VX2100 head cleaning services?
 

I own a VX2100 and I'm looking to get the heads cleaned. I haven't had a problem with them yet, but I've done ALOT of capturing these past few months and I don't want to wait for them to crap out on me. So my question is, do you have any suggestions as to where I should send the camera to be serviced? I called the place I purchased and they don't do any servicing and I also called Sony but they won't take it unless there's a reason for repair. Any help is apprciated.


-Ricky.

There really is no need to clean the heads on any sort of regular basis. I've got maybe 3000 hours on various cameras and decks and in the aggregate, they've each received a single pass with the cleaning tape. If you use a good brand of tape (I empasize again that I only use Sony in Sony equipment) you shouldn't need to clean the heads very much anyway. Regular tape is very slightly abrasive and tends to keep the heads clean by itself.

If you want to have the transport align-checked and everything cleaned and lubed, that's a different story. For that, given your location, I'd take it into
Armato Photo Services, Inc.
Armato's Pro Video - www.armatosvideo.com

I'll second Armato's. Mike, that's a strong recommendation for Armato's given where you're from. I'm only about 10 minutes from them by car. Really friendly folks there too. Very "Mom & Pop" and their prices are close to B&H's.

BTW if you buy your camera from them and it needs to go in for repair, they'll supply a free loaner.

I've seen an email from them where they were trying to buy a camera to support a customer who's camera needed repair. First-class operation.

You pay a bit more there and usually I buy from B&H but for pro camera purchases (anything with a removable lens) I go to them.

They get all my non-Sony (read out of warranty) repair work.

I also use Sony Premium's with my camera. It's the only tape that's ever been in there. The reason I want to get them cleaned is because I've done a large amount of capturing in the 2+ years I've had the camera. Thanks for your help though. It's greatly apprcieated.

There's head cleaning and tape path cleaning Ricky.

The first point to make is that before you attempt to dismantle and clean your precious camcorder, do go and buy a genuine cleaning tape. I have one for my mini DV, and interestingly it's labeled as a Head Cleaner,

Why "interestingly"? Well, because that's all it does. It does nothing for the guides, rollers, capstan and pinch roller (9 components in a Mini DV deck) some of which revolve at the same relative speed as the passing cleaning tape, and it's these components that deserve your close attention every so often. Remember that simply recording one hour of DV means that 70 metres of tape pass through the mechanism.

I'd go along with Mike though - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But as soon as you see the tell-tale ring of brown gunge a mm or so up from the main bearing on the drive capstan, it's time to do the tape path clean.

tom.

Can you explain that to me a little better? I'm not exactly sure what the "drive capstan" is. I'd like to know where to look.

You've specified that you don't want to receive private emails Ricky, so I can't send you my series of tape path cleaning photos.

tom.