Video Production Tips - # 7 Equipment Maintenance

Maintaining your video equipment is essential. Proper maintenance will prolong the life of your equipment and increase your investment. Here are some do's and don'ts.

1. Always replace the lens cap when not in use. All it takes is one scratch on your lens to ruin it. If the lens is dirty, don't use your shirt to wipe it. Use a lens wipe designed for glasses. 
2. Avoid smokey rooms. Continuous exposure to smoke will surely leave deposits on the internal mechanisms of the camera and will render it broken.
3. Recharge batteries after use. When your done shooting, be sure to recharge all your batteries the same day. If you leave a battery drained for an extended period of time it will not hold a charge as well and will need replacing quicker.
4. Never leave your camera or tapes in a hot car. It is plastic and it will melt! Always store your tapes in cases.
5. There's a small tab on each tape that you can slide over. This protects the tape from being accidentally overwritten. 
6. Whenever you take a camera from hot to cold or vise-versa condensation will form and will make your camera useless until it evaporates which can take weeks. If you need to bring your camera in from the cold place it in a plastic Ziploc. This will cause the condensation to form on the outside of the bag. Not your camera.
7. Try not to use your camera as playback device. This puts more wear on the heads. You can purchase an external device for playing and capturing your tapes.

- Chimera Productions