Loss Of Zoom Control at DVinfo.net

Cliff Elliott · April 6th, 2006, 05:22 AM

Hi all, I was at a school concert tonight using my trusty XM2 which is nearly three years old and has been a real work horse all this time, when out of the blue when I turned it on to start shooting, the image in the view finder suddenly zoomed in to the maximum setting, when I tried to zoom out with the rocker switch nothing would happen.

I then turned the power off for a breif period then back on again, this time the image zoomed out to the maximum setting again without any promting from me, for the rest of the evening I shot the event on the wide zoom setting without being able to control it with the rocker awitch.

Has any one else had this problem and how did you solve it?

Thanks, Cliff Elliott

Chris Hurd · April 6th, 2006, 07:42 AM

I think this issue has been reported once or twice before, and the way you solve it is to send it in to the Canon factory service center for repair. Let us know how that goes for you please!

Alan Craven · April 6th, 2006, 07:57 AM

Cosmin Rotaru posted some instructions for a DIY repair of the zoom rocker some time ago. They are correct for the XM2, but the XM1 has a completely different switch and tape cassette door.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...highlight=Zoom

The repair by Canon involves replacing the entire cassette door assembly and costs around £250-300 in the UK.

Stephen Finton · April 6th, 2006, 09:51 AM

Dirty rocker?

Heh! Sounds devious. Wonder if just rocking it back and forth would clean it... Is it a potentiometer or some sort of velocity button thingy? If it's a potentiometer, you could use TV Tuner cleaner on it and then rock it back and forth a few times.

If you switch to manual zoom on the ring, does it still do it? If it does, then it's an electronics problem. If it doesn't, then it's just something wrong with the rocker.

If it ends up being an electronic problem, then perhaps if there is a reset button on the XM2/GL2, you could try hitting it and see if it clears any glitches. This will reset your camera to factory settings, though. Beats sending it off to Never-Neverland to have some tech hit the same button.

Alan Craven · April 6th, 2006, 11:56 PM

Unfortunately none of those ideas work. According to the repairer the problem is at the point the ribbon cable emerges from the switch housing. This is a vulnerable point and physical shock can break one of the wires in the ribbon.

The only thing I found to work, and this was only for a short time, was to slip a small piece of plastic between the rocker and the outer side of the housing.

It is a potentiometer and I think that the wipers are too weak and eventually fail to make good contact woth the potentiometer track.

Once the problem starts, it gets worse until the camera is unusable. You cannot switch the zoom on the cassette door off, so there is no way to prevent it happening. Not even using the LANC zoom controller works - unlike the external microphone socket this does not switch off the internal control.

Cliff Elliott · April 7th, 2006, 02:25 AM

Thanks for all of the advise everyone, I unfortunatly canot get it to work even after following the DIY repair instructions of Cosmin Rotaru, Very good job that.

Looks like the camera will have to go into Canon service for repair.

Again Thanks for all of the replys

Regards, Cliff Elliott

John Stevens · April 12th, 2006, 08:54 PM

Cliff had my XM2 done about 3 weeks ago at the Canon service centre in Sydney you are looking at $400 + Sorry for the bad news the parts are cheap it's the labour that gets you, sorry I havent got the invoice with me at the moment but it tells all the part numbers etc., but working perfectly now, funny when you mention that this is a problem with the XM2 they give you the usual look, they know, but it's been an trusty camera for me!...

Cliff Elliott · April 13th, 2006, 03:50 AM

Thanks John, but you wont believe this, I dropped the XM2 at the Melbourne Canon service centre on monday received a phone call from Canon Wednsday informing me it was ready, then picked it up today just three days after leaving it with them, now for the best part, it only cost $220.00 to fix.

I have to make a comment on Canons service, over the years I have had both Panasonic and Sony cameras both of which required repairs which is not unusual nor a slur on the cameras as I really work my gear.

The point is both these companies here in Australia farm the repair work out to third party companies, and my experience with both of them have been less than desirable, from the first interaction at the service desk where on all ocaisions I have been made to feel like a heel for interupting them by daring to bring my camera in for repair, then to have to wait for weeks some times months for the repair to be completed.

Compare all of that with the service I received from the service centre at Canon in Melbourne this week, first Canon have an in house repair service, second I was met by a very cheerful represetative who took down all of the information about when and how the problem occured with the camera.

Then took the camera away to see the tech and returned with a quote to repair the fault and advised a week turn around.

The repair then took only three days and was a little cheaper than quoted.
They also returned the camera in a padded sealed package and the old parts that had been replaced.

All in all a very professional performance, which in the end will have a bearing on my decision making when the time comes to purchase another camera.

And as for the XM2 it has been an excellent camera and would not hesitate to recomend it to others, but I do wish Canon would release an XM3 HD model.

