Tape usage limit...

Iskandar

Iskandar

Active member
Hi all,

I know my question may sound weird but...

I would like to know (if you have an experience about this) how many times a tape can be used (recorded on - with a DVX100B) before becoming useless or bring the footage to noticeable artifatcs...

This is why my long term experiments is based on everyday filming in the streets for one hour. And using an actual new tape everytime is too expensive... So I have to re-use tapes.

I also understand that it may depends on tape quality.
Let's speak about GOOD tapes.

2 times, 5 times, 10?
 
I don't think reusing a tape too many times would cause artifacting. Most likely too much use might cause some dropouts. You will probably get differing opinions here but since it's digital it seems you could use your tape many times. I keep a tape for doing tests and I've been using that a lot without noticing any problems, but I wouldn't use that tape for an important shoot.
I am curious though if the head lubricant would get used up. Panasonice uses a dry lubricant I believe.

Marlene
 
For multiple use tapes, minimum would be Pany's MQ tapes. The AMQ are a bit more robust and designed for lots of editing activity, so I suppose they'd be best.

taperesources.com has a pretty good price right now on the AMQ tapes--$7.49 ea.
 
Well, for him he's already said it is too expensive. Depends on what your requirements and budget limitations are I guess.
 
Filmjunkie677 said:
Once and end it. Tape is cheap.
Click to expand...

Why are you saying only "once"? Is there some sort of documentation that proves that to be true ? If so, then I'd really like to read it. It was true with analog tape but I really doubt that applies to digital.

Marlene
 
Use it more then once and you risk potential dropouts. Personally, I don't like having dropouts in my footage, when I can get a new tape for $3.99.

I'm using my DVX, a $3500 camera, I'm not gonna feed it, old, used tape. I like to feed my baby new tape: no risks.
If you got a good camera, treat it good.

Documentation? Sorry, I don't have any.

Of course you can use tape over and over as much as you want. Do whatever you want to do.

But, for me, it's a no-no.

:evil:
 
For anything I'm going to keep, I'll use new tape. My problem is I keep everything... damned pack rat. :thumbsup:
 
I understand, as I stated earlier I only reuse tape that is for testing. And personally I certainly wouldn't want to tape over on a tape that was for a project, but I don't think that risk of dropouts are going to happen with a tape being used a few times.

Up until about a year ago I used to blacken my tape before using them but I stopped doing that since I never rewind and view my footage. But....I guess you could say I was taping over.

I put a brand new quality tape in one time and got dropouts. Just a freak? I'll admit that this was a few years ago and I'd like to think that the QC is much better now. So at that time I thought that maybe taping over a once used tape that you know is working properly wasn't a bad idea.

Iskandar....I just don't think reusing a tape a few times is going to be a risk for dropouts. I just wouldn't risk doing it too much since we don't seem to have any scientific proof of when a reused tape is prone to dropouts. To save money, buy your tapes by the case.

Marlene
 
OK! Thanks everybody for your response!
Doing a rough average, I think I m going to use a tape for about 5 times before considering it abused OR insane for my 100B!
But really I could not use a NEW tape everyday becos as I told you for my actual experiment IK can get GREAT shots one day and have a total fail in some other days... Kind of social, candid camera, ... And have a GOOD tape with awful shots on it once and forever make my heart cryies just as feeding my camera with junk tapes...
So I needed friend's advice to find a middle way!
 
Iskandar said:
. . . I think I m going to use a tape for about 5 times before considering it abused OR insane for my 100B!
Click to expand...

If that is what you seriously intend to do it is almost certain you will live to regret it (unless all you shoot are things like the cat looking out the window).
(note my avatar), <g>.

There are a lot of reasons not to reuse tape . . .
Cheap, cheap, cheap (already stated by someone)
Magnetic media . . . what is that, metal flakes and rust glued to a thin film?
It wears somewhat--if you use it 5 times you will rewind it at least 4, right?
Digital . . . 1's and 0's. Where do the old ones go when you tape over them?

Anyhow . . . these are just a few of my thoughts. It's your stuff.
 
I use TDK ME (DigitalMaster) and no dropouts so far after aprox. 50 tapes. But only when I stay with the same brand. For 'not so important' shots I use them 5 times, no problems at all.
Agree, that Pana MQ's are the best, but then you have to stay on this type.
MQ is conflicting with every other brand (and so does Sony). When I use MQ and then TDK - dropouts, MQ -> Sony totally clogged head, MQ -> Maxell dropouts, TDK -> Maxell everything's OK.
So what to think...that tapes are cheap enough to use them only once or...you can use them 5 times without single problem?
Personally I think that 5 times usage is not so bad, when using always the same type of tape.
 
I think if you're using tapes multiple times with good results...great. As long as you're comfortable with it, do it. For me, I record to an external unit using the tape as backup so I'm sure I could probably get by with multiple uses but with the price of tapes less than a meal at a fast food restaurant AND the fact that the tape is an archival backup, I find once per tape good for my application. Due to operator error :embarasse I have had to resort to log and capture of scenes from the tape and it's nice to know I have it.

In the end it's about results. I'm not going to tell someone who is happy with their results that what they're doing is wrong. What I WILL say is that it isn't right for me. :thumbsup:
 
So what's the difference between AMQ and MQ? Still trying to find out the difference between PQ and MQ, other than price.

Marlene
 
If you were in my shoes, having to film every holy day without the certainity of getting GOOD shots what will you do? Buy and use a new tape or trying to reuse them in the limit if acceptability?

I m just asking for previous experience to understand if there is a reasonable limit before having dropouts.

Something like closed circuit camera... They do not use a different tape everyday. At least they do a rotation.

My experiment with DVX is quite different than usual video-cinema. So i need to film everyday a lot and then use some of the footage. Like a big brother, just to let you understand how different is the thing going on respect to more traditional shooting.

So, any experience with DVX on tape reusage?
 
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