Two issues with my Z7U are really making me regret owning this camera:

A recurring theme with the Z7U seems to be broken timecode when shooting to tape OR the MRC-1.

My camera recently began losing sync with the video (audio would record 15 frames out of sync with the video), and now I'm seeing multiple timecode breaks when recording to tape which appear on the timeline as red pixelated flashes, then the audio goes out of sync again.

Am I needing a play head alignment?

I cleaned the heads recently and it seemed to make the TC breaks worse.

I am guessing that the camera needs to go in to be serviced because I can't shoot a gig without spending hours correcting all the audio sync issues from the broken TC.

Thoughts?

-Scott

I haven't had your problem, Scott, but I've had good luck so far with Sony diagnostics, both the West Coast one in Los Angeles and the East Coast one in New Jersey. If I remember correctly, they charged $80 for identifying the problem and if your camera is under warranty or has low usage, they will refund that charge as well.

Also, if you do a synchronous recording to file and tape and play back both in camera (VTR mode), you'll narrow down the problem.