i have a cannon elura 40 mc. its worked great for so long and lately it has been beeping and say remove cassette. at first i just thought it was the cassette but then it started doing it more often. i would put a brand new cassette in and it would do the same thing. and now it is happening. but i cant get it to push back in once it is popped out. it wont even slide down with no tape in. has anyone else had this problem? any advice is appreciated.

thanks

hi, i'm having that exact same problem....where it says in red "REMOVE CASSETTE" and after that the cassette is useless..cause anything i film on it comes out distorted.

also i end up losing footage when ever i try to play back tapes on my elura 40 mc...i've done some research and it seems this cam..and others in the elura and ZR series..seem to "lose the time code" on some tapes..causing the footage on the tapes to look distorted, while the timecode is all jumpy and the image is all flickery...and i've already lost almost 15 tapes full of IMPORTANT FOOTAGE...and i just can't take this any more..since Canon denies this..i didn't know before hand what the prob was..so i just thought it was the tapes i bought...but it wasn't..so i just kept ruining tape after tape..i'm about to go insane..does any one know if there is anyway to recover footage on tapes..which have the time code damaged or just scrambled by the camcorder...or what to do with this cam...cause..i'm not placing one more tape into this damn devil.
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Has anyone seen this problem with the 50?

tnx,
jim

Canon Elura 40MC - no problems since January '03 when I bought it.

My Elura 40MC didn't start acting up until after I had it for one year. At first, it worked flawlessly. But now, I am having EXACTLY the same problem as JFox and HeReTik. Luckily, I bought the extended warranty, but the repair shop has been unable to fix the problem. It has already been in repair 2 times since July 2003, and is about to go back in for the 3rd time. It is an intermittent problem, making it that much more difficult to fix. For example, I would video tape something and play it back, and it works perfectly. The very next day, I would play back the same exact tape, and all I get is distrorted footage. Very frustrating! But most important, I am missing some really important events. To top it all off, I have spent a fortune on DV tapes, and I have a drawer full of corrupted tapes that are now useless. Does anyone out there have a fix for this? I hate to cough up the big money to buy another camcorder, but I'll be damned if I miss my son's birth in 2 months! If I don't get a fix for this soon, I will go and buy what works, a SONY. I had an old one for over 10 years, and that huge beast still runs today. Help please.

My Elura 40MC, is having the same problem, Ive had it 13-14 months and maybe used it 5-6 hours, now it wont play back video, it sporadic ,sometimes it works and other times it Flickers a pixelated image and flashing time code. If Canon wont fix this after 5-6 hours of use, the public should know.

Very unhappy

BP

you are all explaining the same problem i have. word for word (the whole eject tape thing, and the whole having tapes flicker in blue pixels)
well i've decided to just get a nother cam, i'll prolly never buy a canon again, prolly go with a sony or panasonic.
if anyone finds exactly what the problem is, and how muc it is to fix it. post it here one day

I am also experiencing the same problem with my Elura 40MC, which started 1 day after my warranty expired. The Service Center 'requoted' (took 1 month to figure this out) the cost to fix it at $650US to fix the PCB - or motherboard!!!.

At this price, I am not willing to fix it, but will need my camera by the holidays.! Has anyone been able to fix this problem elsewhere? Any recommendations (where/costs) would be appreciate

** Addendum **
To be fair, I received my camcorder back from the Service Center and it is working. -- I have tested it for 2 days and haven't seen the problem show up again. Don't know what to sa ....

I guess you meant that you took back your Elura 40MC without the $650 repair.

I have the exact problem with my unit. I bought mine in Aug 2002. ( I believe that was the first month it appeared in the Canadian market).

I used a head cleaner each time the error appeared. It seemed to temporary fix the problem for about 1/2 a new tape and the error came back again.

I noticed that the problem is from "play back" not recording since some of the previously unplayable tapes seem to play after a long head cleaning.

I'll try the local repair shop here in Toronto after the new year and let you know what they say and how much $$$.

It is frustrating.

Well that is not good news, I am hoping this issue was resolved in the 50 because spending hard earned money on a camcorder that lasts under 2 years is unacceptable in my books.

This quote is so good it is to the point and is the truth!!!

I seem to be having the same problem but a bit different. I put in a new tape and fast forward it. Then i rewind it but when it gets to the 45-50 miinute mark iit gives me the error and sometimes eats the tape at that pooint. it will record fime ,fast forward fine play fine but when you rewind and get to the 45- 50 minute mark it craps out with the error.I am going to try recording a dvd of my dvd player and see what happens. This really sucks.....

Ok, i just recorded of my dvd plaayer to my elura 40 mc by way of svideo and av cable 15 minutes of the dvd. When i went to rewind it went to the 7 minute mark befor i got the error and streched the tape a bit. I fixed the tape and played it and it played fine...well for a couple secounds of crap as the tape had tried to be eaten. I played for a minute or two and image was fine. I rewinded again while it was playeing as it rewinds slower. It rewound to the begining this time . i played it again and seems fine. This is a whaacked problem.... so i can only rewind while it is playing... that will kill the heads... any suggestions would be great....

The heads are always in contact with the tape when the cam is on. In rewind, that's how it knows where it is on the tape (by reading it) or in the case of Canon erasing the tape for you. It appears to be an alignment problem and the camera will flash the timer when there is a problem. I give mine a few whacks and everything falls back into place and it stops the error and functions normally again so I can safely hit rewind. When this method no longer works, I have a 5000lb 4x4 tool in the driveway to realign the heads.

I have been through the mill with Canon on this. It is a problem of head alignment. This sounds common with the ZR, Optura and Elura lines. This problem most frequently occurs during a rewind, but also shows up in recording and playback as failure to fully erase previously recorded footage, mosaic recording, and loss of time code (which is absolutely critical in DV).

Talk of this problem is all over the forums and usenet groups dealing with Video. Not only that, but if you go to Canon's website to check their troubleshooting FAQ you will find that Canon uses the identical FAQ for every camcorder that they sell, and, of eleven questions on the FAQ, two deal with this problem (which eventually leads to the cassette becoming locked in the camera, and the camera shutting down completely). Canon absolutely denies that they have a design or manufacturing fault with their cameras.

The problem seems to show up at about one year of use.

If the camcorder is out of warranty, Canon will swak you with their minimum bench charge of $145, which added to your outgoing shipping, California tax (repair facility is in Irvine, CA) and Canon's return shipping will bring your total bill to about $180 for the deal.

The repair on my ZR10 lasted two weeks until it started to fail again.

I would love to hear from folks who are having this problem with their Canon's as I have decided to contact my state attorney general to see if it would be possible to pursue Canon for perpetrating a consumer fraud, namely that they fail to notify any prospective buyers that, as these cameras age, they will require frequent, intermittent and expensive repairs. As vrecksler said above, a camera that fails before two years is up is totally unacceptable.