switching miniDV brand tapes

[KimSWilliamson]

Thank you all for sharing your expertise and experiences. Yeah, no more Wally World tapes for me.

Luckily, the grey horizontal bars (from dirty heads) are across the parts of interviews that I was able to use B-roll inserts with! Hurray! Well, for most of the messed up parts, so the client will not be disappointed.

Kim

[RonaldPawlak]

I bought those 80 Minutes premium tapes from Sony a while back and now with the wedding season coming I am running short on tapes. I had a e mail address I wrote to for tapes. When I looked in the favorites I discovered the address is no longer there.

The question is, where is a good place on the internet that I can purchase tapes? Where do you experts buy them when you need them. And don't tell me Wal-Mart.

[BobC]

http://www.edgewise-media.com usually has pretty good prices on the Sonys

[flvideo]

Hi My name is Bob and I have been in the video business for 25 years and have used casablanca editors since 2000. I have been using mini-dv since about 1995. I guess I have tryed every brand of tape there is. What I have discovered is that its best to stick to the tape of the manufactor of your camera. I have 1 3chip JVC, 2 3chip Sonys and 2 3chip panasonics. I use sony in all of them. I would say I have probably used a couple thousand Sony tapes. I buy my media from a professional distribitor, only in an emergency do I run into Walmart and buy tape. Now I don't typically reuse tape. I know some in the business that do and they don't seem to have trouble. For the most part the only time I get a clean head alarm is when the weather is real humid. I used a couple cases of Maxell tape a few years ago and I had the clean head alarm constantly, and it would seem that when I got it I was in the middle of a shot. I do stock car racing so there is no do overs. You get it when it happens or forget it. I hope that helps Bob...

[KimSWilliamson]

Thank the editing gods for inserts! I was able to use the interviews with the portions of the video that were recorded badly, and put in inserts of shots related to the interview. Whew!

Sticking with Panasonic PQ tapes for now!

Kim S. Williamson
Blue Goose Productions
Comfort, TX

[flvideo]

I used the Panasonis PQs for years without a problem and I still use them occasionally. I used them to begin with in a JVC cameras and had no problems. I bought sony cameras and I had a problem with PQs a couple times. I switched to Sony tape and have had no further problems. I do admit I run into walmart and pick up Sonys in a pinch. I try not to do that often. When I had problems it was the lines as you described. I used a headcleaner and the problem went away. Except for 1 time when I lost about 15 minutes of the show. I shoot Stock car racing so theres no do overs. I can imagine the expression on a promoters face when I ask him to run that race over I missed it. 1 tape that is absolutely junk is Maxell. I used Maxell audio tapes for years but their dv tape is bad. They will clog your heads bad and quickly too. LOL! Bob...

[KimSWilliamson]

Bob, thanks for sharing your experience with tapes. The day i had the problem with the lines in the tape was also a rainy day and i was shooting rocket launches outside and interviewing the rocket scientists - so, for me also, that head cleaning blinking sign comes up on my Sony VX2000 when in very damp weather.

Thanks, Kim

[LouBruno]

After reading all these postings, I am more convinced that solid state flash cards may be the better choice ONLY in regards to dropouts. I still like tape for archiving and YES.....cards do have their own problems but DROPOUTS are not one of them.

Mixing tapes is still a bad idea. WET LUBRICANT plus a DRY LUBRICANT=VARNISH on the head. Some of the later tapes have less of this problem but I see this problem in our repair dept. on a daily basis where mixing of tapes (unkown how old these tapes may be or if re-used) results in a professional cleaning and the problem is gone.