Video Camera Problems

[gafftaper]

Hey All...
I've got a Canon ZR70MC... about 3 1/2 years old. It's worked great and I've been very happy with it. I just took it out of the camera bag and it suddenly doesn't work. The view screen works for setup mode and plays back previously recorded video but new video is just black. It records sound just fine. And yes, I did take the lens cap off... I checked several times. As far as I know there's been no drops or damage. Did my CCD just die on my out of the blue?

Is it worth trying to get one of these repaired?

If I decide to replace it any suggestions? It's primary use is just shotting home movies of the kids so I don't need a lot of features or crazy zoom abilities. It's all about getting pictures of the little ones. I'm all set up to edit video with Pinacle studio on the computer.

[SHARYNF]

Do you get any image on the lcd when you attempt to record? look in the menue and see if there is an av in option or any special effect options.
If you get a black image, then there is a signal, but the exposure might be off.

These typically are not worth fixing, I'd look at the new Sony HD or Canon hd camcorders.
Sharyn

[gafftaper]

It's just a black Image in the viewfinder both during recording and playback. I went through the whole menu and tried changing every setting that made sense. But like I said it worked when we put it in the bag and then it didn't work when I took it back out. So I doubt it's settings. Did the three year old kick the case around the bedroom... now there's a possibility.

I need to keep the price down to the under $400 range... so the HD's are out of reach at this point. Panasonic's got one with a 30 gig hard drive which looks pretty cool and is one of the top ratings on Cnet for the budget cameras. Or I may just go back to another Canon minidv tape camera. Although with the mysterious death of this one I'm inclined to look elsewhere. The Sony cams seem to rate really well on CNET with their top cameras but their low end cameras don't do very well.

Any other thoughts are appreciated. Mini DVD vs. Hard Drive vs. Mini-DV tape? They all seem equal in quality it's just a matter of convenience right?

[avkid]

Originally Posted by gafftaper

Mini DVD vs. Hard Drive vs. Mini-DV tape? They all seem equal in quality it's just a matter of convenience right?

Well sort of, I would go with the hard drive only because it will not be rendered obsolete for a good long while.

[Footer]

Originally Posted by avkid

Well sort of, I would go with the hard drive only because it will not be rendered obsolete for a good long while.

I have heard some big issues with the hard drive camera, mostly being that some do not have compatible file formats that you can easily transfer to your PC without having to run it through a converter.

[gafftaper]

Yeah Phil got to agree there on the current technology point. It's also just a ton of storage. 30 gig's is HUGE. Then drag and drop all that data via USB. Very slick. On the other hand, I hadn't thought about Footer's point. I better to check with Pinacle to see if it will work with the Panasonic file format.

Thanks guys.

[kwotipka]

Originally Posted by Footer4321

I have heard some big issues with the hard drive camera, mostly being that some do not have compatible file formats that you can easily transfer to your PC without having to run it through a converter.

Eh?

Never heard of this one. Might be different file formats that would require certain software but not any sort of hardware converter. Most of todays cameras are going to record in MPEG2 or 4. MPEG 4 gives you great size to quality ratios given any consumer standard. The beautiful thing about a HD is that you can transfer in faster then real time. The down side is that when you fill it up on vacation, you better have your laptop with you to transfer it to.

As far as playback, the issue might be a clogged head. This is especially true if you left a tape in it and is sat against the head. This would give you no image on playback and record. However, it sound like you are not getting any image from the CCD. There are dozens of reasons why the chip or associated circuits could fail. The fact that you don't see anything on playback is what has me curious.

EDIT: Sorry about the edit. Misread the first post about seeing playback but not new material. Yea, time for a new camcorder.

kw

kw

[gafftaper]

Thanks to all who helped with my video camera problems. I just discovered that my camera is under recall because they got a batch of bad CCD's from a third party manufacturer and I'll be getting it fixed for free! Sweet!

[astrotechie]

Originally Posted by kwotipka

Eh?

Never heard of this one. Might be different file formats that would require certain software but not any sort of hardware converter. Most of todays cameras are going to record in MPEG2 or 4. MPEG 4 gives you great size to quality ratios given any consumer standard. The beautiful thing about a HD is that you can transfer in faster then real time. The down side is that when you fill it up on vacation, you better have your laptop with you to transfer it to.

kw

I would go with mini-DV. The down side to a hard drive is that if you drop it, you could lose all of you footage. Another downside to High Definition is that if you want to edit, it is a real pain. To edit HD you need to scale it down to SD, and then edit, and then scale it back to HD media. More trouble than it is worth. Only benefit to a hard drive is that you don't have to wait real time to capture it. To mini-DVD, down side for that is if you make a mistake you need use a new DVD.

MPEG4 is used mostly in HD media. MPEG2 or MPEG1 is used mostly in SD media. The reason for this is the scaling and then quality of footage.

I say that HD is horrible because whenever you edit HD media, you are recommenced that you scale it down to SD because of the amount of space you will take up on a hard drive of your computer.

You always got to love media because of all the fun things you can do in post-production.

[kwotipka]

Originally Posted by astrotechie

I would go with mini-DV. The down side to a hard drive is that if you drop it, you could lose all of you footage. Another downside to High Definition is that if you want to edit, it is a real pain. To edit HD you need to scale it down to SD, and then edit, and then scale it back to HD media. More trouble than it is worth. Only benefit to a hard drive is that you don't have to wait real time to capture it. To mini-DVD, down side for that is if you make a mistake you need use a new DVD.
MPEG4 is used mostly in HD media. MPEG2 or MPEG1 is used mostly in SD media. The reason for this is the scaling and then quality of footage.
I say that HD is horrible because whenever you edit HD media, you are recommenced that you scale it down to SD because of the amount of space you will take up on a hard drive of your computer.
You always got to love media because of all the fun things you can do in post-production.

Why would you scale down the video? External storage is dirt cheap now a days and with eSATA drives, they are certainly fast enough for HD miniDV or the like. (Insert technical disclaimer here about HD 10bit422 video being a bit much for a even a eSATA connection, but I don't think anyone here is using that.) Scaling down, post, scale up is counter productive. If you are going to downscale to post, then just leave it as a SD project. Scaling it back to HD gives you nothing but crummy video.

MPEG4 is just a new flavor of MPEG2. It can be just about any resolution you choose (insert technical disclaimer here about square pixel multiples).

One of the reasons I like the new tapeless consumer formats is that from a technical standpoint, the 4mm (I think) tape width of the DV format is horrible. What use to be a speck of dust on a 1/2" (VHS, BETASP) format is now a boulder when it hits the heads. That coupled with the fact that while you might not loose your footage, you will most likely trash the camera if you get a little over zealous when closing the tape door.

I have never liked the DVD based formats for recording. Too many technical issues there as well.