lol, k it was my standby switch! OMG i'm starting to have serious questions about my videography abilities.....

Cal..I think we have all been there.
It happened to me on a shoot with the Gl2 years ago.
I had no idea what it was and started pressing and flipping everything I could to turn the damn thing back on. It's actually a handy tool once the stress of discovering it subsides.

Cal..I think we have all been there.
It happened to me on a shoot with the Gl2 years ago.

Ya, same thing with my GL2 a few years back at a wedding... Freaked me out, luckily I just started moving every switch, which there weren’t a lot of on the GL2. :)

I just got my XH-A1 Last night, and I am glad I ran into this thread seeing as though this camera is all new to me. It’s just one of those silly things, which can feel disastrous.

I was using my camera the other day with no problems, on record and playback. However, when I took it out of the case again, it will only let me turn the dial to the playback and power on. If I turn to the record side, it will not power on, and the little gray button will not come out and release.

Has anyone had this issue? If so, how did you fix it. I will call CANON if I must, but I hate being on hold forever.

I did the very same thing - I bet the thumb button is set to LOCK.....

You Are Right!!!!!!!!!! Thanks!

Merged several separate threads together which discuss this topic.

Hi all,
First: Help!!!!!
I'm actually on a holiday trip , I've been recording with my cam for 2 days until now. I just wanting to power it on in A mode. The screens kept black , both LCD and the Viewfinder. It will come on in vcr mode and play back the tape but you can't watch the movie when you press play nothing happens.MH turned it of and an a few more time and suddendly the screen reappeared in A mode. I wanted to get out the cassete which wasn't also anymore possible. Switched back to vcr and got it finally out. At the moment the recording mods aren't working A, TV ,AV none of them, the HDV logo and the green led are illuminated but nothing else black LCD and viewfinder.In this state you can pull the eject button for the cassette an open it but the cassette remains in the cam and isn't coming out.
Powered it off again an ON in A got back the LCD screen I tried to record something, the red dot appears on the screen but the timecode isn't running anymore.If you press END search it doesn't work either the camera remains and does nothing.
And yes the button is in standby position.
Right now I'm rertying to get it work and the LCD screen redisappeared...
Help
Many Thanks
L.G

Little update of the problem.
I have now found a solution for the Black LCD in A,tv,.. mode .
I have to get the cam in vcr position and then quickly turn the weel over to A mode without a stop now I have again the image on my LCD but still can't record or eject the cassette . I think that this is defenitely not a manipulation error.The camera doesn't even as filled an entire DV in it's life it's brand new.
What do you guys think about it?
thx for help
L.G

No one who can help me?or at minimum say that this isn't a manipulation error?
Thnx
L.G

I am having a difficult time understanding the nature of your problem, but my advice is to contact Canon Europa immediately and send it in to their service center for repair. That is your single best course of action.

On the wheel of my A1, the playback position work fine, but I get no power on any record option, looks like the lock button do not depress on any of those recording positions.
I am in San Diego and shooting tomorrow....any idea what it is?

Yes, on the button you press for record at the back of the camera, you will see two options. One is lock and the other is standby. It probably slipped to "lock" by mistake, change it to "standby".

Many thanks, you are a Master and you saved my life. It works!

Hmm I lent my canon xh a1 to my friend, and it works on the dials that let you watch what you have recorded, but it won't start up when I put it on the A dial or the M, or AV I'm not sure why anyone know? Basically any dial that lets me record doesn't let the camera start up

Try switching the STANDBY/LOCK switch from Lock to Standby position.

Yep--that'll do it. Almost everybody new to a Canon camera has flipped that switch accidentally.

aha thanks guys!

this one should really be a sticky - it would save the heart palpitations it invokes when it happens to it seems almost everybody once

been there
trish

Happened to me at 3 in the morning during a 48 hour film festival. We had shot all of the footage we needed and we were about to start editing when I realized the A1 wouldn't turn on. After going 30 hours without much sleep I was completely lost. I think I tried just about everything and then pretty much broke down. I thought we were completely screwed until I realized the obvious. Total n00b moment.

It bit me, almost fatally, when I went with a flm critic to shoot an interview for an on line site with Billy Bob Thornton and Virginia Madsen. We got there an hour early, got our spot, set up some lights, and waited. While waiting we decided to do a couple of shots of the critic by himself talking about the event. Did that. No problem. It was all hand held, so I sat the camera down on the floor, stood around talking awhile, finally picked up the camera and--it wouldn't come on. PANIC!

