Time for tape cleaning?
 

I have about 10 hours of use on my GL2 since it was factory cleaned. However, I've recently noticed maybe 3 or 4 frames that had mozaic noise (pixelated?). I only use Sony Excellence tapes so could this just mean a tape cleaning would be in order or is there something more sinister happening?
TIA,
Bob

I may be time for a cleaning, even though 10 hours is not very much running time. If it were my camera I'd wait a bit unless I expected to have something very important to shoot.

I have 8 tapes each used about 10 times. Never cleaned the heads. One of the tapes gaved me the mozaic noise after the first 2 or 3 uses, but just once. I have reused the tapes since then and is ok. So it was probably just something temporary, like condensation on heads or something.
I'd say try and reproduce the problem. If you know you've been in dusty places or done anything that could contaminate the heads, I'd say clean them.

Depending on the quality of the tape, it may be losing magnetic particles or stretching. This happens when you use tapes repeatedly.

tapes..
 

I've shot over a 1000 hours of video/tape on GL2s and have learned from experience to toss tapes used 4-5 times. The pixelization or 'banding' effect seems to be related to re-use and I've never had it occur on a new tape. actually, i shot now to both tape and hard-drive religiously.

If I'm on a "real" shoot, I'll only use brand new tapes. If it is just fun and family stuff, I'll use an old tape occasionally, but not often. I also try to only capture from it once or twice, but this isn't only for the preservation of the tape, but my cam which doubles as a deck.

I know... I know... I should copy to a master, and I should have a dedicated deck...

To be more specific, I always, always use new tapes for every pro shoot and it's always Sony Excellence tapes. And this camera is only used for business. That's what is bothering me about these mosaic frames popping up.
Bob

It may have been a flaw on the tape itself then... That happens. Occasionaly, there will be a dud.

I have been having problems with Sony Premium tapes lately such as dropped frames and vertical lines for about two seconds at a time. I have shot with nothing but Sony Premium the past three years on my GL1 and have not had problems like this until the last four months or so. Even after cleaning the heads the problem remains. I recently had to resort to buying a few Sony Premiums from Wal-Mart and I noticed the tapes have numbers and letters stamped on the spine where the lable goes whereas the tapes bought in bulk do not have these stampings. The Wal-Mart tapes have seemed to have the most problems with glitches, lines and dropped frames. Could this be a Sony problem? Are the tapes sold at Wal-Mart different than those bought in bulk? Bob, were have you been buying your tapes lately?

Thanks
Gary

Yeah, you might want to do a good head cleaning and then switch your brand of tapes. Sony tapes are known for problems like this. We used to use them and got tons of droputs and pixelation, we then swiched to Panasonic tapes and haven't had any problems since. I never trust Sony's consumer electronics or tapes for that matter.

BTW. Sony uses a wet lubricant on their tapes, and panasonic uses a dry lubricant, which is why you should do a good head cleaning before switching brands or you will just introduce more problems.

<<<-- Originally posted by Jason Casey : ...BTW. Sony uses a wet lubricant on their tapes, and panasonic uses a dry lubricant, which is why you should do a good head cleaning before switching brands or you will just introduce more problems. -->>>

Actually, Jason, that may no longer be true. We've seen credible reports that Sony is now using dry lubes as of 1997. Still, it's not a bad policy to stick with a single brand and clean when you (rarely) switch.

I just did another 5 minute test and got 1 pixelated frame and 1 dropout on a different Sony tape. Not happy with that so I've got a job tomorrow and I'll check the results before using the cleaner.

BTW, I buy several 5 packs at a time most recently from tapeandmedia.com.

The Sony cleaning tape says to run the cleaner for 10 seconds. Is that what you folks do?

Yes. Use cleaning tapes -exactly- as prescribed on their instructions.

Overuse of cleaning tapes can actually cause more harm than good so be careful of that.

Well, a final comment on my post. I covered a luncheon speech Thursday and captured the footage afterwards. I used a tape cleaner just to be safe before shooting. Reviewing the scenes, I still found several frames with noise. So, I tried recapturing the offending scenes on another drive and the mosaics disappeared. I defragged the HD and recaptured other bad frames. Again, they were gone. So the good news is that most of the noise was because of the fragmented HD I think. A bit of a relief.
Bob

On this same topic - my GL2 which has been used for approximately 7-8 hours of tape displayed a "HEADS DIRTY - NEED CLEANING" message briefly. However, it hasn't showed up again in about an hour of use, and there haven't been any dropped frames or glitches. Do I really need a cleaning so early in the camera's life, or was it just a false error?

It was probably a false alarm. We've seen previous reports of this phenomenon. There are various theories on it ranging from an aberrant sensor to residual manufacturing debris. Keep an eye on your footage (duh). If you're planning to do something important it wouldn't hurt to run a cleaner as a hedge.

<<<-- Originally posted by Jason Casey : Overuse of cleaning tapes can actually cause more harm than good so be careful of that. -->>>

I have a GL2 and have just finished shooting a 8-part short drama over the past 8 weekends. I ran my tape cleaner before each one of those shoots - are you saying that cleaning the heads before each shoot was too much and may cause damage? How frequent is too much?

"are you saying that cleaning the heads before each shoot was too much and may cause damage? How frequent is too much?"

Yes, it was probably too much although it probably didn't do any measurable harm. Generally, you only want to use a cleaner "every so often", or when you begin to notice evidence of contamination. There's no hard rule.

If you read enough tape threads here, and elsewhere, you're at risk of becoming obsessive and forming an irrational mental image that tape is a greasy, filthy thing. It's not. Just shoot.

Ken,
Few topics have been discussed more than using tape cleaners for camcorders. The GL2 manual is to brief but states that for best results, a tape cleaner should be used after every 20 hours of use. Also, it says to never use a wet-type cleaning cassette since it could cause damage. I've been using Sony's Premium or Excellence tapes and Mini DV head cleaner and I hope they're all compatible with the GL2.
Bob

Thanks for that excerpt, Bob. Twenty hours sounds a bit frequent but if that's what Canon says..

I heard an interesting remark from an authoritative source last year, who told me that relatively few owners of "higher-end consumer cameras" ever record more than 50 hours of material with them. The less-expensive daddy-cams apparently tend to get much more use.

I had a person give me some tapes that he used one time only in his line of work. Everyone of the tapes that I have used will tell me heads are dirty in the frist couple mins of using them. ,
So I'am 5 for 5 on once used tapes. Funny how it knows the tapes maybe have been used once before. Or just my run of the mill luck. I have 5 tapes left to try yet, taking bets on them!

Steve