[MI55ION]

Hi, I'm a complete newcomer to videography and have a couple of newbie question here:

What is the estimated life expectancy of the 'Record Head' (excuse the terminology if that's incorrect) inside a semi pro dv camera e.g. Canon XL1S/XL2?

What is the procedure normally taken when a record head wears out i.e. can it be refurbished/replaced or does the camera need to be replaced (any idea of costs involved)?

What is the purpose of a DV Deck and how does this benefit the user?

Thanks in advance.

[redsox_mark]

I'm not sure if there is an "official" answer, but I believe it is in the order of 1000 "drum hours". The video heads and motor are a complete unit, commonly referred to as the 'drum'.

The drum can be replaced... it's not cheap... here is a link to a place in the US which charges $160 for the part and $300 for labour... in pounds that's about £250 total. Not sure of the cost in the UK but I don't expect it will be cheaper somehow...
http://www.avrepair.com/camcorder/canon_xl1.htm

The purpose of a DV deck is you can use that for capturing and output back to tape, saving the drum hours on your camcorder. You can also keep it connected to your PC all the time. They also tend to have longer life (2000 drum hours vs. 1000). But they are expensive.

[MarkE19]

I would say that for the vast majority of consumer camcorders once the heads need replacing it will be cheaper to just replace the camcorder. The cost of the labour itself is likely to be very high as aligning the heads correctly will take a lot of time & effort. You will then still have an old cam that could start having other problems making the costs continue to rise for the cam.

IMO if you do want to save the wear of your cam by using a DV deck for capture then you will be better off (financially at least) getting another cheap camcorder for this. Only the tape transport is used for this so lens, CCD etc quality makes no difference as you are only copying raw data from cam to PC. As the other Mark has said DV decks are very expensive an out of reach of most users.

Mark.

[emocean]

Having worn out several heads in my time I couldn't agree more with the comments above. A camcorder is now a disposable item and very rarely cost effective to repair.
DV decks are great pieces of kit but very expensive when you consider what they can't do, ie film. You can buy a laptop with a firewire port along with basic cam with DV in/out for much less.

[senu]

Originally Posted by emocean

Having worn out several heads in my time I couldn't agree more with the comments above. A camcorder is now a disposable item and very rarely cost effective to repair.

True , unless you are unlucky or an exceptionally heavy user ,you are more likely to be ready to move on to a newer ( (and Better ???) camcorder before the head wears out.

DV decks are great pieces of kit but very expensive when you consider what they can't do, ie film. You can buy a laptop with a firewire port along with basic cam with DV in/out for much less.

Very true.
I wonder why though. An affordable £200-250 camcorder can do just about everything they do ( and record video and stills, which they cant) and is a viable purchase if you want to save wear and tear on your high end Camcorder
Canons XL H1 or XH G1 or XH A1 would be certainly be worth "protecting"

[MI55ION]

Thanks all for the very informative feedback. It seems a great idea to use a secondary camera as opposed to a dv deck or the primary camera. 1000 drums hours doesn't seem too bad since it'll probably be time for an upgrade by the time that wears out. You've been a great help, cheers.