Camera trouble shooting – Video camera courses

Trouble shooting (When things go wrong with your camera)

Summary sheet

Where moving parts are involved, there is always plenty of scope for things to go wrong, particularly for such a mobile and versatile item such as a camcorder. In the tropics, the temperature difference between a cool or humid forest, air-conditioned room and the heat of the sun can create everyday condensation problems.
In general, camcorders have a built in safety feature which shuts down the camera if there is anything wrong with the camera’s electronics or mechanism. This eliminates further damage such as burn out of components or chewing of tapes by the mechanism.

This is a summary of things you can do when your camera displays an error message or doesn’t work at all.

• Reset – disconnect and reconnect battery.
• Disconnect battery and work from the AC power adaptor.
• Eject the tape and use a different tape or a brand new tape.
• Check tape – open flap and inspect.
• Never open camera and remove a jammed tape by hand!
• Do not overuse cleaning tapes. Only use them when you experience picture and sound distortion in playback.  Having said that, use it sparingly (once or twice) and refer to the cleaning tape literature.  Most of these tapes are very abrasive and can cause damage to the video heads if overused.

At the repair place
This is related to all faults, whether a genuine fault or a self-induced fault. A self induced fault can be:
Liquid damage, shock damage or sand damage.
1. If it is a self-induced fault, say so.
2. Mention only symptoms like:
will not accept tapes, switches off after a few seconds, no playback picture, no picture in the
viewfinder etc.
3. List as many faults as possible, and be as detailed in the description as possible. All this helps to
make an accurate diagnosis and to rectify all faults.
4. Definitely mention any intermittent faults such as problems which only occur say after10 minutes
of use or towards the end of the tape etc.

If you do not mention any of these intermittent problems with your camera, they may neither be noticed nor rectified.

www.estudy.net.au the technical aspects of camera, film and television.

About the Author

About ALL-CAM’s Founder – Thomas Klose
All of ALL-CAM’s e-study film courses were designed personally by Thomas Klose. Thomas is an experienced technician and lecturer with over 25 years of electronic experience and a passion for amateur filming. He designed these courses for the beginner to intermediate camera person who wants to increase their technical knowledge in order to get more out of their camera. ALL-CAM courses give you a great background in the technical side of camera operations, so you can enhance your camera skills and spend more time making films, instead of wasting time trying to get your camera to work the way you want it to.

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