But, just about everything that can go wrong has happend to me over the years and I figued it was something I had done. When it came on for playback mode, I knew there was some switch someplace that had moved. Then I found it. It took me maybe about 2 minutes, but it seemed like 2 hours. Definitely a heart-stopper.

bill-

i've read your posting about that red carpet interview on another site. in your very fine description of the "dos & don'ts" of such an event, i don't recall u discussing THAT moment of panic. it is heartening to know seasoned pros like yourself can still work around the edges of doubt. congrats for being so up front.

be well

rob

Wait until you hit that switch in the middle of recording... that really bites it. You lose a good 20-25 sec. I wish someone at Canon would have made this a little more difficult to switch, or inoperable while the camera was recording.

Rob, you know what the difference is between an amateur and a professional, don't you? When a pro screws up he catches it in time, and the client never knows.

Rob, you know what the difference is between an amateur and a professional, don't you? When a pro screws up he catches it in time, and the client never knows.

bill-

i always thought a pro was not paid to try but to accomplish

by the way, your comment made me smile. thanks :)

be well

rob

Was it Videonics that had the following on their web site? "The difference between an amateur and a pro is the amateur shows you ALL his photos/video."

The Standby/Lock lever is an artifact of the handi-cam form factor. It was NOT used on the XL1, or the H8 L1/L2 series, But was on the GL1/2 from which the XH more or less evolved. Newer consumer models (e.g, HV-20) are too small for the lever.

I suspect it is there and works the way it does because more people wanted it than do not want it.

I think it's there because nobody ever got around to saying, "Take the damn thing off--nobody uses it."

I use it all the time ;) Flip it with my thumb when I don't need the cam active. Never use the wheel except when switching modes.

We were shooting a wedding yesterday, and I had my A1 on my new Indicam, doing tracking shots, and following the bridal party duing their entrance. Just before the bride starte her entrabce, the A1 shut down. I mean DEAD...nothing. Luckilly we had three other cameras rolling.
I ran over to my case and grabbed another battery. Nothing. Tried two more batteries and still nothing. I then shot the rest of the ceremony with my H1.
later in the reception, just for the hell of it, I tried the A1 and bingo, it worked. This morning, I tried it with all 9 of my different Canon batteries, and it worked with all of them.
Any ideas???
Bruce S. Yarock
www.yarock.com

Hope I don't insult your intelligence here, but the only thing I can think of is that perhaps you had your standby/lock switch inadvertently set to lock.

cheers, d.

Daniel,
It's in standby. I had an XL2 and now have an H1, and don't think i've ever put any in "lock". I wish it were that simple, but my gut feeling is there's something wrong with the camera. I think I'll send it back to Canon before risking using it at another wedding. I was really curious to see if anyone else had the same problem.
thanks
Bruce S. yarock
www.yarock.com

Well, I'd say it was a main fuse problem, except that it 'came back to life'. So yeah, sounds like a trip to Canon is in order. At the very least, you'll be buying some peace of mind.

Man, I HATE unreproduceable errors like that.

Try reproduce the error by doing a lot of shooting around the home/studio (perhaps using a similar setup, but not on money shoots, to see if you can reproduce the problem. If you can't, it is unlikely Canon can either.

These problem that go away mysteriously tend to be something like a piece of dirt under a contact, a wayward external controller, or a simple but easy to overlook under pressure operator error as suggested above. (BTW: Did you try the reset button when it happened?)

Just a thought, the act of making some external connection to the machine, perhaps to the firewire or lanc port, while the camcorder processor was in a very specific transient state may have cause the internal processor to hang - a bit like can happen with a PC, and a reboot was needed. Many devices prefer that connections to I/O ports be made while the device is in a specific state - typically off.

