Thanks INDY I am going to Flordia to get married in 29 days and with limited funds to buy a new camera I was going to be forced to use this one and try to get a few minutes of video from it, now that is no longer a issue.

Indiana Jones - if you are still around, I've just fixed my condensation error using your method. Was just about to chuck out the camera and decided to look up the Internet first for any tips. Your method worked a treat (had to clean it quite thoroughly - took a couple of gos), and the camera is working fine now! Thanks again.

You r a genius. I couldn't use the camera from last two months as of this message. Works perfectly OK...

thanks indiana jones, your instructions worked perfectly. i was surprised to see how much soot ended up on the q-tip. to anyone still having difficulty finding the moisture sensor, perhaps you are looking at the camera at the wrong angle. hold the camera at eye level in a fashion such that that the LCD screen is underneath the camera, the tape door is on the top side, and the lens is on the right side. then, looking straight into where the tape goes in, look all the way back and to the left. you might need a flashlight. you will see a cylinder with about the diameter of a pencil; that is the drive motor that he was talking about. on the right hand side of that cylinder, there is a little square window. it is not a separate black box, just a tiny window on the surface of the cylinder. you may have trouble seeing it at first because your line of vision is obstructed by the silver pin he was talking about. it's way in there and tough to reach--i found that a regular q-tip wasn't long enough to reach all the way--but it can be done. make sure to give it a couple wipes too; soot kept coming loose after i cleaned it several times. hope this helps

had the same problem on my JVC GR-22US and even though I wasn't sure which one was the sensor (had an idea but cleaned anything that looked like a sensor anyway) and even though got no black gunk it did the trick. Thanks to people like you at least I still have a functioning product. This camera also had the 'lens cap' problem, as well not great video or audio quality. Only reason I don't use my old Sony is I needed something I could use with my computer and I thought this would be the trick but when as soon as I get a chance I will buy a Sony and use this one for batting practice. Roger

WHERE IS THE BALCK LITTLE Square????????can some one post tha pic of it plz???

This is incredible, the perfect answer to my question. I have had the camcorder on for about 48 hours trying to dry it –CONDENSATION, PLEASE WAIT— the error would go away after a couple of hours then when I put the tape in the error would come back instantly. Then I read this. I cleaned the sensor with some alcohol (98%) on a long q-tip taking care not to touch the head. This is when all of the sudden the tape door would not close, no error message, just would not close even with the power off. I gave it a couple of good taps by the speaker as described in other posts and that problem resolved itself. Good. I dried it a little with a hair drier set on low but had the same error come back i.e. condensation. OK what the heck, I left it on with the condensation error blinking, the door open and a fan blowing in, but to my surprise in just a little while the blinking error message disappeared and I was able to insert an old tape and download it to the computer via DV. Thank you. It is a miracle. I just hope it lasts.

hy, thanks for your tips, I doesn't see the moisture sensor, could you give me more information to help me to find it .. Do you have a near picture of the moisture place ?

Your trick did not help me, so is there maybe a way to disconnect this sensor, or jump it with a piece of wire or something, cause it's driving me nuts this condensation alarm. Thanks in advance Martin Kooyman The Netherlands

I tried cleaning my JVC camera and it works just long enough for me to get a tape in, record about 30 seconds or so and then it gives me that same condensation error. I'm going to try and beat the snot out of it but I'm probably going to end up getting another camcorder.