2nd Camera to capture footage question

[Chris_Lynch]

Not sure if this is the correct forum but if its not, maybe someone could move it?

Okay,

Now that I have the DVX, I don't want to wear the heads by constantly using it to capture footage to my Mac G5. I've done a bit of reading on the site and a cheaper Canon camera seems to be a good choice to use for capture. I have, however, found a cheap Panasonic camcorder (NVDS65) which should be ideal as all Panasonic camcorders with Firewire are 100% compatible with Mac. The question is:

What is the situation with tapes? Once the footage has been imported, is it okay to put back into the DVX for use again? I'm curious as the consensus seems to be that once a particular brand of tape is used, you shouldn't use another. Is it the same for using tapes in one camera - they shouldn't be used in another?

And, any opinions on re-recording over footage? I don't think I could afford to always buy new tapes.

Finally, the Panny I've found is an ex-display model with a full 1 year warranty. Is it a bad idea to buy this? I normally like to buy new but this is a pretty good deal (and I wont be able to check the camera before hand as it is coming from England).

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Chris

[CCraig]

Using a second camera as a tape deck is not a bad idea.

Re-using tapes is a bad idea. You might have a couple that you re-use (I call them scratch tapes) that you could use for tests etc. BUT record nothing of value on them. Use new tapes always and archive them. You'll always have the raw footage on hand. Your work is worth a lot more than the cost of a tape.

HTH, Chris

[PDX_DVX]

yes, DEFFINETLY take his advice. 5 bucks a tape for the MQ's is small price to pay for piece piece of mind. www.tapestockonline.com sells these nifty mini-dv tape racks that you can use to archive your tapes, I believe they are around 15 bucks per rack, and hold 48 tape. They also have the MQ tapes for pretty cheap. Get only the best tapes, which in this case are the Panasonic MQ's. Another good idea is every 6 months or so, take the tapes you have archived and fast forward all the way through, and then rewind them back to the beginning. This "fluffs" the magnetic particles and will make your archived footage last longer.

[Chris_Lynch]

thanks for the replies so far guys!

just one more: is there any difference in quality between using sp and lp? i 've been using sp so far but am curious...

cheers,
chris

[PDX_DVX]

yes, there is a HUGE difference. In short, never use LP. It records slower on the heads, which means that the tape runs slower over the heads. It extends the length of your record time. It degrades the image as well. NEVER use it. Also, many professional decks (dsr-11, dsr-80/85 etc etc...) will not play back stuff recorded in LP mode. So, in short....stay away from it....