Canon Xh A1s: When pressing Recording button, red dot blinks for few secs.

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payal_choksi

Well-known member
hi all,

when i hit record button on my Xh A1s, the red dot on the screen blinks for few seconds before getting stable. during this few secs when the red dot is blinking the cam is not recording. what could be the reason? did any of you came across such issue.

kindly help

regards,
:(
 
im pretty sure they all do that, If I recall it's the tape mech getting the tape to speed. Now you can revert back to the old days when the 1st ac says roll cam, and the dp's response "speed" lol.
 
well, it doesn't happen always, but sometimes it does happen, but as u mention it must be regarding the tape to speed. thanks for your response.:)
 
Yep mine does it when it sits for a few minutes between takes. When i run take after take it's instantaneous.
 
Sometimes, when i shoot for long, inbetween randomly the footage freezes for 1 to 2 seconds. this is after i capture the footage on my comp. even the audio is gone and than it continues further. while capturing whenever the freezes are encountered the "HDV 50i" on the camera lcd goes missing.

do you guys have any idea about this?
 
payal_choksi said:
Sometimes, when i shoot for long, inbetween randomly the footage freezes for 1 to 2 seconds. this is after i capture the footage on my comp. even the audio is gone and than it continues further. while capturing whenever the freezes are encountered the "HDV 50i" on the camera lcd goes missing.

do you guys have any idea about this?
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So you're using your A1 to capture your footage to your computer? Possibly you're not cleaning your heads regularly enough. Use the same brand cleaning tape as the brand of DV tape you record on, and follow the instructions.

Before you pop the tape transport open, always run a rag over the top of the cam to clean off all the dust. If you don't, the vibration of the lid springing open will cause dust on the top to drop down into the transport and it will eventually get on your tape surfaces and cause dropouts. By dust I mean almost invisible microgrit, it's there, in the cities it's worse.

Never leave DVtapes lying around out of their cases, dust will work its way onto the tape surfaces. Hope this helps.

Cheers.
 
Allan Black said:
So you're using your A1 to capture your footage to your computer? Possibly you're not cleaning your heads regularly enough. Use the same brand cleaning tape as the brand of DV tape you record on, and follow the instructions.

Before you pop the tape transport open, always run a rag over the top of the cam to clean off all the dust. If you don't, the vibration of the lid springing open will cause dust on the top to drop down into the transport and it will eventually get on your tape surfaces and cause dropouts. By dust I mean almost invisible microgrit, it's there, in the cities it's worse.

Never leave DVtapes lying around out of their cases, dust will work its way onto the tape surfaces. Hope this helps.

Cheers.
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well i don't regularly use head cleaning tape, as people say it's not good to use it as it is abrasive and might damage the heads if used frequently.
 
After 50yrs with mag tape I can say, you're getting picture dropouts because you're not cleaning your tape heads often enough.

payal_choksi said:
well i don't regularly use head cleaning tape, as people say it's not good to use it as it is abrasive and might damage the heads if used frequently.
Click to expand...

That's a misnomer that's built up over the years. The cleaning tape instructions read ..'run the tape for 10secs, if you still get a bad picture, run it again for 10secs, if it's still not right, take your camera to a service dept'.

They say that because they don't want people starting the cleaning tape, getting distracted and forgetting to turn it off, it'll run for 10minutes to the end.
It does happen. If they do this more than a few times, it *could* cause some damage.

The instructions also say you can use your cleaning tape twice through, that's to offset complaints by people who baulk at paying for a tape to only use once through. I only use mine once through then throw it out, I don't want to put crud back on my heads.

In terms of head wear, with average consumer use, you'll end up upgrading your camera, before you get anywhere near to wearing out the heads. HTH

Cheers.
 
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I've noticed the same thing, I may not be entirely correct but i always assumed it was just doing an auto-end search. It happens for me every time i turn the camera completely off, and occasionally after some takes. It has never really been bothersome for me except having a 3 or 4 seconds delay before i call speed.
 
This is normal and not a problem with the camera. While in pause, the camera goes into a mode after a certain amount of time removing the head from the tape to save wear (or something like that). If you press the record button after this time frame the head has to get back into position and this takes a few seconds and the unit is not recording until the head has moved back into recording position and the red light flashing is telling you to not start action yet until the red light is solid. You can actually hear this take place. This is a design of the camera. You do not have this issue with cameras that do not record on tape and instead record to a memory card or internal memory.
 
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