After having my XM2 for two years now I got the inevitable 'remove tape' problem. So I wrote a letter to Canon.

And they answered my letter… They told me how to calculate a fair repair price. Here goes, I should divide the months I have the camera (24) by the expected life the camera should last (60 months) and multiply it that with the suggested retail price 2999 euro.
Which comes down to 1199 for repair. But Canon thinks that's a little high so they made a fixed price of 176.74 euro excluding tax.

So no Canon, I won't have my tape mechanism fixed which should have lasted the 60 months you told me, I will spend my money on an FireStore FS-4 PRO.

But ofcourse I have tapes that need to be rewinded of my little boy growing up and of clients so there very important.
I live in the Netherlands so I don't have a lot of choice in rewinders here, Does anyone have any good experience with the ones from HAMA:
http://www.hama.de/portal/articleId*59259/action*2563/

Erwin.

Sorry Erwin, I don't have any advice to give you, being a relative newbie to the dv sector. But I do have a question for you - where is the canon repair center you wrote to? I'm from New Jersey and that's where I bought my GL2, and I'm wondering where I might send my camera should (God forbid) anything go wrong. Maybe there's a canon repair center here in Athens.

On second thought, maybe I do have some advice - have you ever thought of buying a cheap camcorder to use as a rewinder/capture device? You can spend 250 euros and get a cheap canon or sony that will last you years and can even serve as a backup. Just an idea, though...

The statement I got was from Canon Netherlands NV.
I wrote a letter and got a letter in return signed by Canon Consumer Imaging.

A cheap camera might be the answer for me and maybe Canon should get some tape meganism technology from another company who is able to make something that won't break so fast.

I'm hoping that with the FireStore I am getting now and some reliable good and cheap, storage technology we won't have the need for tape anymore soon.