B&H had a listing for a used A1U in 8+ condition (signs of use, but mechanically in great shape). Figured with B&H nothing to worry about and bought it. Did a super fast test shoot with it around the office and the footage looks really FUBARed. Admittedly this is my first time shooting in HDV, but this is not at all what I expected - there's a pronounced moray pattern, as well as an alternating vertical column pattern that is consistent throughout.

If anyone could take a look at the video screen shots below to tell me if I'm doing something wrong or if the camera is busted, etc I would really, really appreciate it:

http://www.fuszion.com/extranet/hdv/example1.jpg
http://www.fuszion.com/extranet/hdv/example2.jpg

Thanks
-Don

How did you capture images, how did you process them, what editing system, what computer system or specs.

Have you played the captured footage direct to a TV, whether HDV or SD, to see if footage has same problem.

If anyone is going to help, you need to provide a lot more particulars.

Good point - sorry just so distraught/frustrated, forgot all the need to know. The LCD screen showed what you saw in the images, and I was concerned that the screen had gotten damanged. Recorded everything on auto, 1080i with Cinegamma, etc off. The footage itself was captured in Final Cut Pro. I haven't checked/tested with SD footage or into a TV yet either (don't have any of them here). The screenshots that I posted were direct from the uncompressed quicktime output from Final Cut.

Doesnt look good in any way.

Final test - bypass the compute entirely, and connect straight to TV.

playback a tape and if its the same thing its 99% duff for sure, get back to bhphoto anc get it sorted out. Looks like somebody offloaded it to them (maybe) as they realised it was faulty, prob out of warranty. just a guess/opinion on that.

Thanks Stu - kinda what I was thinking all around. When I get home tonight I'll hook it up to my HD set, but when the LCD reads a bad image, and the tape apparently is recording the same thing I figured I'm outta luck. If anyone is interested in the net outcome I'll update on the final result with B&H.

Yeah, let us know what happens.

As is no surprise to anyone familiar with B&H, when I called they were happy to do any of the following:
1. accept the unit and refund me my money
2. send the unit to sony for another check-up

As soon as they mentioned "another", I asked when was the last time they sent it to Sony. Right before they sold the unit on the used section of the site, they sent it to Sony to give it a once over and cleaning. It occurred to me that maybe on an outside chance that some of the chemicals or whatever from the cleaning process needed to be cycled through. So I spent last night shooting about an hour of junk footage... and all of it looked good (another screen grab from the imported FCP footage):

http://fuszion.com/extranet/hdv/example3.jpg

So I figure I'll shoot some more this weekend and see if I can replicate the problem. If it happens again, back to B&H for a refund.

Fairly incredible though Don, that if this is the case (abou the fluids) that Sony didn't apparently do a test AFTER they'd 'cleaned' everything that everything was wroking well.

Personally i'm sceptical that the problem is completley solved. I suspect it will be an intermittent problem. cleaning fluids (if they were used) on the helical drum or heads shouldnt give the nasty effect you previously experienced AND anyway cleaning fluids should be highly volatile and evaporate very quickly even if an excess is used.

Glad you got some good footage though, and hopefully no more probs and it was just some weird glitch, but i would check with B&H when their "return it for exchange or refund, no arguing" period expires just to be on the safe side.

Yes, I would use the thing a lot over the next day or so and see if the problem returns. Try different tapes too. Switch it to shooting in DV, shoot some footage in DV, then go back to shooting in HDV mode.

Put that thing though the paces!