No tsure what a shamy stick is..used MIniDV DV head cleaner tape to no avail

Hi there,

The most common cause of this is dust, debris or contamination on the heads.

Firstly, it's extremely important that you use only DRY LUBRICANT type DV tapes on the Canon branded camcorders.

Different manufacturers design their heads to be used with either Dry or Wet (coating lubricant type) tapes - NEVER BOTH. Canon is DRY type.

Consumers are led to believe that they should be using well known branded DV tapes, such as Sony. This is fine, if your camcorder is a Sony. However, you should NEVER use Sony tapes in your Canon - Sony tapes are of the WET type.

So, the question is, "Are you currently using Dry or Wet type tapes, or a mixture of both?" If you have used either a WET tape, or a mixture of both in your Canon, then this may have contaminated your heads.

If this is so, then don't panic - simply run a special Head Cleaning cassette (for Dry tapes) in your Canon for no more than 5 secs. Note: your heads are very delicate, so only run the cleaning tapes for a few secs at a time.

Also, try to avoid recording over the cassette too many times, as the quality will sometimes degrade each time.

An example of the Dry tapes are the Panasonic ones (Myself and other Pro Videographers often use Panasonic Prof, Studio or Master Quality tapes, as these are some of the better quality Dry tapes on the market).

As your XL2 is a Pro Camcorder, I recommend you stick with Studio quality (or higher) cassettes.

See this link for Dry DV tapes: http://cgi.ebay.com/Panasonic-mini-DV-digital-video-cassette-AY-DVM63SQ-5pk-/170645949017?pt=US_Camcorder_Tapes_Discs&hash=item27bb4a8a59

or

http://cgi.ebay.com/5-Panasonic-Master-HDV-HD-video-tape-HC9-Mini-DV-/220519311691?pt=US_Camcorder_Tapes_Discs&hash=item3357f9a94b


See this link for Head Cleaner cassette: http://cgi.ebay.com/MiniDV-mini-DV-Panasonic-Head-Cleaner-Cleaning-Tape-/220683036059?pt=US_Camcorder_Tapes_Discs&hash=item3361bbe59b


If the problem still exists after head cleaning, then suspect either a faulty cassette (most likely) or damaged heads requiring service.

Let me know how you get on...


Scott



"If this has helped you, please be kind enough to leave a testimonial"

No, you should not clean video head manually, it will be damage/ broken easily.
MiniDV Video Head Cleaning Tape is available in amazon.com, click that link to view tape image and price info.
Thanks.

Hi there,

Firstly, I must explain how the MiniDV system works:

Although this may sound illogical, MiniDV camcorder heads do actually use a type of lubrication cassette system and there are 2 types:

- DRY lubrication (Canon, Panasonic, JVC etc)
- WET lubrication (Sony)

Now, if you haven't noticed already from the above 2 types, you are in fact using the WRONG type of cassette on your camcorder.

Although Sony cassettes are often readily available (and often perceived to be the best quality), by using Sony cassettes on a Canon camcorder (or Pana, JVC for that matter), you are in fact causing premature wear on the heads. So, the condition you are describing as 'dirty' heads, is in fact caused by the use of the wrong (wet type) cassettes on your DRY type camcorder.

Using "WET" type cassettes on a DRY system camcorder, can often leave residue on your heads, or worse....cause wear. The same principle applies to Sony camcorders - use only Sony 'WET' type cassettes, not Dry cassettes.

This also applies when using HEAD CLEANER cassettes - as indicated, you have used a Sony Head Cleaner cassette (this is a WET type cassette), when in fact, you should be using a DRY HEAD CLEANER cassette (Pana, Canon etc).

CAUTION: when using a head cleaner cassette, only playback the cassette for no more than 6 sec's at a time (anymore will damage the heads).

Summary:

For your Canon camcorder, use only DRY MiniDV cassettes (Pana offer cassettes from Studio, Professional to Master Quality), including DRY Head Cleaner cassette. This should improve the playback quality from your camcorder.

Clean video heads, put MiniDV video head cleaning tape in camcorder and clean heads as per instructions there.
MiniDV cleaning tape is available in radio Shake or other stores.
Thanks.

Yes, need to clean video head of camcorder.
Put MiniDV head cleaning tape in camera and clean its video head as per instructions on cleaning tape.
Thanks.

It could be video head dust or the tape guide were out of alignment or it had been magnetized
In any case you should bring to JVC service center or JVC itself to repair this problem. They must connect your CAM into computer to check up and realignment DO NOT use the tape cleaning it won't help you sometime it cause more trouble such broken video head
Cheers

clean all brown oxide off capstan roller with 70% alcohol and Q-tip. Its the skinny silver axle that the rubber roller comes into contact with when the tape loads. This is what pulls the tape through the transport. also clean heads with head cleaner tape. If your head is dirty, the tape will wrap itself around the drum and cause a transport error.

First if you have a very bad tape (miniDV) (hard to turn by your hand) the camera will automatically eject coz it cant load the tape to it. it is not a head problem. It seems that you have a mechanical loading issue here. But try to put new miniDV tape. ANd post here what happen. PS Dont use compress gas to clean it you might put new problem. Please use only the head cleaner tape (MiniDV) if you want to clean the head. Hope this may help you

Use a head cleaner tape (available on eBay most likely) and clean the recording heads.