Regards, Cliff Elliott

John Stevens · April 13th, 2006, 07:12 AM

Well Cliff I'm glad it worked well for you, in future I should send my camera down to Canon in Melbourne, as here in Sydney Canon did the in house repair but they quote minimum $300 for labour then parts, I must send a copy of my invoice and look at yours to see the difference as we both had the same problem, ok just have the invoice in front of me and this might help others with the problem

Part Number: DG1-7395-000 ZOOM KEY ASS'Y $19.13
DF1-1514-020 IDLER GEAR ASS'Y $7.90
DY1-8211-050 SLIDE CHASSIS ASS'Y $52.80
DH2-2115-000 FPC LOADING MOTOR $8.20

Now wait for it LABOUR $337.00

I must say they did it for me within 10 days as I said I had an assignment to do and I needed it as they said originally 35 days. It would be interesting to see what repairs they did for you. But I'm happy with the repair and service, and with good cameras, maintenance is important.

Work completed
Dismantled unit, supplied & fitted listed parts. Adjusted as required.
Confirmed Video tape path alignment & Back tension. Clean Video head & tape path. Reassembled, cleaned & tested ok. Confirmed Firewire Connectivity.

Regards

JS

Graham Bernard · April 13th, 2006, 09:00 AM

I think I may have it too. . . yuck ..

Cliff Elliott · April 13th, 2006, 05:39 PM

John I think you had a complete service of your camera as aposed to just the repair, canon offered to either just repair the fault or repair the fault then do a complete service, option two was quoted at around $450.00 to $500.00

I decided to go with the repair at this stage as I needed the camera back as soon as possible and reasoned the service may take longer, I will probably get a complete service in the comming months.

Also the fault in my camera would seem to be different to yours, I only had one component changed, Part # DG1-4455-000 FPC Assembly Trigger
Breakdown of bill as follows

Parts $41.33
Labour $156.00
GST $1993

Total $219.26

I think all in all you and I recieved simmilar service and pricing, but with different faults etc.

Graham, do I detect by your breif comment you also have a problem with the zoom, this could be a world wide pandemic, we must vaccinate all XM/GL2s
My attempt at humor sorry about that.

Regards, Cliff Elliott

Graham Bernard · April 13th, 2006, 10:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cliff Elliott

Graham, do I detect by your breif comment you also have a problem with the zoom, this could be a world wide pandemic, we must vaccinate all XM/GL2s
My attempt at humor sorry about that.

Regards, Cliff Elliott

Yes Cliff. . . . . In fact I've had this on my original for something like 2 years. It comes and goes. However, once I got really started on my own "paid" jobs I quickly got a "brother" of XM2, and that has been my No1 camera. Now I take both on jobs. I also have damage and repair insurance which I may well invoke SHOULD XM2"No.1" plays up more.

Just as a side note: 2 XM2s are, for me, more financially attainable than 2xHDs!!

Cliff Elliott · April 14th, 2006, 06:42 AM

Interesting comment regarding having two XM2's. I have been agonizing recently about this very subject, should I get another XM2 which would then allow me to perform two camera shoots in 16:9 mode, as it is I can only shoot in 4:3 because my existing second camera is an 8 year old Panasonic NVDX100.

Or do I wait until I can afford an XLH1, which would be great shooting in HD but I don't think I could afford it. There is always the XL2 but I think the price will still be fairly high for some time to come and either way I would then have two cameras that were different, my existing XM2 and one of the two listed above.

The thing that attracts me to a second XM2 is the idea of shooting with two identicle cameras, the advantages are obvious, apart from the recording specs being the same, the manual settings would be easy to keep track of on complex shoots and the final image quality would be simillar.

Some people would say forget standard DV and go with HDV but after trying out the 16:9 function recently I was impressed with the quality, the only thing I found a bit strange was the squashed up image in the view finder, but I believe I would get used to it as the final image in the edit suit looks fine.

What are your thoughts on this Graham being a two XM2 owner.

Regards, Cliff Elliott

Graham Bernard · April 14th, 2006, 07:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cliff Elliott

What are your thoughts on this Graham being a two XM2 owner.

Regards, Cliff Elliott

Which part Cliff? - G

John Stevens · April 14th, 2006, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cliff Elliott

John I think you had a complete service of your camera as aposed to just the repair, canon offered to either just repair the fault or repair the fault then do a complete service, option two was quoted at around $450.00 to $500.00

I think all in all you and I recieved simmilar service and pricing, but with different faults etc.

Cliff, You are correct, When I put in for repair I normally get the full service.

