My A1 has only a few hours on it, maybe 6 tapes, and already I've had the "Tape Heads Dirty" message twice. The first was on the second use, in fact. I haven't done any more unusual shooting than I normally do, and only use Panasonic AQ tapes. I haven't noticed any dropouts. Footage looks nice, in fact.

Should I worry about this? Should I use my head cleaning cassette (dry) on such a new machine? Seems like an odd thing to have to do. I've never had a Canon before and heard that they can be a little flaky with the heads or tape mechanism (which is why I didn't get the GL2), so I don't think I have to panic, I suppose.

Anyone else getting this message? An earlier thread I found on the topic suggested using Panasonic tapes, but I already am. Thoughts, anyone?

This has been gone over many, many (did I mention many?) times on this forum for people buying new Canon camcorders. Run your head cleaning tape for ten seconds and that should hopefully do the trick.

Nelson,I had the same thing this very morning - only a few hours recording time and I'm being asked to clean the head?
I came from Sony PD-150/170's and I only ever needed to clean them once a year.....

Clean the heads. That will remove the dirt. That's what head cleaning tapes are for. That's why you're getting the warning. I don't know about the A1, but for the XL2, the manual SPECIFICALLY state to clean the heads when you recieve the camera, so I wouldn't worry about having 'dirty heads' soon after you get yours.

Does the A1 manually advise you to clean the heads when you recieve it?

Yes, clean the heads when you get the camera out of the box.

Clean the heads. That will remove the dirt. That's what head cleaning tapes are for. That's why you're getting the warning. I don't know about the A1, but for the XL2, the manual SPECIFICALLY state to clean the heads when you recieve the camera, so I wouldn't worry about having 'dirty heads' soon after you get yours.

Does the A1 manually advise you to clean the heads when you recieve it?
No, it doesn't, not that I can find. Page 147 talks of cleaning the heads when the "Heads Dirty" message appears, but I don't find where you're instructed to run the head cleaner when you first get the camera.

I'll run the head cleaner today and see how it goes.

Box at the top of page 27:
"Before You Begin Recording
Make a test recording first to check if the camcorder operates correctly. If necessary, clean the video heads (147)."

All the recent Canon user manuals (and probably other manufacturers, too) say this, so the standard advice is to just run a cleaning tape for a few seconds when you first take your new camera out of the box.