My previous post read, in part;
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Reading about new camcorders with 'hot pixels', 'dead pixels' etc, suggests I should look it over very carefully."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, yesterday, my first chance to test my new GL2, turned out to be a less than fun. Forget hot/dead pixels, I couldn't get ANY pixels. The camcorder power-on switch stopped working after about two minutes.

I called Zotz and, within three minutes of hearing the nature of the problem, Tom told me to ship it back for replacement.

I shipped it back to them-- at my own expense. They will replace it and pay for re-shipping but the camera has now cost me more than I bargained for.

I asked Tom if this has been a problem on the GL2. He said he'd not heard of it before but listed several other problems. Unfortunately, the only one I remember is "camcorder eating tape".

Tom did mention that when a camcorder has a problem, others from the same batch may have the same problem. That's not very reassuring.

So, Vladimir, there's at least two more GL2 problems to add to the list.

This is the first time in my life I've ever paid over $2000 for something that was dead right out of the box! What the heck is going on?

Thanks to this community for steering me towards Zotz. I was seriously considering buying cheaply--I'd probably be still waiting for someone to return my call.

Michael,
So sorrry to hear of your misfortune. But you could say that the bright side of this story is that it didn't crap out on you while you were shooting something irreplaceable or important. Nope, right from birth it said, "Mike, I'm a problem child. Now what are -you- gonna do about that?!"

The other good news is, indeed, that you bought it from Zotz, a reputable dealer.

Michael,

I'm sorry you got DOA camera. This is woeful experience.
But just to put things into proportion, the camcorders are very unreliable as a class of products.
Consumer Reports cites camcorder failure rate at about 10%. It's amasing, as according to that same statistics an average camcorder is used ony 12 hours a year! And there is no major difference between the brands.
I think that GL2, being more complex than average, probably has more defects, than average.
I know this is of little help for you. Hope you'll be more lucky with the replacement.

Thanks Ken. You're right on both points -- much better to discover the problem right away than at some critical point in the future and I really am glad I bought from Zotz

Also, thanks for your response Vladimir.

Those are not very reassuring statistics. It's true the camera is a very complex piece of equipment but at that price surely it should have a higher degree of reliability than, say, a $400 camcorder.

Another way to look at this, is that it's a rare problem... I haven't heard of this happening to anybody else. Sorry about your trouble, but glad to hear we hooked you up with our sponsor Zotz. Their customer service is a primary reason why they got signed on.

Hi Chris,

Thank you. I just got off the phone with Brian at Zotz and I'm happy to tell you, your confidence in them is well founded.

They are going to ship me a new one today (without even waiting for the other one to get there, by the sound of it). I didn't ask him to do that, he just said he'd ship it out today.

I couldn't be more pleased with their consciencious service and will buy from them again in the future.

Again, thanks to this forum for steering me in their direction.