Just had a weird problem where there's an entire blank section of tape and I'm sure the camera was rolling and recording. Never seen it in the last 3 years of actively shooting on DV. I'm using standard Sony MiniDV tape.

I've been using a new (2 mth old) VX2100E and was doing a shoot last weekend. The camera gave the 'Cleaning tape' message. I popped in a Panansonic cleaning tape and ran it. I only realised I'm supposed to only run it for 20 seconds after that. Doh!

Anyway, I put the tape back in and its seems to record fine. I record about half an hour of footage over 3 hours for a short, and monitor from a TV. The next day I continue shooting on the same tape.

When I get back and review the tape, to my horror, the first days' shoot is totally blank. Nada. Not just no audio or video. There isn't even time code on it. After that section, there's a striping/pixles on the the beginning of the 2nd day shoot, but its fine after that.

Mid week I was doing a fair bit of cam to cam duplication and capture to my mac with no problems.

The 'Cleaning tape' message came up again yesterday. I ran the cleaner and it seems to have recorded fine.

I'm in the midst of a project and am getting a little paranoid because I have to redo last week's shoot. Oh well. I'm going to the city next week and will drop by the Sony service center.

BTW, I love the low light capabilty of the VX esp compared the Canon XL1s, XM2 and Panasonic DVX100 I've been using. Just the thing I need to shoot events.

My eyes are wide, my mouth dry. Let me get this straight - you ran the Panasonic cleaning tape *right through*?? From beginning to end? Oh please say no, you did it for 20 seconds, right? Even that's 100% too much in my view - 10 secs is tops and I only give my heads 5 because of the abraisive and heating action of such tapes.

But the blank tape is most strange. Blue screen or black screen? Maybe time to push the reset button and run constant little 'review' operations as you film next time. Hint: Push the photo button at the end of each take to put a 7 second still onto tape. That way you can resume filming anwhere in that 7 seconds and not break timecode.

tom.

Never seen that problem or heard of it before. Doesn't mean it cannot happen.

BTW, Sony recommends 5 seconds max per run with 60 seconds between runs on cleaning tape. Otherwise you may heat up the heads and bake the very material you are trying to remove, onto the heads and ruin them.

Yeah Tom, I did let it run. [wince] My bad. :( Won't happen again I promise.

Its blue screen. I did press reset and have been running reviews since. Thanks for the hint on the photo button. Very, very useful. Thats why I love this board.

Thanks for the tip too Mike.

On the up side, I haven't had any problems since. I'll drop by the Service center later this week and let them give it a once over.

Well, take comfort in the thought that your new VX2k1's heads are nicely run in. The pessimists amongst us will say they're nicely run out, but my guess is you've only taken a year off their five year life.

Smack time. If all else fails, read the instructions (or ask here!)

tom.

Yeah. A big RTFM to me.

Last week I had the same blank tape issue with the same Sony model. Was recording a school field day and after recording the introduction of the teams I paused and behold the data code went blank. Put it on record and paused a couple of times and in every time the data code ended in --.--.-- and started from 00.00.00. Replaced tape and the Clean warning appeared. After cleaning the heads the it worked well with the second tape. Checked later the first tape and all the recordings were erased even when the camera was recording. What caused it to still record nothing? Don't know. At least I was able to record most of the field day.

Sounds like the heads might be out of alignment. I would highly recommend it goes to an authorized Sony repair shop and has a complete checkup.