Too late to switch tapes?
 

I've used 4 Sony "wet" tapes and wish to switch to Panasonic which happen to be "dry" tapes. Does anyone know if it's harmless to switch now or should I stick with these?

I don't have the answer to this question, but I would like to ask a similar question. I just got my HV20, and I used about 12 minutes worth of Sony tape, but now I want to switch to a Panny tape for the rest of my shooting. Would this spell trouble for me as well.

Have I missed somthing, what is the problem with Sonys tapes.. "wet" ? I go with the Sony premium tapes now..

There could be a problem with mixing wet and dry tapes, we're trying to find out how much mixing is bad mixing.

Does Sony still use wet lubricant? I still stay away from Sony tapes but I hear its a "wives tale" now. The old rule of thumb if you used "wet" tapes is to use a head cleaner on it before switching to dry.

In the old days (5-6 years ago) Sony used a different kind of tape lubricant that is known as "wet". When it moves through the tape mechanism of your camera/deck it can leave a residue which by itself is not really harmful. However if you put a different brand of tape in that used a different lubricant formulation (mostly dry) the two chemicals could react to each other and essentially coagulate and gunk up your tape drive and heads. This wreaked havoc on the XL1s I was using at the time. Also caused problems with the Sony GVD700 mini-vcr. This role can be reveresed where dry tapes leave residue on your tape mechanism and the introduction of a "wet" lube tape will gunk it up. Either way it can get mucked up.

Over the years I have switched to Panasonic Professional quality. I have on occassion, used Maxell tapes bought from Sams Club when in a pinch. I read years ago that they were certified as being "dry" so I figured they are relatively safe and I have had decent luck with them. Who knows for sure.

What is the reason for the desire to switch guys... Have you encountered problems with the Sony tapes?

I am switching because I found out that I could use MiniDV master tapes to record HDV. I already own 51 unopened Pannny master MiniDV tapes, but I tested the camera out using those expensive Sony HDV mini DV tapes already. That's why I am switching.

Thanks Glenn, understood. :)

I'm in the same boat as Glenn... Used the extraordinarily expensive Sony HDV tapes to try out the HV20 because I felt safer spending more money on the "best" at first but now I'm plenty comfortable not spending so much more than what is really necessary. $16 per tape vs. $2.24 per tape, times 100 tapes over a couple years. Do the math. For that I can settle for an occasional drop out, already had one with the expensive tapes anyways (just in playback).

From what I've read, running a nice headcleaning tape through once (or twice even) should make it "safe" to switch. I use the Panny PQs myself.

I'm not sure I would run the headcleaner all the way through once (much less twice), though I don't know what kind of cleaning tape you're using. I checked the HV20 manual today on this issue and there wasn't any mention of how to use the tape. But my Panasonic DVX100 manual warned against running the cleaning tape too much. It suggested 10 seconds at a time for not more than 4 times (40 sec total). My understanding is the cleaning tapes are abrasive and should not be used more than necessary.

Use Panasonic head cleaning tape, a couple of minutes' run, one time only through a camera before bringing it into my workflow (either from someone else's flow or from new).
Switched a long time ago to Panasonic PQ and use it, one pass only, for all the various SD and HDV cameras I use.
No problems at all thus far. Made the tape choice because I was using the cheaper Panny brand (I was on DVXs at the time) and then a load of feature films came into the shop using PQ brand. When I ran out of the cheaper tape I switched my own cameras over to PQ - it was just easier that way.
Still is. Not too cheap, not too expensive. Pro quality tapes, zero dropouts, no complaints.

I was going to go with the Panasonic consumer tapes but according to the input here and another related thread, it seems that the consensus is that you just can't go wrong with the Panasonic PQ and so that's what I'm going with. I will also get a Panasonic head cleaner as suggested for going with the new brand. Thanks for the help everyone.

If i use wet Sony premium tapes, and want to clean the head, the cleaning cassette also must have a "wet" type?
In local store there is only dry type cleaning cassette.

thx,
Marton