Comments on: I Will NEVER Buy Another JVC Camera!

By: Jim

Jim — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 21:59:40 +0000

Before you resort to taking the camera apart, you might want to try cleaning the moisture sensor. See this page: http://www.edbydesign.com/books/B0000899QP.html and look at the comment dated 2005-05-18. The description he gives of the location of the sensor is hard to follow. Lay the camera on its side, with the tape door upward, the bottom of the camera facing you, the lens facing to your right, the viewfinder facing to your left. Open the tape-bay door. With the camera in this orientation, look at the far back, far left part of the tape bay; there you will see a little silver and amber can-shaped thingy perhaps half an inch tall and between a quarter and three-eights of an inch in diameter. The moisture sensor is a little black square mounted on that thingy, facing to the right – in the same direction as the lens. It’s very hard to see, much less to get a Q-tip on. But if you can find it and clean it, it’s a less drastic solution than disassembling your camera.

Good luck, and let me know how it turns out.

By: MikeP.

MikeP. — Fri, 26 Aug 2005 21:37:07 +0000

After being a great camera for about 2.5 years, we’ve been having much the same problem with the condensation message and tape “sticking”. After doing some research on the internet, we have found out that we are not alone and that we really have an expensive pile of electronic junk. Wish we had known about the JVC issues before. We talked with the big box electronics store where bought it and they want too much to even look at it let alone what it may need for a fix. That money could just as well go to a new camera. Based on what your posting said, we have some experience with small electronics and “tinkering”, so we’ll try dismantling the P.O.S. and unplugging the cables to get a reset. Maybe we’ll then have a camera we can use for crash test dummies or something. Thanks.

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 15:26:40 +0000

I wouldn’t mind quite so much if my camera would clear up on its own, but once it’s in that state, it stays that way until I disassemble the thing and disconnect that jumper. I’m sure there’s probably an easier way, some combination of buttons that will cause the camera to reset itself, but JVC can’t or won’t tell me what that is.

As for solder surface-mount devices, I’ve never tried it and probably never would, unless I was desperate!

By: Jerry Mahone

Jerry Mahone — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 14:54:02 +0000

Jim,
I see this problem with my Sony TRV10 MiniDV on, well, hot, humid days. Typically, it has to be >95 degrees and near 100% humidity, but it happens. Fourth of July parades are usually the victim. The problem clears up rapidly when removing the camera from the humid conditions, so I haven’t had to go through the pain you went through.

On another item, a Sony DVD player (a 2nd generation player that cost about $225 in the day), I had a problem where it would not read DVDs very well, especially after hitting the second layer in a movie. Eventually, it got so bad that the player wouldn’t read any disks. Do you know what you do with a DVD player that won’t read disks? You use it as a door stop, but it doesn’t do a very good job because they’re so light, they don’t really hold the door.

I researched on the internet and found out that the 350 and 550 models had the same problem because they shared the same motherboard. The problem turned out to be a diode that would go bad. The solution was to take it out and short the open connection. It worked for many people, but for some, including me, this did not work. I guess I should have been taking better notes back when I would watch you solder back in the work shed. Soldering surface mount components is tedious, delicate work, even when just trying to short two connections.

Ironically, we bought a JVC and that has worked out great.

later,
Jerry