Another conspiracy of immense proportion and one that's been long out of hand concerns miniDV tape lubricant. The tape manufacturers devised the evil plan to hook. line and sinker suckers right from the start. Each brand and each tape model within each brand have a distinct lubricant which interacts and causes gumming when an alien tape slides into the cam. It all begins when one of the flock buys a cam with the free 30 minute tape inside. He pops it in, and everything works just fine...for 30 minutes. Oops! Time to buy more tape. Oh, this one's cheaper. So he buys the cheaper brand or brand model---happier than a hog on a roll. He puts it in, presses record, and horror! All he gets is crackling and broken mosaic-like footage! Baaa! He panics! He posts frantically on every forum he can find! He can't sleep! Then finally the lamb concedes and goes to buy more tape, different tape, the kind that originally came with the cam. That's what I believe. :-))

I was just at Henry's the guy there was saying he was a tech for 2 years and rarely saw it and said it was an overblown rumour.
This guy wanted to sell me any tape.

So the lamb forked over his $17 for 2 good pana tapes and free pana head cleaner. Now are you saying that the evil tapes will gum the sony? I have no idea what tapes this cam is used to. Maybe I should stick to Sony. My own gums need work first.

I just went through that and have a 2nd visit coming up. They even gave me a free toothbrush but for gums. I think I'll just stick with Fuji; and it's true, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. :-))