I'm hyperventilating - HelpHelpHelp

After an eon, my short film is finally edited and I'm ready to get it off the computer via mini-DV. My camera is the XL1. Every tape I put in is met with REMOVE THE CASSETTE. The camera was fine a couple of days ago. It's hot in NYC, I have the air conditioning on and off in my room, is this a factor? The Canon site says things like, "Bring your camera in to be serviced" but my project is do-or-die due Monday and I don't have time to waste. I suspect weather, heat and humidity are a factor. What can I do? Respond with haste before I have some sort of stroke. Thanks.

[Chris Hurd]

Howdy from Texas,

Have a glass of ice water and relax. Your camera definitely needs to go across the river to the Canon repair facility in Jamesburg, NJ for service. However, in a city like New York, somebody somewhere will have a DV camcorder (doesn't have to be an XL1S) that you can borrow or rent long enough to record your master edit back to DV.

You can start by asking the Jamesburg, NJ Canon facility for a loaner and from there, work your way down though contacts at school, work, friends, fellow DV Info Net community members in NYC, or the many locations in the city where you can rent a Mini-DV camcorder for a day.

Hope this helps,

Rats.

[Patrick Coker]

two things.

1. this happened to my xl1-s a couple of weeks ago, it's the weather. just let it sit for a few days and the condensation will evaporate and then clean the heads and it will be fine, at least mine was.
2. I'm in NY, what do u need, maybe I can help

Thankin' y'ever so, e.patric, but I've already called and gotten one out of a friend. As for the camera - should I leave it at the open, empty, ejected and off stage or some other way?

I find the XL1 to be a finicky camera - on our shoot day it went down with the same error message, thank God we had two back-up cameras (Sony's), I can't say I'm a fan of it in times of crisis.

Thanks again

[Chris Hurd]

Just curious, are you being careful to close the inner cassette mechanism door first, before closing the outer white tape loading door? There are two separate things that need to be closed when you insert a tape... just closing the outter white door isn't enough and will cause you to get the warning.

Just wanted to be sure that your problem isn't an operational error.

Yessir, always.

[Patrick Coker]

leave it open and good luck!

[Nathan Gifford]

I had one nasty problem like that when I was shooting in Ft. Lauderdale. The cam had gotten really cold and when it was hauled out in the wonderfully muggy Florida air...

Well, I turned on the car's heater and a/c. That technique throughly dried out the air and warmed the cam (NOT BOILED PLEASE). After that I was much more careful about storing the cam in a cold room.

Besides what you have done already, have you tried a different tapes? Also, its also real important to let the tape mechanism load the tape before closing the tape door.

One other thing I was thinking about, was there any time the cam was exposed to all that dust after 9-11? It could be possible that you have a really severe case of dust contamination.

Nathan Gifford

[Jacques Mersereau]

I had this problem a couple of weeks ago. It didn't
seem overly humid, but I got that message many times.

I thought I was ready for a new transport (major repair)
but the next day (and tape) went without issue.

I think I had a weird tape.