Time Lapse & head wear?

J

J_Farina

Member
I recently shot some time lape with my DVX and I just checked my head usage on my nearly new camera and it says 18 hours! I haven't even passed two full tapes through it yet, so I am assuming that the heads and thus the meter were running the entire time it was set on interval?
Is this a bad thing to do to my camera? Is is really wearing the heads if it is not in contact with the tape or is this some sort of gliche with the meter?
FYI: the int rec settings were .5 sec every 15 sec.
J.
 
Re: Time Lapse & head wear?

I'm not sure how much it was running the heads. But to aleviate this problem I hook my laptop up to the DVX, and use the premiere time lapse application, works well, and doesn't run up the counter.
 
Re: Time Lapse & head wear?

I was wondering about what would happen to the hour meter during time lapse myself. Now I know. And I was going to do a 24 hour shot!
 
Re: Time Lapse & head wear?

I don't really plan on selling my camera, so I'm not so worried about the actual reading. I'm sure there will be a hack to reset it soon anyway.
I'm just concerned that I'm wearing down my camera.
 
Re: Time Lapse & head wear?

Play, rw, and fw will kill you head. Film only with your camera.
 
Re: Time Lapse & head wear?

i knew that. I'm not playing, RW or FF. And I'm not concerned about filming. Just concerned about time lapsing. Please post clear, relative info with something to back it up.
 
Re: Time Lapse & head wear?

I think this begs the question:

"What produces time on the meter?"

8)
 
Re: Time Lapse & head wear?

[quote author=jigmic link=board=Events;num=1090204452;start=0#6 date=07/19/04 at 18:11:02]Play, rw, and fw will kill you head. Film only with your camera.[/quote]

What do you use for playback?
 
Re: Time Lapse & head wear?

When I'm satisfied that all the nasties from my old Panasonic and Fuji tapes are out of my Canon ZR40, I'll use that as a deck for capturing and playing. Alot of people will do the same thing, ie, buying a $3-400 consumer cam as a deck. And having a stunt camera, or something for alternate angles doesn't hurt.
 
Re: Time Lapse & head wear?

Are there any drawbacks or limitations to using a cheap consumer cam for playback and capture, as opposed to using a $1500+ miniDV deck?
 
Re: Time Lapse & head wear?

I use my old TRV-900 as a deck. They all work exactly the same in that capacity.
The actual playback decks are expensive. The only real advantage to them is the speed of RW & FF and the durability of the unit itself.
 
Re: Time Lapse & head wear?

[quote author=J_Farina link=board=Events;num=1090204452;start=0#12 date=07/20/04 at 12:19:35]I use my old TRV-900 as a deck. They all work exactly the same in that capacity.
The actual playback decks are expensive. The only real advantage to them is the speed of RW & FF and the durability of the unit itself. [/quote]

The heads on the consumer camcorders are just as good for capture as the DVX or a miniDV deck? They don't drop any data?

For playback (RCA outs), the camera performs some digital to analog conversion, right? Is the VCR function as good in a consumer camcorder as the DVX?
 
Re: Time Lapse & head wear?

As far as I know there is no difference. Stick to a tape stock and you should be fine.
I have never dropped a frame. ever.
knock on wood or something?
J.
 
Re: Time Lapse & head wear?

Main difference between camcorders and decks is the mechanical quality of the drive mechanism and the durability of the heads.
Due to size limitations the entire drive mechanism in a camcorder cannot be as sturdy as in a deck. That is the reason why you can ff and rew much faster on
a deck than on a camcorder.
The heads of a deck are also way more durable (up to 4.000 hours).
On the other hand: a nice consumer cam goes for 3-400 bucks, which is 1/3 to 1/4 of even an entry level deck and you can use it as a backup cam etc.
 
Re: Time Lapse & head wear?

Perhaps the DVX time counter works from the minute you presso the rec button until you pressing it again. Wich probably means that your 18 recording hours weren't as hard on the heads as regular 18 hours of recording. Still, time lapse recording should put some more stress on the heads than regular recording, for the same ammount of timecode time (did that make any sense?). I'd say that if you want a specific exact answer of how much was that time-lapse bad for you, you will be frustrated even if you count with the camera head meter.
 
Re: Time Lapse & head wear?

taubkin,
you are right, i checked it today and the cam actually records head time from the time you press the rec button until you switch it off. Between takes of a timelapse recording the tape does not disengage from the transport mechanism but the heads stop rotating. So timelapse recording puts a lot of hours on the meter but doesn't wear the heads that much.
I am wondering if I could record time lapse onto my VC2500 deck without having a tape in the camera. Will give it a try later...
 
Re: Time Lapse & head wear?

[quote author=J_Farina link=board=Events;num=1090204452;start=0#0 date=07/18/04 at 19:34:12]FYI: the int rec settings were .5 sec every 15 sec.[/quote]

The camera keeps the heads spinning, and the tape tentioned for a while when you pause a recording. With an interval record every 15 seconds, it is doubtful that the heads ever stop spinning, or that the tape is untentioned.
 
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