For those who followed my post of about 1.5 weeks ago, Vegas does NOT erase tapes accidentally. After finding nothing on the tape I naturally tried a few others and they all worked OK. In between, I re-tested the suspect tape and it showed no pictures while all the other tapes still did. I am thorough when I do trouble-shooting and usually don't put up a question until I'm desparate.

Anyway, it turned out that the camera eventually gave a strange error message that I'd never seen before and it turned out to be a 'Condensation' condition. I had to leave the tape cradle open for a few days and let it dehydrate naturally. Sometime later it occurred to me to re-try the suspect tape. Voila! Pictures mysteriously return and no recordings have been lost. Perhaps that particular tape had itself supplied a bit of moisture to the camera and that's why it showed no pictures when all the others did.

Thanks for all your concerns.

Regards,
Neil Porter