Maintenance information and precautions

Moisture condensation

If the camcorder is brought directly from a cold place to a warm place, moisture may condense inside the camcorder, on the surface of the tape, or on the lens. In this condition, the tape may stick to the head drum and be damaged or the camcorder may not operate correctly. To prevent possible damage under these circumstances, the camcorder is furnished with moisture sensors. Take the following precautions.

Inside the camcorder

If there is moisture inside the camcorder, the beep sounds and the {indicator flashes. If this happens, none of the function except cassette ejection will work. Open the cassette compartment, turn off the camcorder, and leave it about 1 hour. When 6indicator flashes at the same time, the cassette is inserted in the camcorder. Eject the cassette, turn off the camcorder, and leave also the cassette about 1 hour.

On the lens

If moisture condenses on the lens, no indicator appears, but the picture becomes dim. Turn off the power and do not use the camcorder for about 1 hour.

How to prevent moisture condensation

When bringing the camcorder from a cold place to a warm place, put the camcorder in a plastic bag and allow it to adapt to room conditions over a period of time.

(1) Be sure to tightly seal the plastic bag containing the camcorder.

(2) Remove the bag when the air temperature inside it has reached the temperature surrounding it (after about 1 hour).

Video head cleaning

To ensure normal recording and clear pictures, clean the video heads.

The video heads may be dirty when:

•mosaic-pattern noise appears on the playback picture

•playback pictures do not move

•playback pictures are hardly visible

•playback pictures do not appear

•the vindicator and “ Ò CLEANING CASSETTE” message appear one after another or the vindicator flashes on the LCD screen or in the viewfinder

[a][b]

or

If [a] or [b] happens, clean the video heads with the Sony DVM12CL cleaning cassette (not supplied). Check the picture and if the above problem persists, repeat the cleaning. (Do not repeat cleaning more than 5 times in one session.)

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