I have had a Canon Elura 2 Camcorder about 3 years now. No problems with it until recently when I suddenly got the "remove cassette" warning.
The tape seems to get stuck on the heads and ejects with it all pulled out of the cassette. I've cleaned it repeatedly with a tape head cleaner and put new tapes in, but after 5 minutes - its chewed another tape.

Wolfe Camera stores advised me I was looking at $500 to even take a look at it.

Any hope for me or should I just choke up for a new one?

Dont like the feedback on the Elura 40. Anyone seen these type of problems in the Elura 50?

From what I hear its an issue right down from ZR right up to the XL1. Not all cameras have the defect -- even though Canon Techies say there's no defect -- probably because they don't know how to fix it yet and until they do they don't want their name to be smeared. I believe if its such a widespread issue, they should simply let THAT issue be a free service/laybour repair, and only that issue because it infact is their fault. The consumer market wouldn't be as set off as they are from hearing on usenet groups or whatever forum method (Camcorderinfo.com ) having widespread rumours of the camcorder heads breaking. All I can say is if you do buy a canon camera -- try running the headcleaner once every three months... because once the damage is done I think its pretty irreversible.