Clean the heads on a brand new camera?
 

Greetings,
I know i read this somewhere on here before, but I couldn't find it again. Is it recommended to clean the heads on a brand new camera out of the box? Does it make a difference or is it simply precautionary? I'm about to buy a GL2 and I have a Panasonic head cleaner already. Thanks.

Highly recommended... I would also shoot at least an hour of stuff you dont mind losing... I generally just black out a tape with a new camera...



ash =o)

I believe the best policy is to clean delicate video heads only when they show signs of needing it. Worn heads is the most common problem with camcorders and unnecessary cleaning cycles can speed up the process. It's not a bad idea to record some non-essential material on a new camcorder, just to test it out, before going after something important.

Highly reccomended. Sometimes it says to do so right there in the manual. I did a test tape with an XL2 right out of the box and it had drops, cleaned it, no problem since.

Sure, extra cleaning might cause undue wear. OTOH I'd prefer a total head failure to loosing a day's shoot because I didn't clean after the Nth tape.

New heads for a GL2 = ~$600 parts and labor
Getting a couple dozen people to work in your movie for free on a rainy Saturday = priceless

On the Panasonic GS line, we have had numerous reports of clogged heads right out of the box or within the first week. Not sure why it is that way, but it is. Give em a cleaning.

I have always advocated running a head cleaning cassette in any new camera, first thing right out of the box.

Can't hurt at all. Outgassing and the like could affect the heads. I like what Ash suggests: a throwaway tape to test things. Just do it. Test various settings, filters and the like, then if the tape is so-so, put it in your scrap bin. Nothing lost, everything gained.

Then stick to the mono-brand theory. Nothing but (x) tapes for my machine!

My Z1 (and the Pro HDV tape that comes with it) is not even a week old but almost everything that I've captured has had some problem with it.

There are strange black and brown bars that appear over part of the image.

Just small bars and they're only there for a few frames but I am assuming they're caused by dirt.

Anyone else seen these sort of things?

I'll run the head cleaning tape and see what happens.