Hi Ken,
According to Canon: "The transport is covered but the heads are 90 days only. The only way a head can go bad in the first year is excessive use or abuse. IE: bad tape or improper cleaning ect. So if the heads are bad we will repair them and only charge for parts."
The reality is that out of all of the camcorders and decks I have used in the past, heads do not go down in one year, unless they are seeing excessive use. The small minority of users who are running their camcorders or decks 24/7 understand that no manufacturer will replace your heads for free under those conditions, except for 90 days after the inital purchase - if your heads do have a problem due to a manufacturing error, the problem will show up within hours or days of use, so a 90 day warranty is legitimate.
Just make sure you clean your heads effectively and try to stick to one brand of tape if you can. If you must switch brands, clean the heads before using the new stock. Dirty heads, however, will not really cause any major malfunction which you cannot rectify yourself with a simple cleaning tape.
Please do keep in touch if you have any other questions,
- don
DONALD BERUBE
Producer/ Cameraman
DV Consulting & Training for Business, Education and the Arts
http://www.noisybrain.com/donbio.html
CREATE and SHARE with BOSFCPUG - the Boston Final Cut Pro Users Group at
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