Clean camcorder Heads?

[R. Bharat Rao]

I have a 2-year old Sharp viewcam, whose heads are clogged
and need to be cleaned. Using one of the commercial tapes a
couple of times improved it slightly (now I can hear sound when
I play the 8mm tape, but still not picture), but I'm leery of using
the tape too often; the manual says using this a lot can damage
the camcorder.

Calling the Sharp dealer, he said that cleaning the heads would
run $85. Yikes, that seems a lot.

Is that a reasonable price? Does anyone have any suggestions;
is this a DIY job, or do I just bite the bullet for the $85?

Thanks for any help. If possible also e-mail me your message,
as our newserver has been acting a bit flakey of late.

Thanks,

Bharat
bha...@scr.siemens.com

[vgdeuel]

Excessive use of a cheap cleaning tape CAN damage the heads. There are
a couple of brands of cleaner which are just video tape with a lot of
extra cleaner added. (All tapes contain a certain amount of cleaner).
I have used Scotch or 3M and JVC exclusively in my own equipment when it
was inconvenient to take them down for a more professional job. These
are the dry type of cleaner and I have no worries about head damage when
using them. I would never consider usin a wet or abrasive type of
cleaner. There may be other brands equally as good.

If in doubt, look at the surface of the tape that runs against the
heads. If it is bright and shiny like video tape, it's probablt OK.

As with anything else: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

> Camcorders probably should be cleaned and adjusted annually and $85 is probably
> not a bad price. You might be able to find someone in your area rather than
> having to send it back to the factory. I found an excellent technician by
> asking at a camera shop and confirmed by checking with the guy who services my
> VCRs.
>
>
> % J % %%%%
> %% E %%%%%
> %%% A %%%%
> %%%% N %%%
> %%%%% N %%
> %%%%%% E %

[Jbpublic]

[Andys cam]

Just so you know - the dry type of head cleaner IS the abrasive type

>Excessive use of a cheap cleaning tape CAN damage the heads. There are
>a couple of brands of cleaner which are just video tape with a lot of
>extra cleaner added. (All tapes contain a certain amount of cleaner).
>I have used Scotch or 3M and JVC exclusively in my own equipment when it
>was inconvenient to take them down for a more professional job. These
>are the dry type of cleaner and I have no worries about head damage when
>using them. I would never consider usin a wet or abrasive type of
>cleaner.

[vgdeuel]

Just so YOU know, the Scotch IS NOT any more abrasive than a video
tape!! That's because it IS a video tape. READ THE POST!

[Andys cam]

Just so you know; if it were just video tape it would provide no cleaning
action. I'm afraid you don't understand what 'head cleaners' are. They either
clean by dry scrubbing (abrasive) or by depositing wet solvent and then
reabsorbing same. There is nothing in between. Abrasive does not mean
sandpaperbut the surface of the cleaner tape must provide fricton to do
anything. Otherwise you are wasting you time and money. Please check with
someone in the VCR-Camcorder service businness or call one of the tape cleaner
manufactures to set you straight.

[vgdeuel]

All this going back & forth isn't proving anything.

I stand by my previous posts. I most certainly do understand head
cleaning. I do it every day, the proper way. Any head cleaner cassette
should be used only in an emergency, anyway. They are not something to
be used every day. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[R. Bharat Rao]

Thanks to all those that responded. I shopped around a bit,
and found out that "Best Buy" would clean camcorder heads
for $30 -- significantly less than the $85 that the Sharp dealer
wanted. Thanks to all those who posted; I'll give this a shot.

Only problem now is what do I do with my old tapes -- how to
get them onto regular video tape. Presumably it was these dirty
tapes that caused the problem:-) I think its time to rent a
camcorder for a day or two:-)

Thanks again to everyone who responded,

Bharat
--
R. Bharat Rao E-mail:bha...@scr.siemens.com
Adaptive Information & Signal Processing, Siemens Corporate Research
US Mail: 755 College Road East, Princeton, NJ 08540
Phones: (609)734-6531(O) (609)734-6565(F) (609)371-1607(H)

[the omega concern]

On Thu, 05 Nov 1998 12:19:32 -0500, "R. Bharat Rao"
<bha...@scr.siemens.com> wrote:

>Thanks to all those that responded. I shopped around a bit,
>and found out that "Best Buy" would clean camcorder heads
>for $30 -- significantly less than the $85 that the Sharp dealer
>wanted. Thanks to all those who posted; I'll give this a shot.
>
>Only problem now is what do I do with my old tapes -- how to
>get them onto regular video tape. Presumably it was these dirty
>tapes that caused the problem:-) I think its time to rent a
>camcorder for a day or two:-)
>
>Thanks again to everyone who responded,
>
>Bharat

I used to go the the electronics store, buy a can of commerical
head cleaner spray and one of those packs of swabs and clean
my own video heads. I just took the top off from the vcr, sprayed
the video heads and swabbed them. It always worked great. Clean
the audio heads too. Just dont bend any of the little parts around the
heads-be careful. Total cost- about 8 bucks, and the spray lasts for
years. The spray evaporates, and doesnt seem to harm any of the parts.
You might want to keep it off from any rubber parts, belts or pinch
rollers.

[Terry White]

AND... when using the swab, always wipe along the long direction of the
video head! Those heads are very thin vertically, but OK along the other
direction. And, FYI, don't use cotton swabs. It's better to use chamois
swabs, since they won't leave bits of cotton or whatever on the heads,
possibly causing more problems.

Good luck and keep those heads clean! While you have the unit open, you may
want to lubricate the rails that the cover opens and closes on.

Terry White
Mgr., Network Support Center, Sinclair Broadcast Group

the omega concern wrote in message <36452fe2...@news.earthlink.net>...