My VHSC camcorder's tape door won't shut, what is wrong?

Question

It's A Quasar Palm Sight VHSC camcorder.

The battery is charged.

It won't let me record unless the door is completely shut. If I try to record while holding the door shut it cuts off.

And ideas as to why it is doing this, and what I can do will be helpful. Thanks.

Answer 1

I think your camera is telling you "please, kill me now, VHSC is a dead, dead, dead video format"....

Something is preventing the door from closing all the way. It could be some kind of obstruction... you should very carefully look inside and make sure nothing odd is in the way. The other thing... servo motors are generally involved in at least part of the tape mounting mechanism in a camcorder. It might be that there's a motor in there that's wearing out or otherwise damaged.

You could probably get that fixed, but I wouldn't consider it. You can play any of your existing VHS-C tapes on a full sized VHS deck using an adaptor, so you really don't need that camcorder. For probably less than the cost of a trip to the repair shop (unless you "know a guy", you're probably paying $100 just to "walk in the door", as far as repairs go), you could buy a low-end miniDV camcorder for less than $200, which will offer close to 4x the quality of the VHS cam. Something to consider.

Of course, you can find fully functional VHS-C camcorders on eBay for $20. Lots of them.