tapes

R

roll4dasoul

Active member
As everyone i'm sure is aware, switching tape brands in your camera is bad news. However i'm in a bit of a situation.
I have a dvx100b with low hours about 15. I was recording on panasonic advanced master tapes. Unfortunately i ran out of tapes and was unable to get anything other than sony. I used about 5 of them. From what i understand the pany tapes are dry and the sony ones i have are wet.

My question of the day is:
Should i stick the sony tapes from here on out which i'm under the impression i shouldn't use or switch back to the pany indefinitely. (That was the plan in the first place until i ran into this problem).

If I do switch to the panasonic tapes i read on a previous thread that running a tape cleaner might be a good idea before putting in the new panasonic tapes. (But with such low hours on my dvx?) And if i do run a tape cleaner which one would be good, i have a pany one but i would use that for the future to go with the dry tapes only. Should i use another cleaner for the head since the sony's residue is on them just once? and should it be a panasonic or sony cleaner...not sure if there are cleaners for wet and dry tapes that have been used.

Any information would be great...and i know i shouldn't have messed up in the first place.
 
Any ideas anyone...i mean what i led up is my plan but an opinion would be nice before i bought some more tapes today
 
any tape cleaner will do. any time you go away from the panny tapes you should run a tape cleaner and then run a tape cleaner before going back to the panny. i would clean the heads and go back to the panny tapes.
 
thanks for the reply man...the only other question i had was if i should run the tape cleaner once before going to the panny tapes and then use a new tape cleaner for the future...there was a post someone briefly suggested that. I just wanted a confirmation on it. Since the sony tapes or wet, their residue would just be redistributed and mixed with the panny's if i kept using it...i need to read up on cleaning tapes, but any help would be great.

If worse came to worse i would just get a new cleaner for future use of only panny tapes, after i ran the first anyways
 
that tape cleaner should be fine as long as u dont rewind and use it cuz all the junk is on back while ur moving forwar on tape where its unused yet. i would run a tape cleaner before going back to the panny tapes.
 
Use a tape cleaner anytime you go between any different make tapes. I use sony tapes from the first time i used my Dvx, never had problems with them, they are usually the cheapest and every store has them in a pinch, but everyone here will tell you it is always better no matter what minidv camera you are using is to try to stick with one kind of tape, I have seen camera been lost by switching make's of tapes in cameras...swear... lol


Jon
 
incase of an emergency does walmart carry tapes that are a good alternative to the panny amq's? does panny have a line of tapes that walmart would carry? if not what other brand is good to go with, with out the worry of having to clean the heads between the tape swapping?

thanx
 
I have never had a problem with sonys like i said above, and they are carried every where. Also Blaine I think and am quite sure the sony tape cleaners are much different than other tape cleaners, they seem to be the least aggressive by looks, and have never had one hurt any of my cameras for the years I have had them. Here is a quick snap of the difference of looks in a cheap cleaner and a sony. Tho the sony cost about 3 times as much but I would never use the steel grate looking one lol.
1199942505.jpg


Jon
 
thanks for the comments guys. Ya i understand tapes cleaners shouldn't be used more than once or rewound and that they shouldn't be used often. I got a panny tape cleaner so i think that should be fine.
 
As we all know you can't get Master Quality Tapes at Walmart. One retailer does regularly carry a decent Panasonic tape the AYDVM60EJ5 is available at Circuit City. I use The Tape Company and find them to be great resource. It doesn't hurt that they have a warehouse 2 miles from my house.
 
OMG Jon,

Pictures like that should be banned by the moderators, too grossly disturbing.

That looks like 80 grade dry sand paper.
 
Anamorph said:
OMG Jon,

Pictures like that should be banned by the moderators, too grossly disturbing.

That looks like 80 grade dry sand paper.
Click to expand...

I actually took that from a videographer at a wedding I was at with my dvx, he was having terrible drop outs with his sony, He had that cleaner, Im like that thing looks terrible, here is a sony one, I gave him one of mine so he could finish the wedding, I always have a couple in the bad with me. I know its pretty terrible, so If you have a 3erd party head cleaner, make sure it doesnt look like this!

Jon
 
Thats interesting that you use sony tapes, I've always used them in the sony cameras and the xl1 without problems of any sort. I got the DVX100A which has just come back from a pro head clean and alignment and thought I should use JVC as some have said not to use the sony tapes in the DVX.

It's difficult to get the panasonic tapes, but JVC and Sony are everywhere and to be honest, I don't feel comfortable using the JVC tapes, they feel a bit cheap to me. I've only run one through the cam but I would much prefer to switch to the sony, a little more expensive but they feel better, better build quality.

If your using them without problems, then it should be alright in my cam too.
 
Tel you the truth, I have yet to have 1 single drop out(nock on wood) using the sony and dvx combo, tho I take very good care of my stuff, 70hrs of taping and no drop outs isnt that bad, I do capture all my footage threw my little gs320 tho.

Jon
 
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