Re: Shooting doc in India w/Sony Z-1 - having record/playback probs

Sorry to hear you are having this problem. It was very inconvenient for us to say the least. In the end, we ended up having to rent another camera in Mumbai and Kolkuta (one of which was also a Z-1 and worked fine in fact). I think our own difficulties were due to a combination of factors that rendered our Z-1 unuseable on location in India: high humidity (causing error codes to appear and operational problems inserting/ejecting tapes). Not helped by changing tapes in dusty environments and travelling rough. I do not think the tapes were the problem as they worked fine in other cameras used (including the rented Z-1). Though the Z-1 is a fine camera does not seem to be as durable as the PD-150s for example. If you can find another camera to rent for some of the shoot and that is affordable you may try and go that route. In India it is cheap to rent a camera with a camera assistant (about $25 a day for 8 hours). If that is not possible try and pay attention to allowing the camera to adjust between different temperature environments (i.e. between leaving an AC car and going out into hot weather) as this will make the problem worse (i.e. condensation). Have you got a manual with you?