I searched the forums before posting this, but unlike the other posts I'm not talking about a complete drowning or a non-functioning camera. My camera, since the damage has powered on and all that goodness from the get go. Here's the situation:

I was at a swim meet and left my camera in it's hardcase with the top open, someone leaned over it and was dripping over it...Nothing too bad, but I suspect some got maybe in the tape mechanism? I picked up the camera to film and it said "Condensation detected, power off." So I did, but I first tried to get the tape out, it ate the tape...I got the tape out, but I had to pull it out a bit. I made sure everything was dry in the box and on the camera, put it back in and didn't open it up till I got home. When I opened it up and turned it on, everything worked fine. Sweet, right?

Until I put a tape in. I put a tape in and now it says "Heads dirty, insert tape cleaner" I would love to, except the eject mechanism is all whacked out now. It says "EJECT TAPE" so I open the compartment, and it starts to eject, then stops abruptly, then goes back down. I've cycled it through play, camera, an d trying to eject it in just OFF mode. Nothing works. Today, I opened the compartment and the tape came all the way out. Great. So I put a cleaner tape in to clean the heads. Did the same thing with the whacked out eject mechanism.

What to do?

I noticed that the little feeders near the digital head reader (i think that's what it called) seemed a little loose, they were jiggling with the camera's movement...is that natural? I never noticed it before, but then again, I never had a reason to take notice.

Can I fix this?
HELP!

Probably best to send it to Canon for repairs. If the nechanism and guides are wacked a bit, it will require special tools to get tape path alignment right. And sounds like a good cleaning is in order. Pool water is usually high in chlorine or similar chemical, which will probably be rather corrosive to the internals of the camcorder.

Corey
I once had a VX1000 that had pool water from a wet hat enter the camera and zapped it. The tec guy said it was going to cost $1000 to replace boards etc. I said forget it, he then rang me back later telling me it is now going. What did he do? when a circuit gets wet is corrodes very quickly due to the electrons causing electrolysis, he cleaned the tracks and away it went.

Also I had a simple wet alarm circuit get wet once, threw in in the cubboard for a month and then pluged a battery in it and away it went, wet mobile phones can do the same thing. Most important thing is get the power off the circuits APSAP.

Good luck

Paul

Well I assume it's dry by now? It's been almost a week...Should I leave it somewhere with the battery taken off, or what?