Don,
I tried all of the batteries this am, and had no problem. I'll try your idea and do some extended shooting around the house and see if it happens again.
I couldn't hit "reset" because the camera was dead (unless I'm missing something...Is there another "reset" button?)
The only thing I had attached was a 10 watt Canon light on the shoe. Since I was flying it on the indicam, my hands weren't even touching the camera.
back to the drawing board...
Bruce S. yarock
www.yarock.com

EXACTLY the same thing happened with my XH-A1 – I was shooting soccer in SD – maybe 15 minutes into the first tape with 5 or 6 stop/starts of the button when the LCD went totally dark. My first thought was that I had switched it to lock, but I had not. I quickly changed batteries, but it would not power on. I went back to the original battery which was fully charged before I started, and it still would not work. Then a miracle occurred, and everything worked. It happened again 10 minutes later – when I went to lock then back to standby it came on. The next night was another soccer game (maybe 60 minutes total recording) and it failed again… lock/standby fixed it. A week later I shot an entire game with no problems.

I next had 2 horse shows to video, but did not want to dust off my XL/1s because I am addicted to the HX-A1 and have faith in miracles. Only one “hang” in the 120 minutes of video for the first show. No problems during the second show… maybe 140 minutes. (Most segments of the horse show were only 2 minutes in length).

I am planning on videoing my wall for an entire tape to see if it freezes, but in production it now seems to work like it did for the first 15 hours or so I used it before the problem surfaced.

Only thing attached to my camera is a Rode mic via XLR.

John,
Do you plan to send it back to Canon, or are you going to hope it doen't happen again? I'm going to try Dons' suggetion first.
Bruce S. yarock
www.yarock.com

Bruce,

I don't know your shooting situation but cameras have a condensation sensor that will allow you to start shooting but as condensation appears in the camera it will shut down and not restart until the camera and the ambient temperature are closely the same.

For instance...if you had the camera in a cool spot (like an air conditioned car) and took it out into warm or hot air (usually outside) the moisture in the air could condense on the colder metal camera parts like water condenses on the outside of a glass of ice water. This is even more likely in high humidity areas like Florida etc. Always let your camera sit a bit before using in order to keep this problem from happening. You might even open the tape door to let the inside camera temperature normalize.

You probably already know about this but others might not so I thought I would include it in this discussion.

Smooth Shooting,

Tery
Indicam

Bruce,
I do not think I will send it to Canon… at least not yet. I have a one day horse show this Saturday (maybe an hour+ of video in 2 minute segments), so I will see how it performs. I will next try videoing my wall and see if it can run an hour. I do not think the condensation problem Terry pointed out applies to my failures – at least not the last one at the horse show, as my camera had been on a tripod outside for several hours in dry weather and failed a minute into videoing (maybe the 30th 2 minute clip I shot that day). Has your A1 only failed one time?

... perhaps you had your standby/lock switch inadvertently set ...

I had an XL2 and now have an H1, and don't think i've ever put any in "lock".

The XH is different from the XL cameras... the XL series doesn't have the "lock" switch that the XH does. The XH will go into standby mode even if you've never touched that switch, and based on what you're describing, it sounds like it has simply gone into standby mode. And if you don't recall ever changing that switch then I can practically guarantee that's what happened.

If this situation ever occurs again, just cycle that switch (it surrounds the rec / pause button on the hand grip). Then you will have properly identified the cause of the shutdown, plus you can prevent it from happening again by disabling the auto standby mode from within the Custom Function menu. Hope this helps,

Terry,
It wasn't condensation. I've shot with this and all of my previous cameras in hideous contrating temperatures (freezing ac inside to sweltering humidity outside, and back inside) and none ever shut down. The only problems were fogged lens and viewfinder.

Chris,
It shut down while I was shooting the bridal party enter. I might have paused for a couple of minutes, but would that cause it to go into standby and shut down? I then tried to re power the camera with the main dial and it was still dead. Exctly how could I replicate what you're talking about to see if that's the cause?
Bruce S. Yarock
ww.yarock.com

I might have paused for a couple of minutes, but would that cause it to go into standby and shut down?Most definitely yes.

I then tried to re power the camera with the main dial and it was still dead.When an XH camera is in standby mode, it can't be re-powered by the main dial. Instead you have to cycle the standby switch. In fact it's your description (that you tried to re-power the camera with the main dial and it was still dead) that leads me to believe that it simply went into standby mode.

Exctly how could I replicate what you're talking about to see if that's the cause?Load a tape. Record a few seconds and stop. Be sure that the camera is waiting in rec / pause mode. Wait several minutes. Don't touch anything on the camera. It should power down all by itself (this is standby mode).

Cycle the main power dial -- nothing should happen. Change batteries like you did before -- nothing should happen. It'll seem like it's completely dead (except for VCR Playback mode; that function will work fine).

