Thanks for the advice and tips here guys. I am getting ready to go on a long tour and now I am going to make sure I have a back up camera ready at all times. I've only got 10 hours on my camera but this stuff scares the heck out of me when I might miss footage I can never replace this spring.

Brian

Mark,
Here's a question for you, how were you powering your unit when it failed? The first time my fuse blew, it was running with the dual battery packs on back. The second time, it just had a regular Canon battery in the well.

R

I was using a regular old 945 Battery in the regular battery slot. I am scraping pennies together to get Anton Bauers. I got the XL1 to A/B adapter on ebay for a song, I just have to get the bricks and a Titan 70 Charger.

Baby's back!
 

So, I got the camera back from Canon a couple of days ago. It was the master fuse as Chris and others had diagnosed.

John, from Canon, told me to be sure to power down before plugging, or unplugging the B&W viewfinder. He said that doing this earlier may not have popped the fuse, but weakened it. I don't recall plugging in the viewfinder while the camera was on, but I may have when I was initially trying it out. The whole master fuse thing still makes me a bit paranoid.

The one thing that freaked me out when I opened my Porta Brace, was that they did a really lousy job of packing. I don't mean to be a whiner, but my heart stopped when I opened the bag and saw everything strewn about in the main compartment. I had very carefuly put lens wraps on everything and put in bubble wrap, etc so that nothing moved for the trip out, but they didn't do any of that. They just tossed everything in. Thankfully, nothing was broken.

Rant over. I am grateful, it was a free fix, after all and they were even kind enough to overnight the tape stuck inside, so I could get it to the director. That was great. Canon get high marks for service, but low marks for packing.

And Chris From ZGC also had a hand in somewhere, there was an XL2 brochure in one of the pockets of the bag, with her card stapled to it. She works in mysterious ways.

All is well, now I just need more DP gigs...

Thanks for the report, Mark! Interesting stuff there.

You're welcome, Chris. It's an honor to be here and do whatever I can for the team.

I am afraid, very afraid. Master Fuses!? Bad Packaging!? My paranoia is taking over.

Thankfully this hasn't happened to me yet. I couldn't imagine sending mine off and letting Canon whoop up on it and send it back all bruised and banged up from the trip back.

Glad to hear yours made the trip back in good condition, Mark. I will have to watch myself, I am bad at having the camera on as I hook up my firewire cable. Im almost afraid to try to turn my camera on now.

Very informative topic.

WOW... having a camera down for this is scary !

Surly there should be a way to field replace this fuse, or a retrofit so that the fuse could be changed out in the field.

In my opinion the Master Fuse concept is a good thing -- it keeps your camera from self-destructing -- but having only two service centers in the U.S. who can reset the camera, is not such a good thing. Hopefully it doesn't happen that often.

Just to chime in with my experience, (as I seem to be the first on the board to experience the fuse problem). I know for a fact that when it blew the first time, I was not connecting or disconnecting the BW viewfinder. I know for a fact that when it blew after the first repair, it was not while connecting or disconnecting the viewfinder.

When it blew the first time, and I sent it back to canon (in california), they said there was a problem with the lens mount. Indicating they believed I had stripped it. I explained that was impossible, there was no problem with the mount, that the camera was working, I was shooting, put it in standby, and the camera failed while powering up - that was why there was a tape stuck inside. They insisted the problem lay in the mount, and required a replacement of the entire ccd block. This cost me 600 dollars, as the 'damage' was due to my 'negligence' in their assesment, and thereby voided my warranty. As the camera was no longer in my hands, I had no choice but to pay to get it back in working condition.

Canon did not overnight the tape inside.

Packaging and shipment was excellent.

The camera failed (As I mentioned previously) a second time a day after I received it. I sent it back to canon and they replaced the mother board. They ran it and cycled it for several hours, and indicated they were "pretty sure the problem was solved". And shipped it back.

Throughout this ordeal, Brian at Zotz was working the phones and the reps. Ultimately, through his efforts, the camera was replaced.

I am now shooting with a new XL2. Spent four hours shooting hang gliders this weekend, with the FU-1000 and 16x manual lens. Cycling through standby and powering up and down. No problems.

Again, the big lesson I learned is that it is worth it to go through the dealers on this board, and that this board is , itself, an incredibly valuable asset to the DV communitiy.

Props to Chris and the sponsors.

Thanks, Richard...

I'm a people person and a firm believer in the folks who sponsor this site. Brian and Tom at Zotz, Cody and Rush and the guys at EVS. The Zellans at ZGC who are a great couple in their own right but are even better with Christine B. on their staff. I don't allow just any dealer to come on board here. They've got to be people-oriented with excellent customer service track records. I've been accused of being somewhat zealous with regard to "where to buy" topics... those are pointed to our sponsors and then quickly shut down... but there's a reason for that; these folks are making an honest living and they'll look out for you when things go wrong. And that's what it's all about.

Thanks Chris, this forum has been invaluable and was one of the places where I came for info when making my decision on which camera to buy. Oddly, the choice of where to buy came on my own and ZGC seemed like a good choice. I'm very happy with them. I didn't realize that there were sponsors for the site, until later.

The Master Fuse is good, but it does kinda suck that it's a factory fix and that no one really knows why it happens. It would be nice if it was a user replaceable part. If it keeps happening, then send it in.

Richard's experience is a bit disturbing. This whole thing makes me just a bit wary and if I'm shooting a project, I'd want to have a camera on standby, just in case.

I'm praying that it never happens again.

<<<-- Originally posted by Mark Sasahara : Thanks Richard's experience is a bit disturbing. This whole thing makes me just a bit wary and if I'm shooting a project, I'd want to have a camera on standby, just in case.

I'm praying that it never happens again. -->>>

I never thought of this as a possibility until I read this thread, but now I am happy that I have been using the built in feature of the XL2 to stop tape instead of it putting the camera into standby!

It is a great feature, and now seems like an even greater feature if it could help avoid this problem :-)

Anthony,

There is not enough data to suggest that putting the camera in standby (Or taking it off) is the sole cause of the fuse blowing. It blew under those conditions the first time for me, but not the second. Clearly, a fuse 'blowing' is the result of some sort of power surge or overload. But Canon couldn't isolate the problem. Is it related to a weakness in the motherboard? Is it isolated to the FU-1000 viewfinder power draw? Was it simply isolated to my camera and the other one listed on this board? Two failures (documented on this board) out of how many total Xl2s sold?

Hard to say much, beyond I had a problem and so did Mark.

Hello,

It sounds like a design flaw that affects too small a group for Canon to invest in a cure.

That is too bad if true :-(