Head cleaner tapes for HDV...

Hi all,

My A1 is playing silly buggers and keeps asking me to reinsert the tape...I think it was a C:22 warning..

What head cleaning tapes do you recommend...

Can I use just the DV ones or is there a special sort.....

Dive safe

Dean(wow not one innuendo about Head cleaning)B

Sony included a Sony DVM-4CLD miniDV cleaning cassette with my Z1.

If it's a C:31:22 error then it may well be a mechanical problem. In my case it was the beginning of the end. But a new tape carriage wasn't actually so expensive.

Hi Nick,

Ahhhh crap... Its that error... Bloody thing...

It plays tapes at the begining but struggles to rewind them... Another reason it could be is that I got some rain on it and put it into the housing which then condensated quite heavily... I'll let it dry for a couple of days then try again...

Bloody typical !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers & Dive safe

DeanB

I reckon it's something simple and mechanical like a stiff bearing caused by corrosion causing inconsistent drag on the tape.

Sounds like it... The tape kept stuttering on playback for a while then was fine... Then all of a sudden.... Error...

I will get a head cleaner then try again

Cheers

Dive safe

DeanB

Dean our first A1 did the same thing so Sony sent us another new one.

It seems to be a tape alignment problem.

No amount of cleaning our end would get it going again.

They might fix it for free..Good Luck..

Cheers wags...

Stuck a Head cleaner (DVM 4CLD) in it for a few seconds then a new tape... Fast forward and rewind a few times and Now seems o.k...

Will wait and see... Weirdly enough just after the warranty has run out... Its a conspiracy

Thanks for all the comments

Dive safe

DeanB

If your warranty JUST ran out, I suggest you run to Sony and try to get this done under warranty. Just say you were out on location 3 months ago when this happened. You just got back from errr the Congo?

Dean, mine had that error coming and going. I kept cleaning it like you and getting by. Then it finally bit me in the arse in the middle of a hotel promo shoot when the camera died completely. Camera off to Sony with the tape stuck inside and three weeks late sending it to the customer. I can't say the tape error and the camera death were directly related but there's a good chance. And once those errors start they never seem to go away forever. Smacking the camera really hard on the side is one temporary solution that a lot of users have had success with.

Smacking the camera really hard on the side is one temporary solution that a lot of users have had success with.

That was nearly the case !!!! it was very close to going out the window...

To much to do over the next few weeks to send it to Sony...

Dive safe

DeanB

Ok but I seriously would not go on a shoot with a hobbled camera. That could lead to more frustrations than making the effort to send it to sony. Imagine it breaks down mid-shoot on location?

Better to have a 'hobbled' camera then no camera at all... only for a few weeks... then I promise to send it off... or stamp it to the ground

Dive safe

DeanB

Oh Deano... I can feel some tears and stamping of feet coming on!

Can't you send it off to Sony and just rent a camera for the shoot, why not try and blagg one from the guy that you are buying you EX1 or Z7 from.. say you really need to test it out.

J

Hi J...

Its been fine since the head cleaning extravaganza....Sending it to Sony will take well over a week...

Thanks for the thoughts though.. If it fails it fails...

Dive safe

DeanB

posting this for future reference if someone is stuck in some far flung destination.....

Nick "hit" the nail on the head - or he hit one of the nails on its head.....

Sipadan last year - day three.... one of the FX1s gave it all that C:31:22 jazz

hours of Googling it and took the risk of doing what a good few forums stated - hitting it...... well blow me but it worked!!!!!

a couple of days later happened again.... hit it..... hurt my hand......... served me right for treating my baby in such a cruel manner...... but it worked...

I hit mine on the bottom - under the tape deck...

the camera definitely didn't have condensation probs but may have been quite severely jolted on the speed boat (though it was stacked ontop of three lifejackets) as the sea was a little kicked up at the time....

I can thoroughly suggest - of course, having tried all other options - that if you are in a remote destination, with no chance of a fix until the Sony boys in some major city can help, that some people's age-old adage of a "technical tap" (in this case it is more like a whack) can really work....

maybe this fix is only for a physical mechanical misalignment issue and most likely wouldn't work with problems of corrosion or build of greases etc.... but worth a try if ALL else fails..... I mean if the cam's already useless and dead already and you've still got a few days in a remote location, then why not?

this method gets my RESERVED thumbs up.....

The slap definitely worked for me for a while but it may well have contributed to the death of the camera a few weeks later. Who knows.

Still good....

Dive safe

DeanB