Now cycle the standby / lock switch and watch it spring back into life.

If you find the auto standby mode annoying, simply disable it using the Custom Function menu.

Chris,
I just tried what you suggested.
1- I recorded 2 minutes to tape.
2- Put it in ''record/pause" mode, and waited.
3- After about 4 minutes, the"auto power/ save" window came up , started blinking, and in about 30 seconds, the camera shut down.
4- I turned the main dial to "off" then back to "m" and the camera powered right up.
The "standby/lock" switch is in "standby".
What happened saturday was that I was shooting and only paused briefly, then the camera went dead. The only thing I didn't try was to toggle the "standby/ lock" switch back and forth.
Any other ideas?
Bruce S. yarock
www.yarock.com

After about 4 minutes, the"auto power/ save" window came up , started blinking, and in about 30 seconds, the camera shut down.Okay Bruce -- try this exercise just one more time please. Make sure the switch is set to "standby." Let the camera shut down by itself and this time flip the switch to the "lock" position. Now try re-powering from the main dial -- nothing should happen. Change batteries, and nothing should happen. Flip the switch back to the standby position and it should turn on again.

I know you said you didn't touch that switch before, but consider the possibility that maybe you did flip it inadvertently, without being aware that you did it. What I'm suggesting to you is that *if this happens again,* your first step should be to immediately cycle that switch to see if it brings the camera back to life.

If that doesn't do it (and you've checked the battery, etc.) then you might have a problem that needs to be looked at by Canon service... but I'm willing to bet that cycling that switch is all you need to do.

The two times I've accidentally moved the switch, I also could have sworn that I never touched it. But I did. It's easy to do it and never know you did, especially if you're moving around a lot, putting it on and taking it off a tripod, in and out of a bag, etc.

Everyone,
Let me again tell you that my A1 "froze" just like Bruce's - several times over a 2 week period. The last time it happened I was 1 minute into videoing a horse at a show (not that that's important) and I was following the rider using the viewfinder (with Sony cup). The camera was on a tripod, and I was zooming in and out. The viewfinder went totally dark. I flipped the lever to lock, then back to standby, then pushed the button and continued videoing. I missed 2 of the horse's jumps. I did not accidentally flip it to lock. I have videoed maybe 500+ riders who take about 2 minutes to complete their jumps and once I push the button, I keep my thumb away... I have never screwed up a clip (well... sometimes they enter the ring before I start the camera and I miss 3 or 4 seconds, but that is rare). The only parts of my right hand touching the camera are my 2 fingers on the zoom buttons. My left hand is on the fluid head's pan handle.

Chris,
I tried it again, and when I toggle to "lock" the camera won't power up. Also when the camera is off (and the main dial is in off position),and the switch is set to "lock", the camera won't power up.

Bill,
I'd like to think that I mistakenly turned the toggle switch to 'lock", because it would mean that there was nothing wrong with the camera. In addition, I would have to have inadvertntly switched it back to "standby" when I took it out later in the reception. that's switching it twice without being conscious of doing so either time....
I've been running it a long time today, and no problem.

I called tech support at Canon, and he suggested tht I send it in. I have to send my H1 in on the 9th (for another problem), and maybe when I get it back, I'll send in the A1 (which is still under warranty).
Thanks to Chris et. al for chiming in and trying to help.
Bruce S. Yarock
www.yarock.com

At least I know how to turn it back on if it happens again (hopefully)...
Bruce S. yrock
www.yarock.com

...that's switching it twice without being conscious of doing so either time....

Perhaps easier to do if one is not fully aware of the consequences of the act.

...I was following the rider using the viewfinder (with Sony cup). The camera was on a tripod, and I was zooming in and out. ...I keep my thumb away... I have never screwed up a clip (well... sometimes they enter the ring before I start the camera and I miss 3 or 4 seconds, but that is rare). The only parts of my right hand touching the camera are my 2 fingers on the zoom buttons.

You are a far better videographer than most, especially following what presumably is fast action through the viewfinder on a tripod while zooming with the on-camera controls. Why not try a zoom controller such as the ZR-2000? Might make life a bit easier.

I have a three week old A1. While I was shooting, the camera went dead. It now only works in VCR mode. Any ideas what this could be? Thank you.

Standby switch?