20 Most Recent Canon ZR400 Mini DV Digital Camcorder Questions & Answers

This is usually caused by a defective CCD image sensor and can be repaired fairly inexpensively. However, it's not a user serviceable problem and will need to be repaired qualified service technician.

My name is Rick and I'm a professional repair technician with over 20 years in the business and have repaired many of these. I'm semi retired and work from home with little overhead so I can keep repair costs low. If you decide to have the camera repaired, please click HERE for a directory listing that suits your needs.

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You can download the software here.

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&tabact=DownloadDetailTabAct&fcategoryid=326&modelid=11151

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This is usually caused by an oxidized or defective Audio/Video drum. Try running a cleaning tape through the camera. If this does not solve the problem the camera will need to be repaired qualified service technician.

My name is Rick and I’m a professional repair technician with over 20 years in the business and have repaired many of these. I’m semi retired and work from home with little overhead so I can keep repair costs low. If you decide to have the camera repaired, please click HERE for a directory listing that suits your needs.

If this response has been of any help to you, please be sure and give a positive vote for me on FixYa.com .

It needs to go to Canon for service.There is a internal component failure

Hi,
All symptoms show that camcorder video head is dirty/ clogged and need cleaning.
Put video head cleaning tape in camcorder and clean its video head as per head cleaning tape instructions.
Hope this info will help you.
Thanks.

The head unit that reads the tape is dirty or clogged, or the tape has moisture on it. Try fast forwarding to the end of the tape then rewinding back to the beginning, sometimes this clears the moisture. If that doesn't work try buying a head cleaner from an electronics store and follow the instructions to clean the head. if that doesn't work you need to take it somewhere where they fix cameras or send it in to canon to get fixed. If nothing else works it's most likely a bad head. I have the exact same cam (zr400) and the same thing happened to me but rather than send it in to canon, (who refused to honor their warranty saying it had major sand damage when it never even went outside) i opened it myself and replaced the head with the one from my older zr65 camcorder. It worked flawlessly. Hope this helps -J

Mine did the same thing. I cleaned the head with a dry tape cleaner then instead of just showing a blue screen it started showing a screen with the video but with gray lines on it. Cleaned it a few more times but it still didn't work. Finally I came up with a solution they say not to do this but if your careful it will be fine. Get a bottle of nail polish remover acetone free and some q-tips. Dampen one of the q-tips make sure its only damp and not wet be sure not to get finger oil on your q-tips. With the camera tape port ejected and open lightly swab the head with the q-tip with nail polish remover do this as long as you like being sure to clean the whole head once complete let it dry for a few minutes when it drys it will be dull looking with a thin white film on it. Take a fresh q-tip ensuring you don't touch the cotton your going to use this to wipe the film off the head once complete the head will look shiny. try your tape and if it works it was a dirty head if it plays the screws up most likely your tape is dirty or messed up.
Richard L

The battery is probably so dead it is using all the power from the wall supply.  Remove the battery, and run only from the wall supply.

Just as a follow-up I managed to locate the problem. I opened the camcorder up as it is out of warranty anyways and found that there is a thin flat flexible cable which I will call a ribbon cable that is broken. It connects the main circuit board to the one that holds the external battery and internal battery. I have called Canon to purchase this part (it has a part number etched on it which when you read it off they say it sounds like a legitimate part number) and so far have not been able to get it (they assume it is part of the main circuit board assembly and have not been able to actually locate this part number). As it stands now I know the problem and can not get the part.

You wont belive this but I found on another site something that actually works. Apparently it's called the "fonzie tap". With the camcorder closed tap the side (quite hard) and try putting the tape in again. Repeat this until it works.

I was all out of solutions so I tried this option last and it actually worked lol.!!!

Hey,

I just started to have the same problem, 5 grey lines and intermittent audio. I the settings and i tried different tapes and No Joy. Then I tried to record onto an old tapes to see if the new recording would do it and the camera showed me a strange icon for exposure. I set the exposure back to 'Easy' and Viola, I recorded and the playback is now clean. Even old tapes play OK now...

The settings must have gotten wacked somehow. I glad it worked out, good luck.

Digital video on the ZR400 is transferred to a computer only via the DV out port, which will connect to a firewire port on a PC or a Mac. USB will not transfer video, only images to and from the card.

ITs most likely a fuse, unfortunately you can change it or its a son of a gun to change. You can check by removing the motherboard, locate the fuse, they are micro fuses, it either has the letter H or K etched on it, there could be anywhere from 1-5 of those fuses. Check for continuity if that s the problem than replace it, if you cant find a replacement micro fuse than solder over the fuse for continuity...that should make the camcorder power on, but beware once you solder over the fuse- there will be no more current protection for the camcorder. If the fuse is not the problem than it could be a loose circuit...

Had the same problem, usually when trying to upscale video ! Try reducing size of video on laptop when using transfer software, see if that helps. With my aged laptop, problem seems to be because my laptop has an extremely slow processor chip, and it just can't keep up with the video ! The software I use, which is free, is Freemake Video Convertor, which gives you a choice of output formats and sizes.

No, it cannot.

on your memory card, there is a little side on it make sure it's tuned on, if that don't work , get a new card. hope this works for you. Snooky Shelton