Recommended Cleaning Tape

G

Gordon JL

Well-known member
I purchased the 100a, which does not come with a head cleaning tape; it comes with a blank tape instead.

Now that I need a head cleaning tape, I was wondering what type and brand you guys recommend. Should it be a "dry type" or "wet type" tape? Is there a particular model and brand you guys would recommend?

And I've heard a lot about the Panasonic MQ tapes. I was wondering if there were any other, better tapes besides the MQs, or are these the cream of the crop?

I've heard it is bad for the footage and tape to reuse a tape, so I know it's not recommended. But other than screwing with the footage and the tape quality, is there any long term damage done to the DVX itself in reusing a tape, say, 100 tapes over? I mean, since I'm a cheap bastard, and I would like to reuse a single MQ tape for things like testing or fooling around with the settings, would it do any harm to the camera itself by reusing tape over and over? Perhaps the dry lube on the tape would be affected from this excessive recording, and maybe that lack of lube (or, lube that has been reused so much, it's become screwy) would damage the camera heads/camera? Or, maybe the answer isn't "yes" or "no", but more of a "don't exceed reusing the tape 5-8 times and you'll be fine" kind of a deal. Hey, it's possible.
 
This has been covered many times.... roll the head cleaner about 7 seconds and stop. Use until finished... do not rewind.
 
Dont use a cleaning tape, cleaning tapes are extemely dry tapes that shoot whatever gunk is on the heads at extremely high speeds into the camera. If your heads need cleaning get them proffesionally cleaned.
 
Maybe I should have entitled the thread "Cleaning and MQ tape recommendations, and a few other questions".

Are MQs the best of the bunch, and how many times can I reuse an MQ without causing damage to the camera (due to loss in dry lube, etc.); I know it's not recommended, as the footage and tape would suffer -- but does the camera suffer?

Myfriendimage: Wouldn't that only happen if there was a lot of crap on the heads? I've only just gotten the DVX, so it seems that the cleaning tapes would probably not be a bad idea -- unless I've been using the DVX for years. And, the reason I chose to use cleaning tapes instead of just getting it professionally cleaned is that I used these dirt cheap wet-lube TDK tapes for approx. 20 seconds on record, and also playback; and right about then found out that I should use only dry-lube Panasonic tapes. So there are 10-20 seconds worth of wet-lube gunk on the DVX head; so I figured it's safer to just use a cleaning tape to clean it before switching to MQ tapes.
 
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