Grey Lines appear on my film

[ASuicidalBullet]

Currently i am useing a Canon XL1S witch uses mini dv tapes. I recently went and filmed some more fottage on a tape that i preveiously used and knew was good. After i went to go upload my fotage onto my mac using a fireware to mini dv cable (Witch conected the camera directly to the mac) i found that the fottage contained grey lines takeing up almost half the shot that was not there when i was looking threw the lense filming. The lines are also on the older fotage. I Tried viewing the fotage on another camera and the lines are still there. If anyone knows if this is an issue with the camera doing this to tapes or a way to recover fotage please let me know.

[Tim]

Hello ASuicidalBullet,

Based on what you describe of this issue, it sounds like the heads on the camcorder need to be cleaned.  You can do this with a dry tape head cleaner.  Typically you run it for 10-15 seconds, but directions per tape may vary so check before using.  This will clean the vide heads and ensure nothing internal is causing this.  After you clean the heads, use a different tape and continue to use tapes that are all of the same brand.  This should resolve the issue you are having.