70's or 80's (fahrenheit)...might have been humid...I don't recall. Each time I received the error, I simple turned the camera off for a few seconds, and turned it back on...with no further problems.

Usually after recording an event, I'll rewind the tape (in camera) and take it out and store it until I'm ready to edit in my NLE. Then, I dump the contents to hard drive, rewind the tape, and put it back into storage. I don't use the camera like a VCR and do a lot of fast forward and rewind.

I've only shot about 20 hours or so in the past 2 1/2 years, so I'm a light user, I suppose. Oh, I've never run a cleaning tape through yet, either, and I've never experiened any "drop outs". Maybe I'm fortunate and have a particularly good GL2.

Speaking of tech support...have you ever tried contacting JVC Professional Sevices support? Ah, but I digress.

All in all, I'm very happy with the Canon GL2, and I'd buy another. The picture is superb, and the camera has been very good to me. :)

Tim

I have just spent months researching which camera to purchase and all of this is starting to really concern me. Everyone I speak to tells me to buy a canon. It seems to be a toss up between the XL and GL but this transport issue is a hard one to overlook. Do both cameras use the same transport? Is one more prone to the issue than the other? Tuesday is order day for me and I hope I dont make a bad decision.

Hey Bob - I've had my GL2 for about two months, and I've had nothing to complain about. One thing you have to keep in mind is that there are tens of thousands of GL2s out there, maybe more, and even if you read 1000 postings about people contracting that error, it's still just a drop in the bucket.

On top of that, it seems that to fix this it only costs $250, or free if it happens within the first year. Considering the GL2 is one of the cheapest of the 3ccd prosumer camera, and the fact that they give you a $250 rebate, I would say it's worth the risk investing in a GL2. Even if you do get that error, it will be fairly cheap and easy to replace, and you'll still get many, many happy hours of good video. Anyway, that's my thoughts...

Oh, and I'm not sure whether they use the same transport mechanism, though I have heard of people with the XL having the same problem. So maybe they do. Can anybody tell us for sure?

Steve

One comment Steve: Do the Sony OR JVC OR Panasonic forums have instances of such an issue?

And yes, I agree with everything you say, but would colour my comments as to IF other main-line suppliers have had this crop up - yeah?

Grazie

You're completely right, thanks Grazie. I'm not at all against Sony or JVC or Panasonic - I think they all make fantastic cameras. I don't know if they have any instances of such an issue - I'll look into it on the threads, though.

Another one....
 

"The message appears when the tape is close to full rewind (...) 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" Sounds familiar to me.

After that, several times, I opened and took out and put inside the cassette with effect like it is written before. In the end, I did it one more time, I started to rewind and when tape was rewinded on full speed, counter went mad, than well known information was displayed - "remove the cassette". I did it, but transport mechanism ate the tape. Not good. The camera is curently visiting authorized canon service. We will see, what they will tell tomorrow.

I make movies in general for family, sometimes concerts, or sth like that. Personal and commercial use. Camcorder is 2 years old. I wrote it to show, that it happens to often and it seems that it is some kind of....mistake?

A little off-topic, but...

When my GL2 came back from being repaired for this problem, it also got updated firmware/software or something. I know this because now everytime I turn it on, it has a little blue "tunnel-like" startup screen with the Canon logo. Also, all my little messages that pop up on the screen now have a new font and a blue border! I wonder what happened?

How much it costs?
 

Remove the cassete /when rewinding on high speed/
In Poland repair cost /out of warranty/ is about 185$ /new transport mechanism and some telemetric settings/. It will take 2 weeks /they have to order new parts/ warranty for repair is 6 months/
........

XL1S Too...
 

I purchased an XL1S 14 months ago and guess what...Its just developed 'Remove the Cassette' syndrome (2 months out of warranty, I add). And yes this occurs when rewinding a tape...Timecode flickers in EVF then "Remove the Cassette" appears. When ejecting, the tapes are always munched. This occurs randomly. So far £40 worth of tape has been destroyed. I do wedding videos, but have so far been 'lucky' in that it has been other non important footage that has been eaten.

The XL1S wasn't cheap, paid nearly £2500 GBP. Had no idea what was happening at first but after doing a google search this thing seems quite common! (with the GL1+2 anyway). Shame Canon don't tell you this before you part with your hard earned.

This camera has been babied since new. I have only ever used one tape brand (Panasonic DV83MQ), tape is removed from machine after every shoot, Heads are cleaned every 30 hours or so etc, etc.

I have just purchased a MiniDV rewinder (£13) and will use this from now on.

"Shame Canon don't tell you this before you part with your hard earned"

actualy, I'm convinced that this is not a "canon only" issue. I've seen it on a VX2100 as well. They display something like "error xxx" or whatever. But is the same problem.

The firckin' miniDV tape mechanism is so fragile...

I truly hesitate, and then some, if I am ever tempted to review work on any of my XM2s. I try to keep the mechanism just going "forwards" - if you know what I mean?

Cosmin? Is that a famous Romanian oath "firckin'" ? Would that be the "Firckins" of Bucharest or Jassi? LOL!

Grazie