We had done a lot of shooting at a local ice skting competition recently and now that i am reviewing the videos i notice a number of places where we have these artifacts. At first i had hoped the artifacts are only from playing them but it seems that they may be recorded

we used a brand new XL2 that we tested before and it never showed any issues before the shoot. We also used a JVC SR-VS30 deck to play them. Both the deck and the camera show the problems.

The problem is a short part of the video that has horizontally striped artifacts such as this

www.palmswestphoto.com/skating.jpg

my questions

do you think these are recorded or just playback issues

where are they coming from. could the cold inside the rink cause this ?

guess if it is recorded there isnt much that can be done anymore to fix this either

do i need to get the camera serviced or could it be that the heads need to be cleaned even though it is brand new. strange thing is it didnt happen at all the time before we shot the skating videos

as i said the XL2 is new as well as the deck and the tapes where all new Panasonic PQ Mini DV tapes. No other tapes where run through either the deck or the camera and the camera as well as the deck had limited use before this but didnt show any signs of this before

thanks for any help

I had a similar problem a week after I got my XL2. My tapes played fine after I cleaned the head.

I had a similar problem a week after I got my XL2. My tapes played fine after I cleaned the head.

thanks for the reply. Did you mean the artifacts went away ?

thanks again

Michael, in general, the artifacts could be either recorded on tape already, or only on playback. However if you are seeing them on 2 different playback decks, I'm afraid they are on the tape. You can try running a cleaning tape on the camera, but most likely it will only help your next shooting session.

I suppose it is possible that cold temperatures are affecting the recording, but until now I have only used my XL2 in Singapore, so I am not the best person to advise you!

Richard

Michael, I too have had the same problems before. It looks like "Dropped frames" to me. Just run a cleanning tape through your camera and your tape deck, it should fix the problem for future shoots. Unfortunetly I don't think there is anyway to fix the messed up frames once they've been recorded.

Chris.

This is interesting. My XL2 did the same thing right out of the box. After cleaning the heads, I haven't had a problem since. The camera shop I bought mine from said this seems to be a common problem among some new Canon cameras.

Canon Manual reccomends testing and cleaning the heads right out of the box. Page 32 in the manual.