Errors on Varicam

[Stefan Nell]

We have recently had the same re-occuring error on several of our HDC 27 E varicams.

The camera gives a Tape Slack error. This problem occurs intermitantly. The guys at Panasonic tell me its because the cameras need a service, but we have experienced this problem even after regular service intervals.

I am hoping that there are some of you out there that have had the same problems as I am desperately trying to get to the root source of the problem

[tom schneider]

We have recently had the same re-occuring error on several of our HDC 27 E varicams.

The camera gives a Tape Slack error. This problem occurs intermitantly. The guys at Panasonic tell me its because the cameras need a service, but we have experienced this problem even after regular service intervals.

I am hoping that there are some of you out there that have had the same problems as I am desperately trying to get to the root source of the problem

Interesting, we had the same problem with our Varicam in Europe. After one year of medium intensive use I got the tapeslack error 55 during recording. The tape was jammed and the technician of our supplier got it out. However, the camera constantly gave the tape slack error. Even after removing the tape. After contacting Panasonic Europe they solved the problem within 2 weeks. They didn't tell me what they do to fix it. The technician of our supplier told me they needed to fix something inside the tape mechanism. Therefore the camera was fixed by Panasonic.

 

I was lucky the recordings I did when the problem occured weren't that important. This week however I do a little more important stuff so I'll first record 2 test tapes before recording again. Another cameraman, who uses our varicam sometimes, told me he also had the same error once. Although the error he got the tape out with the mechanical eject and after unpowering the camera it responded normal. This happened like 6 months ago. In the meanwhile the camera was used intense. If anything occurs again I will let you know.