I have a Cannon zr400 and it said on the screen to remove the casset while I was filming. Now it won't accept any tapes.

hi, this is film camera uses 35mm film , the clip is used to keep the film wound tightly on the take spool, no problem , use ultra thin cello tape on the tip of the film and attach it to the take up spool , ensure that the rewinding stops as soon as the counter reaches 0 or 1 , in case the camera does not have switch, remove the battery on time hope this works

take the unit out and remove cover try and manually release mechanism
if not its toast

retime the gears

The head unit that reads the tape is dirty or clogged, or the tape has moisture on it. Try fast forwarding to the end of the tape then rewinding back to the beginning, sometimes this clears the moisture. If that doesn't work try buying a head cleaner from an electronics store and follow the instructions to clean the head. if that doesn't work you need to take it somewhere where they fix cameras or send it in to canon to get fixed. If nothing else works it's most likely a bad head. I have the exact same cam (zr400) and the same thing happened to me but rather than send it in to canon, (who refused to honor their warranty saying it had major sand damage when it never even went outside) i opened it myself and replaced the head with the one from my older zr65 camcorder. It worked flawlessly. Hope this helps -J

Mine did the same thing. I cleaned the head with a dry tape cleaner then instead of just showing a blue screen it started showing a screen with the video but with gray lines on it. Cleaned it a few more times but it still didn't work. Finally I came up with a solution they say not to do this but if your careful it will be fine. Get a bottle of nail polish remover acetone free and some q-tips. Dampen one of the q-tips make sure its only damp and not wet be sure not to get finger oil on your q-tips. With the camera tape port ejected and open lightly swab the head with the q-tip with nail polish remover do this as long as you like being sure to clean the whole head once complete let it dry for a few minutes when it drys it will be dull looking with a thin white film on it. Take a fresh q-tip ensuring you don't touch the cotton your going to use this to wipe the film off the head once complete the head will look shiny. try your tape and if it works it was a dirty head if it plays the screws up most likely your tape is dirty or messed up.
Richard L

Several things could be happening...the tape is backwards, upside down, inverted or just wrong type since it closes without it. Next check to see on the inside if something is jamming the tape. While it closes without a tape there could be something that jams when a tape is inserted.

I tried every method I could find from people posting on the web, but the method that worked for me is this.

1. Eject the tape and close the tape holder.
2. Turn the camera off and remove the battery.
3. Put the battery back in. Leave the camera off.
4. Open the tape holder.
5. Slide the tape in, but as you press the holder in to accept the tape, keep your finger pressing in on the holder, being careful not to slow the tape holder from moving downward.
6. Turn the camera on.
7. If it doesn't work the first time, press more firmly to help the tape holder accept the tape.

That's it. This method seems to work for me and lets me use the camera for a long while. If the camera is sitting unused for more than a few hours, I have to do it again. And each time I insert a tape, I make sure that I keep pressing as the tape holder lowers the tape.

This is a tape transport problem and is expensive to fix. Unless you know a cheap tech, it's time for a new one. Be patient loading and unloading tapes. This is usually what causes this problem. The Yellow warning sticker is REALLY important. Another important item is to always use the same brand of tape because switching tapes causes a gummy build-up the makes tapes get caught in the machine.
Videoteacher

Digital video on the ZR400 is transferred to a computer only via the DV out port, which will connect to a firewire port on a PC or a Mac. USB will not transfer video, only images to and from the card.

Hey,

I just started to have the same problem, 5 grey lines and intermittent audio. I the settings and i tried different tapes and No Joy. Then I tried to record onto an old tapes to see if the new recording would do it and the camera showed me a strange icon for exposure. I set the exposure back to 'Easy' and Viola, I recorded and the playback is now clean. Even old tapes play OK now...

The settings must have gotten wacked somehow. I glad it worked out, good luck.