Repairing my GL2 camera
I don’t want to bore you but if you bear with me, I have a point to make…
A little over two years ago, I bought a Canon GL2 camcorder. This is a MiniDV-based camcorder which is classified as a prosumer device. It’s kind of an expensive consumer camcorder, but not so good that a professional would have much need for it.
It has worked flawlessly until earlier this year when the damn thing would refuse to connect properly to Windows. I thought the problem was either with Windows or the firewire port found on my Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS (not the platinum pro like the link says, mine isn’t made anymore). I tried everything with Windows, which included uninstalling and re-installing drivers, reading Knowledge Base articles, and lots and lots of snooping.
When I gave up on that, I went and I bought a cheap firewire card since my old firewire iPod was having trouble as well. Boy, did THAT wind up being a red herring. This track was a no go, but the iPod started working so I kept the card. Now I’m down $30.
So, then I bought a new firewire cable. Still, the camera wouldn’t recognize even in the new card. The firewire on the Audigy might be bad? Perhaps it shorted my camera? Now I’m down $60.
Then, my cousin came to visit I plugged my camera into her iBook and viola, nothing happened. So, my camera was clearly busted.
Then, I went over to canon.com and found the repair process to be quite straightforward. Unfortunately, my camera was out of warranty. In any case, I got a repair number, an address to ship to, and off I went to the UPS store. That cost me $30 since I had to insure the camera for the $2500 list price. The current price is $2k so I suppose that might have been a better price to give. Now I’m in the hole a total of $90.
Today, I got the e-mail from the repair department and it looks like the repair is going to cost me $273.74 (they only spent $13 on shipping!). All in all, I’m out $363.74. I went ahead and had the thing repaired.
Now comes my point. While I couldn’t avoid the new card and cable since that was just the price I paid to troubleshoot this myself, I could have said no to the repair and had them ship it back to me for $13. I could then use the $274 to buy a cheap and portable MiniDV camcorder. The cheap device would have been an excellent way to bring the footage I record with my GL2 onto my computer!
I’m not the first person to suggest this. I was talking to my brother a few years back. Buying a cheap device would save on the motor of the more expensive device and could increase the longevity of the primary shooting camera.
Maybe next time.