Lost footage from Z1 due to "damaged" tape?

[J.J. Kim]

Hi, guys?
I have never posted on Z1 forum because I don't own one (Canon XH-A1 and 7D).
However, I had a friend of mine who had a wedding last year and the company she hire shot her wedding with Z1u.
She just got her wedding video back last Friday and realized during her ceremony (entire ceremony), unmanned camera that was placed on the back was only thing that made it to the DVD. The studio mixed some photos when she was walking down the aisle (they do both video and photo.), and rest of the ceremony, it's one angle from the unmanned camera.
So she called them up and set up a meeting. She met with them yesterday and they said the tape was damaged, so they could not use any of the main camera footage.
She was bursting to tears, calling me up on the phone this morning, explaining what she was told and what she saw on the video.
The studio said they reach the Sony and local video/audio rental shop to retrieve the footage.
Nothing.
Here what she experienced during her meeting yesterday with the studio manager.

They showed her the tape on the iMac after they imported through Sony Deck.
When it fastforward or rewind, she could see the footage (played back really fast), but when they play real time, nothing.
They claimed that "it only captured in low-res for playback, but since the tape is damaged, they cannot play or capture in real time".
So I told her this morning to ask them these questions and she got following answers

1. What was the exact camera model used - Sony Z1-U

2. What is the exact tape - Sony DVM63HDR Premium Mini DV

3. What was the exact method and model name you used to show me the play back
-Sony HVR-M15U Capture Deck using Final Cut Pro to Import

4. What exactly did you play for me in your office? - Tape #2 (damaged)

5. What type computer, hard drive etc… did you play the tape back for me on?
-iMac 2.16 Ghz intel Core 2 Duo / 2Gb SDRAM

6. What was the exact tape that you played back for me.. was it the original from the camera ie #2? - Sony DVM63HDR Premium Mini DV

7. What was the resolution and frame rate - 1080i/60fps

So.................... I have been in video filed for about 6 years, and I read a lot and studied a lot about tech stuff. But I think I really have to see the footage/tape to see what's going on.
Any similar experience from our folks here?? I don't know how the tape could be damaged, unable to retrieve via any deck from rental shop, but able to play fastforward and rewind only being able to see the low-res frames,,,,,?
My friend said I am helping her a lot better and more than these people from the studio.
She does not want to sue them, rather she wants to try everything she can to get the footage back, so she would have decent wedding video to watch and share with her family and friends.
Please help. Thank you so much in advance, guys.

sincerely,

JJ

[Daniel Epstein]

This could be a problem of the tape in the recorder not aligning correctly on record. Not sure if Sony ever made the HDV equivalent of the DSR-2000 DV deck which was supposed to track just about any error on a DV tape ever made. Sometimes the original camera will make the same mistake and the tape will play back there. If their deck is a top of the line Sony (not a lower end one) then they may be correct that it is unplayable at normal speed. If there is a higher quality deck than the one they have used then try and play the tape on it. Someone very brave could try and screw up the alignment or tension on a deck to see if they can find the data on normal play back but the decks don't really come with tracking knobs to do this without causing maintenance problems.

[Chris Barcellos]

JJ:

I think you need to get the tape so you can run it through one of your Canons to see if you can get it to play back right for starters. Be sure they didn't accidentally record it in SD DV, too. I am wondering if they had the tape start out in HD, then have someone screw up and record it in SD.

Anyway, you need to get a look at the tape, in my opinion.

[Elias Neris]

I've seen this happen before it's like Daniel said the tape did not line up properly. FF or Rew works but play doesn't I'm afraid there is no way to retrieve the footage. I had this happened to an event I shot on a tape SD on sony premium tapes using a FX1 turns out later that the deck this guy used to captured was bad as it happened with other folks tapes as well. I was lucky in my case it was about 30sec and it was actually the last 30sec I recorded on the tape and it was during the park session nothing really critical. I tried to play it back on my FX1, HV20, and GL1 and it wouldn't play either but FF and Rew showed the footage.

[Terry Esslinger]

This is the reason why some recommend that you take the tapes for your event and FF and rewind them in the camera they are to be used in before your event.

[John Sirb]

I'm curious if they tried to import the foorage using the camera it was recorded on.
possibly a alignment issue ( it doesn't take much)

How did they get low rerz images but nothing in the other, isnt the low rez created after capture?

also I have seen a similar issues with a slightly clogged head.

[John Sirb]

something else I thought of.
what was the second camera? another Z1?

I had someone bring me a tape last year shot on a z1 and when I tried to capture it with my JVCHD200, I had similar results, black in normal speed but I could catch glimpses in FF

[Warren Kawamoto]

Originally Posted by John Sirb

I'm curious if they tried to import the foorage using the camera it was recorded on.

I agree with John. Playing back on the camera it was recorded on is the only possible way. If the alignment is slightly off, then it MIGHT load up slightly off and play back. If it doesn't, there's probably no way.