[Nancyp]

Hi there

I've got a canon MV 650i. I've had it for years - bought it when they'd just come out i think. It works fine and has been out to the rainforest where I do my research with me many times without any problems.

I have an odd problem with it though. It's not a regular problem and I'm not sure if it's the camera, the tape, airport xrays or something else that is causing it but i wondered if anyone had any advice/info on it.

Occasionally my tapes record fine but then when i play back they are damaged. Usually it's banding, as if the actualy tape has been affected in some way - the image is there but with 3 - 5 grey bands and fuzziness across it. Or the image goes wobbly and the sound goes funny. It's happened on about 5 tapes in the last 2 years. That's out of a total of about 20 tapes. It's happened on different tape brands. And its a fault that appears if i playback on the camera OR on professional transfer gear (i took the tapes to check it wasn't just my camera causing the problem)

I am not sure if it is the camera in which case it's a worrying fault cos there is no warning that something is wrong until I play back and it's a bit of a lottery as to whether a tape will be affected or not as they aren't all affected.

Or it could be the tapes - perhaps they were damaged already? or heat damage or something?

Or it could be from airport xrays i guess - although then why would only some tapes be affected as I treat them all the same. I always put them through the xrays as I was told they do no harm, and also cos i tried explained to the security guards why i didn't want to put them through and nearly got arrested in indonesia! so decided it was easiest to go with it!!

does anyone have any ideas or experience of this sort of thing?

thanks
Nancy

[senu]

Sorry this obscure Problem is happening.
I only have a clue from my experience.
Your camera heads could be " damaging" the tapes when they get clogged up.
They subsequently get "unclogged" and further tapes are spared. How? Clogging gets dislodged by a subseqent tape which also acts as a "tape head cleaner"
As far as I know low level x rays dont spoil magnetic tape.
Why would your tape heads get clogged?. I have no idea but the clue lies in your post stating the use of different tape brands.
There was a problem with the different lubricants "dry or "wet" which is supposedly a thing of the past. Some people had to have tapeheads profesionnally cleaned . others ( like me) had to contend with an irrepairable tapehead ( and camcorder).
We gennerally try to stick to one brand or manufacturer just to be on the safe side.
This may all be clever speculation rather than fact but It is my experience which may not be the right explanation for your problem
See My Posts in that thread
HTH

[Nancyp]

ah that's interesting... read the other post and thinking about it the first time the problem arose was with a sony tape I had bought locally in Indonesia... I wonder if indeed it was a lubricant problem...
I've recently had the camera cleaned so will check they cleaned the heads and hope this wont happen again....

you may well have answered my question! or at least it's a definite possibility!!
thanks!