Sony camcorder Hi8 recording, cloudy footage?

[battams]

Hi there,

I have a SONY CAMCORDER Hi8 that is recording cloudy/blurry footage. I have examples of how it used to record and looks good. Wondering if anyone has encountered this before and knows how to fix it? My first guess would be that maybe dirty heads?

Any help would be appreciated, would love to restore to original quality.
Thanks!

(First photo attached is original quality.)

[timtape]

One possibility is one or more of the camera's lens elements has become cloudy. If you're lucky it will be just the outside of the front element and can be carefully cleaned, but it can be deep inside the lens too.