BIG PROBLEM

[Madwld19]

Ok heres the deal. My sony digital 8 died on me about a week ago (piece of sh**). Anway, it would have cost over $250 to fix it, so i said screw them, i'll just buy another camera (on eBay.) I got my new camera, much better than the SOny, blah blah blah. There's one problem. The tape that was inside the Sony camera has about 20 min of footage that CANNOT BE SHOT AGAIN. I NEED to get that tape out, but SOny says it will cost just as much to get the tape out as it will to repair the camera. So, do any of you know how easy or difficult it would be to take the tape out myself? Have any of you ever done it before?

-Help Needed, MArk

 

[Digigenic]

Since it's already broken, why not pry it open with brute force?

 

[MarkG]

Yeah, if you can get the camera apart then I'm sure you can recover the tape with some care. It will probably be wrapped around some spindles and the heads, but you should be able to get it off without damaging the tape.

There was actually a site someone pointed me to a few weeks ago which had photos showing how to dismantle a variety of camcorders, but unfortunately I didn't save a bookmark for it. All I remember was that it was based somewhere in the Netherlands.

Alternatively, try your local camera stores: if they do camcorder repairs I'm sure they'll charge a lot less than $250 to get the tape out for you.

 

[vichoforevsky]

I also recommend th use of brute force. you are never going to use it again.

 

[gwyddion]

Pick a spot and start removing screws until you cant find any more. If you do decide to just Brute force it...apply judiciously...Hate to hear about how you spent all that time cracking open the camera and killing the tape in the process...

good luck

 

[laurent.a]

I dont know about this one, but on main "broadcast cameras", you have a way to manually take the tape out. There usualy is a screw you turn (usually an arrow shos what direction, nearby), that makes the ejection process to mechanically occure...