460 hours and I've never cleaned the heads.

Brandon Rice

Brandon Rice

Distributed Producer
My camera hasn't had any trouble. It's a regular dvx-100. I have 460 hours on it. I've done my best to keep it spotless. It looks almost brand new still. Should I just keep shooting with it? Or should I think about getting the record heads cleaned?
 
Not sure. But I've also read that you're not supposed to clean the heads too often, as well. But in your case, perhaps it is appropriate? My motto is, if it ain't broke (are you getting dropouts?), don't fix it.
 
Nope, no dropouts... things are doing fine. I just shot my sci-fest short on it. Shot about four hours of footage... no issues at all.
 
briceman said:
My camera hasn't had any trouble. It's a regular dvx-100. I have 460 hours on it. I've done my best to keep it spotless. It looks almost brand new still. Should I just keep shooting with it? Or should I think about getting the record heads cleaned?
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can i ask you how you're capturing? with the dvx100 or another cam?
 
You must be using very high quality MQ tapes, or tapes with similar lubricants which leave no residue?
 
I'm nowhere near that many hours, but I've got about 150 with no problems, and I'm not really using any special tapes . I have used the same tapes though. I hear that helps. Man that would be cool to go that long without having to clean the heads. Thanks for the encouragement.....Cheers
 
CineAlta said:
You must be using very high quality MQ tapes, or tapes with similar lubricants which leave no residue?
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Using Panasonic PQ or MQ tapes for everything. And, I am not using my DVX to capture. I have a deck for that.
 
Cleaning doesn't work preventativly. You can't clean somehtign that isn't dirty!

So it's not really worth celaning heads if you arn't gettign problems. Sure there may be a *little* dirt there, but untill it's a problem it's not worth wearing down your heads.

- Mikko
 
Don't tempt fate! I'm right up there with ya and have no problems so far. Have used the PQ tapes 99.9% of the time. I also use the DVX as my capture deck.
 
I'm at 86 hours and I although I haven't had any record issues, I did have some playback issues and I only use the MQ tapes. (yes, I was using my DVX for playback/capture! ) ...now I use a dedicated (Ebay bought) Panny DV cam to capture/playback all my footage.
 
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