So tonight I was gonna capture a quick clip into FCP, both camera and FCP were talking to each other just fine, and I was scrubbing through the footage to the part I wanted and then I hit pause, to turn to my computer to make some preparations.

When I looked back, the viewfinder screen was blue like I had hit stop. I didn't, but I hit play as I was ready to capture but.. nothing happened. The timecode on the XL2 viewfinder even went blank like nothing was recorded on the tape. Fast forwarding and rewinding the tape revealed the same results.

I tried another tape, and another battery. I turned the camera off, disconnected everything, and turned it back on again.

It doesn't see timecode on ANY of my tapes, whether new or old.

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm just starting about out of school and starting off as a freelancer and can seriously not afford another one. The camera was bought three years ago-ish, but has probably only recorded around 100 hours, if that..

Matt, interesting. Last year I was shooting in Alabama. Everything was going great. While recording I could see the video and time code in the viewfinder as if all was well with life. Then, I went to rewind and review the shot. NOTHING but a blue screen. No recording, no time code, nothing but blue. Sent it into Canon in NJ. They said that somehow my heads got out of alinment. They fixed it and i never had a problem since. Did you try to review the tape in another deck? I did and still nothing, thats when I sent it in. Bob

Yeah, I tried another tape, no luck. Your problem sounds exactly like mine, I even called this morning and they recommended a trip to NJ for repairs. How much did it run you?

Matt, the total was $252.96 and I got it back in about 8 days. Bob

Canon told me to send it in, just to be safe I bought a 30 dollar dry head cleaner from Best Buy and it works again.

I'm going to be nicer to this camera from now on, maybe find a minidv to be a dedicated deck for capture.