Camcorder repairs

[Huge]

Not DIY, for which I apologise, but this newsgroup is the Fount of All Wisdom.

Can anyone here recommend somewhere that does camcorder repairs? My Canon MV700i has expired. The video in the viewfinder and recorded on the tape is unrecognisable. It plays back OK and records audio. (OTOH, is it even worth repairing? Perhaps a solid state one would be better, given the environment it gets used in.)

It's out of warranty but I've only used it half a dozen times. I bought it for this (SFW);

[John Rumm]

These guys specialise in Canon - although I don't know if they do video cameras. They may be able to direct you to someone who can if not though. We have used them a number of times and they do a good quick job.

[Grunff]

I would say consider a solid state one. Lots of people use these for track days:

a search on YouTube for ATC 2000 to see lots of sample clips.

[Yuki]

Seems you have one of the cameras with a dud Sony imaging sensor.

Canon is servicing them even out of warranty, go to

and search case Id. 37383

[Huge]

Coo. I shall chase that up. Thanks!

[Dave]

about a tenner for postage). They phoned me up last week to tell me the cost of the repair. I went to the shop yesterday to discuss if it was a viable job. The repair would cost the best part of £90-00 and they would give me a one year guarantee on the whole of the camera, not just the repair.

When I asked what it would cost to buy a new one, I picked up on the fact that digi tape cameras had been taken over by disk cameras and most importantly, you could only use the original camera's manufactured batteries. At a cost of over £80-00. If you put in a pattern battery, it will come back with an error message and refuse to work.

My old camera could still use double sized batteries at a cost of less than £50-00. Hence the repair is going ahead.

Get all the facts before you decide.

Dave

[Huge]

It's sorted. There's a recall for this fault and Canon are going to fix it for nothing.

Big thanks to "Yuki" for pointing this out!

[Stuart Noble]

So maybe there is a point to sending off those warranty cards

[Huge]

Could be, although it's well out of warranty.

[Yuki]

My pleasure

[Stuart B]

I don't agree that it is true that disk camcorders have taken over from mini-dvd camcorders. I had a HD one and it was crap ,especially in low light It was a JVC so I reverted to a Canon mini dv one ..albeit an expensive one which is miles better . .

[Stuart Noble]

But they could at least contact you in the event of a recall

[Huge]

I suspect that for consumer grade stuff, they won't bother.

[Dave]

I can only go on the words of my trusted camera shop though. However, I was not talking about the mini HD cameras when I spoke of disk cameras. If what you say is correct and there are mini HD drive cameras, then I hope I have made this clear.

Regards

Dave