Is my DVX100 done?

S

SGFilms

Well-known member
Hey all, so here's the story. We've been shooting outside in the cold weather in NY (never gets below 10 degrees) and I have about 800 hrs on my DVX100 (no A or B) and I shot footage in NYC and came back, uploaded the footage, etc. This was two days ago. Yesterday I decide to play back, like I usually do in the DVX (I know, I know) and I notice the audio drop out. As well as the image looking "wavey" and having issues with some of the visuals (ie: footage). So I went to my DP friend and we taped some test footage and looked back on it with the camera, and we noticed the same issue. So we used a head cleaning tape and the recorded again and it was good. No issues.

I go outside to shoot some test footage for about 10-15 minutes and then come back to view it in the camera, and it's got the same issue as before.

Has anyone had this problem? I'd hate to not to be able to shoot outside in the cold weather because of this issue.

He can open it up and try to fix it that way. Could be something internal.
 
Could be a condensation issue. Why not use a cheap camcorder (slaved to your DVX) to do all the recording outside in the cold and save your DVX heads? That way, if the problem IS condensation, at least it won't be messing up your DVX.

Also, by using another camera, you can see if you still have the problem and if it's electronic in nature and not related to the tape transport and heads.
 
If its a head or tape issue, now is your chance to invest in a firestore!

But yea, that sucks about your camera and all. Does the footage appear in the viewfinder or in an external monitor?
 
I am not sure what the issue is. We are going to clean the heads manually tomorrow and I will have a head cleaner, but I think it might be wise to invest in a used DVX with less hours which is something I plan on doing - prefereably something under 100 hours. Trying to shoot on the DVX for next two years for my film shorts before switching to HD and shooting with an 800 hr camera might cause more issues.

Any takers if I fix it?

DVX100 800 hrs on it, nice condition, plus $700 trade
 
i had that problem with my old VX2000. theres a number of options here:
you can go and get the heads professionally cleaned, but thats gonna be at least $200. if you think its minor, try getting a blank tape and just play the entire tape through to the end. another solution is buying a cheap $250 handheald minidv camera and using it as a slave camera, where the dvx sends all the info via firewire to the cheap cam and it records on it. your final and most expensive solution could be to buy a nice but VERY pricey firestore hard drive for around $1800+.
 
andythefilmer said:
i had that problem with my old VX2000. theres a number of options here:
you can go and get the heads professionally cleaned, but thats gonna be at least $200. if you think its minor, try getting a blank tape and just play the entire tape through to the end. another solution is buying a cheap $250 handheald minidv camera and using it as a slave camera, where the dvx sends all the info via firewire to the cheap cam and it records on it. your final and most expensive solution could be to buy a nice but VERY pricey firestore hard drive for around $1800+.
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My DP friend who has been shooting for 30 years will be cleaning the heads manually. Let's hope it fixes the problem.

Also, shooting in cold weather. Can that also lead to an issue?

I've been shooting with Panasonic Professional Mini-Dv Cassettes and VERY RARELY use any other type of tapes to tape.

The issue about this that was weird is that whenever it's shooting on tripod and NOT hand-held it's fine with shooting, but when I'm doing it hand-held, then I get glitches and audio drop outs with the camera.
 
SGFilms said:
The issue about this that was weird is that whenever it's shooting on tripod and NOT hand-held it's fine with shooting, but when I'm doing it hand-held, then I get glitches and audio drop outs with the camera.
Click to expand...

Maybe it's the image stabilizer?
 
800 hrs is a lot. For sure a good head cleaning will help. But it may even take more than one head cleaning.
 
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