Hi everyone. I'm new here, and I was wondering if anyone here could give me a hand.

I was wondering, which mini DV tapes record best with a Canon GL2? I bought a large supply of Sony Premiums (red/black packaging), but they seem to glitch a lot. When I say "glitch," I'm talking about the digital wave that covers the shot for a couple of seconds. They seem to occur 2 to 5 times on every given tape.

This has been frustrating, as you can imagine, because sometimes the tape glitches are in vital places in a shoot. (For example, we shot one scene in a film 17 times because we couldn't get it right, only to find out later that the one perfect take had been covered by a tape glitch.)

Does Canon recommend a certain tape brand? Does anyone know of tapes that glitch less?

Thanks so much for reading this. I really appreciate your help and look forward to posting with you all in the future. Thanks again!

Jolie

Search for MiniDV tapes and you find many results, suggestions, and opinions. As for the glitching, how old is your camera? Do you also use it as a Deck? The heads may just be dirty and need a cleaning. As for tapes, Panasonic DVM63PQ or DVM83PQ. Also, I know that prosumer heads are very particular to the types of tapes used - make sure you are being consistent with the tapes you use.

Clay

I'm not an expert, but this problem not seem to be related to the tape used (by the way, Sony premiums are usually great and reliable tapes). Is thoses tapes are brand new?

If yes, I'd suspect an head problem. Perhaps you sould try to clean your heads with a cleaning cassette?

Welcome Jolie!
If my imagination coincides with the "wave" that you mention, my money is on a tape alignment / head alignment issue. Running a cleaning cassette will certainly not hurt but I doubt that it will help, either. You could also try switching to different brand, or higher grade, of tape right after the cleaning. (I am assuming that you are not re-using tapes.)

If none of those tricks solve the problem, I'm afraid it's off to Canon Service.

Here we go again . . . . A new user, a tape problem . . when is the penny going to drop with all of us? . . Tape & head aligment on a new cammie? . . . To quote my favourite Wilde play, "To loose one parent is unfortunate . . . . "

How many people have we heard having this happen?

Okay Ken, you can send the boys round ! - Still love my XM2 . . Especially as it has just returned from the "Canon Garage" . . .

Grazie

I believe the red and black packaging are old stock. I use the sony premiums, which are packaged in blue wrapping. Not sure if old tapes would effect your footage.

I switched to Sony Excellence tapes and have been experiencing fewer dropouts. Worst dropouts always seemed to be during the last minute or so of tape even when cameras were new. I know I shoudn't be recording there but sometimes you have no choice.

Thanks everyone, for your ideas. I really appreciate the replies.

About the cleaning tape, I've tried running that through. It hasn't seemed to help, unfortunately.

I received the camara last January, so it's almost a year old. To tell you the truth, I'm a little frustrated with Canon. The camera broke a few months after purchasing it (it wouldn't rewind or fastforward, etc.), so I had to send it to the shop. They fixed it for free and sent it back, but they forgot to connect the sound recording device back up, so it didn't record any sound. Back to the shop it went!

This all put me behind shooting schedule, and I dread sending it back to them. (In addition, I'm a college student and all that postage gets a little pricey.)

Maybe I'll try a different tape brand. You say it's good to be consistent with a tape? Hmmm . . . that's good to know.

Thanks again, everyone. I guess I'll buy a different type of tape and see if the problem persists.

Jolie,
We are just speculating, so it would be good to know what you come up with, if the different tape helps, or if the heads are out of alignment. Good luck, and I hope for your sake it is a simple problem.

Clay