dead Canon camcorder: how to remove tape

26 Jul 2005 3:37 AM

polaris220

Hi all, just a few hours ago, in a midst of a recording session my
battery started to die out with the "change battery pack" msg flashing
on the LCD. Normally when I attach it to the dc cable through the
adapter I get a pulsing light indicating the battery is getting
charged. Well .. nothing happened and even after changing wall outlets,
checking the connections .. nothing.
Tomorrow with access to a friend's multimeter, I can check if the
adapter has gone bad. However there is still the case of a tape with 40
mins of video sitting inside the camcorder. Is there a way to get the
tape out manually ???

My camera is a Canon Optura 10. It bought it exactly 1 yr and 2 weeks
ago. Amazing ! how it malfunctions just after the warranty period.

-SG

26 Jul 2005 5:34 AM

Alpha

<polaris***@hotmail.com> wrote in message
Show quoteHide quote

news:1122349047.118660.285570@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Hi all, just a few hours ago, in a midst of a recording session my
> battery started to die out with the "change battery pack" msg flashing
> on the LCD. Normally when I attach it to the dc cable through the
> adapter I get a pulsing light indicating the battery is getting
> charged. Well .. nothing happened and even after changing wall outlets,
> checking the connections .. nothing.
> Tomorrow with access to a friend's multimeter, I can check if the
> adapter has gone bad. However there is still the case of a tape with 40
> mins of video sitting inside the camcorder. Is there a way to get the
> tape out manually ???
>
> My camera is a Canon Optura 10. It bought it exactly 1 yr and 2 weeks
> ago. Amazing ! how it malfunctions just after the warranty period.
>
> -SG
>

This happened to me with a different Canon model. Long story short, I had
to discard the camera or pay $300 to fix it. 1 year and a month old.

I hope you don't have to trash your camera like I did to get the tape out.

26 Jul 2005 4:50 PM

Richard Amirault

"Alpha" wrote ...

>> Hi all, just a few hours ago, in a midst of a recording session my
>> battery started to die out with the "change battery pack" msg flashing
>> on the LCD.

I'm not sure I understand. If the camera said "change battery pack" then why
don't you just change the battery pack?? Take your spare battery (you do
have a spare battery don't you?) and just pop it in.

And even if you don't have a spare battery, and even if the battery you do
have is not strong enough to actually run the camera .. if you let it sit
for a while (hours) there may be enough juice to let you open up the tape
compartment.

Show quoteHide quote

>> Normally when I attach it to the dc cable through the
>> adapter I get a pulsing light indicating the battery is getting
>> charged. Well .. nothing happened and even after changing wall outlets,
>> checking the connections .. nothing.
>> Tomorrow with access to a friend's multimeter, I can check if the
>> adapter has gone bad. However there is still the case of a tape with 40
>> mins of video sitting inside the camcorder. Is there a way to get the
>> tape out manually ???
>>
>> My camera is a Canon Optura 10. It bought it exactly 1 yr and 2 weeks
>> ago. Amazing ! how it malfunctions just after the warranty period.
>>
>> -SG
>>
>
> This happened to me with a different Canon model. Long story short, I had
> to discard the camera or pay $300 to fix it. 1 year and a month old.
>
> I hope you don't have to trash your camera like I did to get the tape out.

--
Richard Amirault N1JDU
Boston, MA, USA Go Fly A Kite

26 Jul 2005 7:29 PM

Dimitrios Tzortzakakis

--
Tzortzakakis Dimitrios
major in electrical engineering, freelance electrician
FH von Iraklion-Kreta, freiberuflicher Elektriker
dimtzort AT otenet DOT gr
? <polaris***@hotmail.com> ?????? ??? ??????

news:1122349047.118660.285570@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Hi all, just a few hours ago, in a midst of a recording session my
> battery started to die out with the "change battery pack" msg flashing
> on the LCD. Normally when I attach it to the dc cable through the
> adapter I get a pulsing light indicating the battery is getting
> charged. Well .. nothing happened and even after changing wall outlets,
> checking the connections .. nothing.
> Tomorrow with access to a friend's multimeter, I can check if the
> adapter has gone bad. However there is still the case of a tape with 40
> mins of video sitting inside the camcorder. Is there a way to get the
> tape out manually ???

Very difficult.A camcorder is a miniature VCR with a camera.On a normal
sized VCR, there is a dedicated motor, that ejects/inserts the tape, which
if you operate manually, the tape ejects and you can rewind it manually.This
can be very difficult in a camcorder.

> My camera is a Canon Optura 10. It bought it exactly 1 yr and 2 weeks
> ago. Amazing ! how it malfunctions just after the warranty period.
>

Doesn't that ring a bell?

3 Aug 2005 7:31 PM

Mark W

<polaris***@hotmail.com> wrote in message
Show quoteHide quote

news:1122349047.118660.285570@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Hi all, just a few hours ago, in a midst of a recording session my
> battery started to die out with the "change battery pack" msg flashing
> on the LCD. Normally when I attach it to the dc cable through the
> adapter I get a pulsing light indicating the battery is getting
> charged. Well .. nothing happened and even after changing wall outlets,
> checking the connections .. nothing.
> Tomorrow with access to a friend's multimeter, I can check if the
> adapter has gone bad. However there is still the case of a tape with 40
> mins of video sitting inside the camcorder. Is there a way to get the
> tape out manually ???
>
> My camera is a Canon Optura 10. It bought it exactly 1 yr and 2 weeks
> ago. Amazing ! how it malfunctions just after the warranty period.
>
> -SG
>

If you can get the tape out, I seem to recall that cleaning the heads will
help with this error - for some reason.