Last year I put the Camera in for a Preventative Maintenance they replace the IDLER GEAR ASSY AND THE DRIVE GEAR ASSY parth number DY1-8611-000 ( IDLER GEAR ASSY replace twice within 12 months) but what is suprising is that with the same problem (Zoom conrol) different parts were changed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cliff Elliott

("Also the fault in my camera would seem to be different to yours, I only had one component changed, Part # DG1-4455-000 FPC Assembly Trigger")

This seems to me that there is multiple problems with the zoom control and it would be interesting to see what other XM2-GL2 uses have changed and what parts have been replaced.

As this seems to be a 2 year problem with the XM2-GL2. As is called in other posts the "Rocker Switch". It would be a difficult decision to make when doing a DIY as in "Cosmin Rotaro" excellent report as other parts could fail months later which control the Zoom.

Canon warranty for repairs is for 6 months or 3 months for business purposes not to sure on parts.

In the words of what "Alan Craven" says "The quality of the switch itself is a disgrace."

Lets hope Canon foresee this problem before the next upgrade comes out in what I still believe to be a great camera and workhorse for me!...

JS

April 6th, 2006, 05:22 AM	#1
Cliff Elliott Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Melbourne Australia Posts: 71	Loss Of Zoom Control Hi all, I was at a school concert tonight using my trusty XM2 which is nearly three years old and has been a real work horse all this time, when out of the blue when I turned it on to start shooting, the image in the view finder suddenly zoomed in to the maximum setting, when I tried to zoom out with the rocker switch nothing would happen. I then turned the power off for a breif period then back on again, this time the image zoomed out to the maximum setting again without any promting from me, for the rest of the evening I shot the event on the wide zoom setting without being able to control it with the rocker awitch. Has any one else had this problem and how did you solve it? Thanks, Cliff Elliott

April 6th, 2006, 07:42 AM	#2
Chris Hurd Obstreperous Rex Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: San Marcos, TX Posts: 27,368 Images: 513	I think this issue has been reported once or twice before, and the way you solve it is to send it in to the Canon factory service center for repair. Let us know how that goes for you please! __________________ CH Search DV Info Net \| 20 years of DVi \| ...Tuesday is Soylent Green Day!

April 6th, 2006, 07:57 AM	#3
Alan Craven Major Player Join Date: May 2003 Location: York, England Posts: 518	Cosmin Rotaru posted some instructions for a DIY repair of the zoom rocker some time ago. They are correct for the XM2, but the XM1 has a completely different switch and tape cassette door. http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...highlight=Zoom The repair by Canon involves replacing the entire cassette door assembly and costs around £250-300 in the UK.

April 6th, 2006, 09:51 AM	#4
Stephen Finton Major Player Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 344	Dirty rocker? Heh! Sounds devious. Wonder if just rocking it back and forth would clean it... Is it a potentiometer or some sort of velocity button thingy? If it's a potentiometer, you could use TV Tuner cleaner on it and then rock it back and forth a few times. If you switch to manual zoom on the ring, does it still do it? If it does, then it's an electronics problem. If it doesn't, then it's just something wrong with the rocker. If it ends up being an electronic problem, then perhaps if there is a reset button on the XM2/GL2, you could try hitting it and see if it clears any glitches. This will reset your camera to factory settings, though. Beats sending it off to Never-Neverland to have some tech hit the same button.

April 6th, 2006, 11:56 PM	#5
Alan Craven Major Player Join Date: May 2003 Location: York, England Posts: 518	Unfortunately none of those ideas work. According to the repairer the problem is at the point the ribbon cable emerges from the switch housing. This is a vulnerable point and physical shock can break one of the wires in the ribbon. The only thing I found to work, and this was only for a short time, was to slip a small piece of plastic between the rocker and the outer side of the housing. It is a potentiometer and I think that the wipers are too weak and eventually fail to make good contact woth the potentiometer track. Once the problem starts, it gets worse until the camera is unusable. You cannot switch the zoom on the cassette door off, so there is no way to prevent it happening. Not even using the LANC zoom controller works - unlike the external microphone socket this does not switch off the internal control.

April 7th, 2006, 02:25 AM	#6
Cliff Elliott Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Melbourne Australia Posts: 71	Thanks for all of the advise everyone, I unfortunatly canot get it to work even after following the DIY repair instructions of Cosmin Rotaru, Very good job that. Looks like the camera will have to go into Canon service for repair. Again Thanks for all of the replys Regards, Cliff Elliott

April 12th, 2006, 08:54 PM	#7
John Stevens New Boot Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Sydney Australia Posts: 6	Cliff had my XM2 done about 3 weeks ago at the Canon service centre in Sydney you are looking at $400 + Sorry for the bad news the parts are cheap it's the labour that gets you, sorry I havent got the invoice with me at the moment but it tells all the part numbers etc., but working perfectly now, funny when you mention that this is a problem with the XM2 they give you the usual look, they know, but it's been an trusty camera for me!...

