does anyone know if fuji tapes are considered wet or dry tapes? in a pinch, could i use panasonic dry tapes w/out having to go thru the head cleaning ordeal?

mb4

Hi Michael,

I am not sure what you mean by "dry" or "wet", but here is an article that may be of help to you. It is about different brand MiniDV tapes and their respective qualities. It also mentions which cleaning processes are better than others.

Cheers,
Jack

Helps if I make th elink visible... LOL

http://www.dvfreak.com/tape.htm

Jack

Fuji miniDV tape is dry.

Hi Frank,

Just out of interest, what is the explanation of wet and dry tapes??

Thanx.
Jack

Hi Frank,

1. is there a list somewhere? how do you know if it is dry or wet?

2. Does it matter whether you use driy or wet on a GL2 as long as you do not switch back and forth?

Phil

Jack, the only thing I know is that most tapes use a dry lubricant while a few use a wet lubricant; and the 2 types of residue should never meet. There's probably more to this story. I presume the interaction of the different chemicals may also cause unwanted pleasantries: clogging, drop-outs, screwed-up video----even damage to the heads. The mixing of tape types/brands has been an ongoing saga for years on the camcorder forums.

I should also add that not all miniDV tape are created equally. Many people have reported head-clogging with some brands of tape, without mixing types/brands. I have also had this unfortunate experience with JVC tape. When I bought my first miniDV cam, a JVC, I figured, well, I might as well go with JVC tape. Ugh. What a mistake! The only JVC tape which hasn't yet given me a problem was a JVC miniDV head cleaner. The Panasonic cleaner which came with each of the MX3 cams wouldn't even work: "beep beep beeb," that's all I got. I just use Fuji now, never any problems.

The biggest no no in the earlier days of DV was DON'T MIX Sony and Pana tape in the cam. Now a days, you never know what's what with tapes. At least with Fuji tape, you always know what you get: great tape.

Regarding a list? There's a partial list on one of the links at:

http://www.dvfreak.com/tape.htm

(Hopefully the link is still active.)