Suddenly my Sony TRV140 Digital-8 camcorder won't record though worked fine the day before. Only a faint image shows if pointed at a light bulb 1' away. All else works fine! I pushed Reset with power on and off, let the device sit hours and retried. Etc. etc. Sony wants $171 flat. This device is about 4 years old and so spending much seems impractical. Advice/fix?

Do you have access to the menu on it? Have you tried switching modes? Is there fade to black and its in between settings? Have you tried hooking it to a TV and see if you get a different picture?