How to Troubleshoot a Panasonic Camcorder

The latest and most sophisticated Panasonic camcorders are Hi Definition. Occasionally you may run into an issue where the unit does not turn on, or does not operate normally. Many of these issues are related to power, temperature or the SD card. Follow these steps to troubleshoot your Hi-Def Panasonic camcorder.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

How to Troubleshoot a Panasonic Camcorder

1. Turn the power off and on again if the camcorder appears to be on, but cannot be operated, or if it is not operating normally. If that does not fix things, remove the battery or the AC Adaptor, wait for one minute, and then reconnect the power source and turn it back on again. Try to make sure the camera is not accessing media when you do this as the data can get destroyed.

2. Let the camera cool down, or if it is too cold, bring it to room temperature slowly. There can be a temperature issue. A message should be displayed to this effect.

3. Make sure the SD card is inserted correctly and has a writing rate that is suitable for motion pictures if the device just stops recording for no apparent reason. The cards should be marked "High-Speed" or "Super" or some other such nomenclature. It is possible the data writing rate has slowed or that multiple file deletes have used up space on the card. Just reformat the card.

Tips & Warnings

• Format the card using the camcorder rather than a PC to avoid incorrect compatibility formatting.

References

• Panasonic HDCD20 Hi-Def Camcorder Manual