April 13th, 2006, 03:50 AM	#8
Cliff Elliott Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Melbourne Australia Posts: 71	Thanks John, but you wont believe this, I dropped the XM2 at the Melbourne Canon service centre on monday received a phone call from Canon Wednsday informing me it was ready, then picked it up today just three days after leaving it with them, now for the best part, it only cost $220.00 to fix. I have to make a comment on Canons service, over the years I have had both Panasonic and Sony cameras both of which required repairs which is not unusual nor a slur on the cameras as I really work my gear. The point is both these companies here in Australia farm the repair work out to third party companies, and my experience with both of them have been less than desirable, from the first interaction at the service desk where on all ocaisions I have been made to feel like a heel for interupting them by daring to bring my camera in for repair, then to have to wait for weeks some times months for the repair to be completed. Compare all of that with the service I received from the service centre at Canon in Melbourne this week, first Canon have an in house repair service, second I was met by a very cheerful represetative who took down all of the information about when and how the problem occured with the camera. Then took the camera away to see the tech and returned with a quote to repair the fault and advised a week turn around. The repair then took only three days and was a little cheaper than quoted. They also returned the camera in a padded sealed package and the old parts that had been replaced. All in all a very professional performance, which in the end will have a bearing on my decision making when the time comes to purchase another camera. And as for the XM2 it has been an excellent camera and would not hesitate to recomend it to others, but I do wish Canon would release an XM3 HD model. Regards, Cliff Elliott

April 13th, 2006, 07:12 AM	#9
John Stevens New Boot Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Sydney Australia Posts: 6	Well Cliff I'm glad it worked well for you, in future I should send my camera down to Canon in Melbourne, as here in Sydney Canon did the in house repair but they quote minimum $300 for labour then parts, I must send a copy of my invoice and look at yours to see the difference as we both had the same problem, ok just have the invoice in front of me and this might help others with the problem Part Number: DG1-7395-000 ZOOM KEY ASS'Y $19.13 DF1-1514-020 IDLER GEAR ASS'Y $7.90 DY1-8211-050 SLIDE CHASSIS ASS'Y $52.80 DH2-2115-000 FPC LOADING MOTOR $8.20 Now wait for it LABOUR $337.00 I must say they did it for me within 10 days as I said I had an assignment to do and I needed it as they said originally 35 days. It would be interesting to see what repairs they did for you. But I'm happy with the repair and service, and with good cameras, maintenance is important. Work completed Dismantled unit, supplied & fitted listed parts. Adjusted as required. Confirmed Video tape path alignment & Back tension. Clean Video head & tape path. Reassembled, cleaned & tested ok. Confirmed Firewire Connectivity. Regards JS

April 13th, 2006, 09:00 AM	#10
Graham Bernard Old Boot Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: London UK Posts: 3,633	I think I may have it too. . . yuck ..

April 13th, 2006, 05:39 PM	#11
Cliff Elliott Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Melbourne Australia Posts: 71	John I think you had a complete service of your camera as aposed to just the repair, canon offered to either just repair the fault or repair the fault then do a complete service, option two was quoted at around $450.00 to $500.00 I decided to go with the repair at this stage as I needed the camera back as soon as possible and reasoned the service may take longer, I will probably get a complete service in the comming months. Also the fault in my camera would seem to be different to yours, I only had one component changed, Part # DG1-4455-000 FPC Assembly Trigger Breakdown of bill as follows Parts $41.33 Labour $156.00 GST $1993 Total $219.26 I think all in all you and I recieved simmilar service and pricing, but with different faults etc. Graham, do I detect by your breif comment you also have a problem with the zoom, this could be a world wide pandemic, we must vaccinate all XM/GL2s My attempt at humor sorry about that. Regards, Cliff Elliott

April 14th, 2006, 06:42 AM	#13
Cliff Elliott Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Melbourne Australia Posts: 71	Interesting comment regarding having two XM2's. I have been agonizing recently about this very subject, should I get another XM2 which would then allow me to perform two camera shoots in 16:9 mode, as it is I can only shoot in 4:3 because my existing second camera is an 8 year old Panasonic NVDX100. Or do I wait until I can afford an XLH1, which would be great shooting in HD but I don't think I could afford it. There is always the XL2 but I think the price will still be fairly high for some time to come and either way I would then have two cameras that were different, my existing XM2 and one of the two listed above. The thing that attracts me to a second XM2 is the idea of shooting with two identicle cameras, the advantages are obvious, apart from the recording specs being the same, the manual settings would be easy to keep track of on complex shoots and the final image quality would be simillar. Some people would say forget standard DV and go with HDV but after trying out the 16:9 function recently I was impressed with the quality, the only thing I found a bit strange was the squashed up image in the view finder, but I believe I would get used to it as the final image in the edit suit looks fine. What are your thoughts on this Graham being a two XM2 owner. Regards, Cliff Elliott