Help - Camcorder died: fell in bucket of saltwater :( (1 Viewer)

[PygmyAngel]

Well, I went on the trip to Port Aransas last weekend....took my camcorder, all proud.....

And on the way home I had the camcorder in its case on the backseat, and the bucket of saltwater-collected critters on the floorboard of that seat....well, driver slammed on the brakes when a car suddenly pulled in front of us, and camcorder in its case fell right into the bucket of saltwater and critters. Yeah, the water seeped through the case and into the camcorder, and yes, there was a tape still in it...from the weekend and from other memories as well.....And yes, camcorder is ruined.

I got the battery to charge, and tried to get it to make the camcorder work, but it didn't. Only thing I got camcorder to do was to open the door to the tape area, but the tape will not eject. It's stuck in the mechanism. My camcorder is a Panasonic PV-GS39 miniDV. I already called Panasonic and the repair center will not work on water-damaged camcorders. I then talked to Technical Support and she told me to try and pry the tape out of the mechanism...I can't get it to work right. She told me to plug in the camcorder to the A/V cord and get it to power up for a few seconds just to get the mechanism to eject....well, I haven't tried that yet, as I am at work right now w/out the cord, but I do have the camcorder. Guess I'll try that tonight.

I've looked up info on panasonic camcorder repair - can't find a place around that will work on it. Where to go? Can't find info yet on how to eject the tape - although I did find forum on Sony camcorder ejecting tapes....almost, but not quite right brand. Oh well.

So, if anyone can help me out, I just need to get the tape out of the damaged camcorder - I don't want to lose the memories. It's not an expensive camcorder per se, as I got it on a really good sale last Thanksgiving on Black Friday, so it would not be worth paying a few hundred dollars to get it repaired. The repair place told me it would cost $52.50 just to evaluate the camcorder and $161.50 for repairs (but they don't work on water-damaged ones anyway).....Sigh. So I just want to at least get the tape out, hopefully in tact so I can have the memories, and then I guess I'll just buy another camcorder when I have the $$.

Can anyone help me w/ solutions on how to get the tape out? Please?

Thanks!

 

[toan]

sorry to hear,
you probably should've opened everything as much as you could, and let it sit there for a few days to fully dry out and then try to turn it on

works with my phone when i drop it in the water

cause if its still wet inside you cross connect circuits with the water and it fry's out components inside

dont really own a camcorder so i won't be any help of knowing how to get the tape out

hope all goes well

 

[PygmyAngel]

yeah actually we pulled over immediately and i dried it up as much as I could right then....and i left all the compartments and stuff open to dry out as much as i could. that's when i at least got the door to open to show the tape...but when i pushed on the tape like it shows to do, to eject it, it wouldn't...so even though i dried it as much as i could and left it open to air out and dry...still nothing...

i don't know...maybe the right tools to work on cameras and camcorders will work...just need someone to help

 

[AquaNerd]

this may sound harsh, but i guess you could rip the camera apart to get to the tape...i know good memories on tape are a lot more valuable than a camera. or use a small screw driver and take out every screw you can find until you get what your after. remember where they all go though...taking it apart may also help to dry it out.