I have just had the tape transport mechanism replaced on my HDR-FX1 for the second time. The first one failed when the camera was about a year and 3 months old. This one lasted from Oct 2006 until Feb 2009. It is a $350.00 repair for the part and the technician time.

My camera gets moderate use with shooting and uploading the video into the computer. If I was shooting every day my guess is the transport wouldn't last a year.

Anybody else with similar experience?

The motor(s) die in the unit. The repair facility said that rewinding tapes is the culprit. They suggested getting a tape rewinder.

Can anybody suggest a good one to get. I am in the Chicago metro area so getting one should be easy. I found several on line. Who has the good one?

If you own a minidv or dvcam deck , use that to rewind , or another mini dv camera .

you can buy a Canon HV20 for about $400 these days. I would go that route.

I've had mine for a good 3 years, I use it as a deck and shoot with it a lot. I'm actually afraid of breaking it from over use, because I REALLY use it a lot. But I haven't had any problems at all.

Michael - I wrote a "first impression" post when I bought my zbaby about 3 years ago - the only downside I noticed , and right off the bat was that the tape mechanism was trash , and that's in the z1. It looked more flimsy than some cheap minidv cameras I own. So I always rewind using my dvcam deck but any cheap minidv camera will do the job . It doesn't have to be hdv to rewind. I was under the assumption that you might already have a mini dv camera around but if not check out

RE98 Digital Concepts Mini DV Video Tape Rewinder for Digital Camcorder Cassettes (http://www.adorama.com/DCCVRFDCC.html?sid=123436693521276)

One of the problems is not getting in a hurry with it. More than once I have had to stop myself from trying to force close the tape door, before the tape carriage has completely retracted.

Yeh , you always have to let them go thru their little "routine" , but they're still flimsy for a semi-pro camera. I also have a sony dsr-pd100a which has a much more robust tape mechanism , but in all fairness , I also used my deck as much as possible with it also. Well we're almost thru the tape age anyway so this problem won't be cropping up too much longer.

Michael - I wrote a "first impression" post when I bought my zbaby about 3 years ago - the only downside I noticed , and right off the bat was that the tape mechanism was trash , and that's in the z1. It looked more flimsy than some cheap minidv cameras I own. So I always rewind using my dvcam deck but any cheap minidv camera will do the job . It doesn't have to be hdv to rewind. I was under the assumption that you might already have a mini dv camera around but if not check out

RE98 Digital Concepts Mini DV Video Tape Rewinder for Digital Camcorder Cassettes (http://www.adorama.com/DCCVRFDCC.html?sid=123436693521276)

That thing is cheap as dirt, does it only rewind, and can you see the timecode on it somehow?