Firewire is not working!
 

Today my firewire stop working. Does anyone know how much this will cost to be fixed? or will it be covered in my warranty. (had camera less than 6 months) I can't call canon until Monday because the office is close on the weekend. I'm about to have a stroke!

Take a magnifying glass and inspect the pins on both ends, the computer and camcorder, not the cable.

It's possible to bend the pins when inserting the cable. I did it on my PC. I was able to bend it back with an awl.

4-pin firewire connections are fragile IMO.

bad new. one of the pins is shorter that the others. How much will it cost to have the port replaced?

Personally I find the firewire input way to small for a plug sticking out that far. That's why I use angled plugs when using it in the field for live harddisk recording.

I wish you luck with the repair.

If covered by the warranty - the cost of shipping it to Canon at Jamesburg, NJ. But call their toll-free number and ask.

you sure it the firewire and not the computer?

What do you mean by one pin is shorter then the other?

It could also be the cable problem. I changed mine and also switch to using the firewire port on the mobo (before, I used the one connected to the front panel for convenience).

inside the port , on the camera one of the 4 pins is shorter than the others. I plugged the camera into different ports on the computer, tried another cable, reset the camera tried dirrent software and Prayed and still no dice.

I know the problem. The 4 pins aren't touching the 4 leads in the cord. If I move the leads in the cord I can the firewire to work. unfortunately i may still have to get it fixed because I plan on getting a focus device and I need my firewire to work normally. All my other firewire devices have a box that houses the pins in it. I don't understand why Canon just has the 4 pins with no support. no wonder they bend so easy. Even my panasonic 300 has the box around the pins. 3500 dollars and they couldn't make a more stable firewire port.

At least knowing the cause of the problem is some comfort. When I had my firewire problem, it was on the PC end, but I was able rebend the pin with a fine awl.

You've about convinced me to go back to popping tapes into the HV10 as a capture deck, as I was doing before.

Send your camera in to Canon factory service right away. There's a service center located not far from you in Jamesburg, NJ. The sooner you do that, the sooner this problem will be out of your life.

Talking about Firewire ports, as most of us know, 6-pin sockets pose another danger. If positive DC pin gets messed up and shortcuts, port can damage any device connected to it. To lower the risk, handle it gently and avoid using 6-pin plug too often. Abusing 4-pin port is not as dangerous as 6-pin. I have my cables connected to 6-pin ports in computer all the time. This way at least I don't have to worry about one side of connection.

One more simple thing, a Firewire cable that possibly caused the trouble should never be used again.

sent it to canon. It should get there by noon tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get is back by next week , if not sooner.

and yes, I insured it for it's full value.

canon is charging me 270 dollars to fix the firewire. I will treat the firewire like glod from now on. I thought I'd tell everyone the cost, so that all of you will use more caution. I thought maybe 200, but 270. Da*

In the first week I had my A1 I stepped on the firewire cable, almost destroying the port. It changed the shape of the outside wall, but it still works. And it totally scared the crap out of me.

I'm planning to go to a Canon service centre as soon as we are back from London. And for the future I looked around for a solution. I found two angled firewire cables (one with a left sided and one with right sided firewire connector). With those two you can shorten the length of the cable sticking out of the back of your camera. After 15 millimetres the wire goes down or up, where you can bind it to your tripod or via the top handle to a firewire drive.
Personally: It would be a HUGE improvement when Canon builds in a bigger and better firewire input. This one is very small and weak.

Thanks for the tip. 270 dollars....uff....going to put some money aside for the job. I hope they will be gentle over here.

The new port will be defended by my dog (Jack Russel).......