Leaving tape in camera.. good or bad?
 

Ok, this may sound like a stupid question but I read somewhere in the manual that you should remove the tape from the camera when you are done using it. Well sometimes I forget.. ok, most of the time I forget.. and I put the camera back in its case with a tape still in it.

Is there an explanation (Canon forgot to say why) why the tape should be removed? I can understand if the camera isn't going to be used for a long period of time, but a few days or a week.. can that really do any damage?

-John

Being a newbie with very limited experience, I expect that I am risking being shot down in flames for this, but it seems like a possible answer to me....

Is it possible that when loaded in the camera the tape is exposed to the atmosphere (i.e. the tape cover lifts up while the tape is loaded) and more importantly to the recording/playing heads in the camera? This could lead to easy contamination of the tape or of the heads themselves if there is a possibilty of the tape touching them. Could be especially true for the heads if there is any ambient heat involved in the contact.

Just a thought....

Colin.

Tapes are very delicate things and it's not a good idea to leave them in the camera. Most of the time you probably wont have a problem. I've know tapes to get stuck in cameras, especially in hot weather.

Both of the above are valid considerations. The tape is best protected when rewound and in the cassette in its storage case, not mid tape and threaded through a camcorder mechanism. Long term sitting in the camcorder could subject the tape to cycles of changing temperatures, humidity, what ever dust is in the camcorder, and possible condensation cycles, none of which is especially good for tape and which could induce it to take a 'set,' stick to the mechanism, or even introduce particles of tape material into the camcorder mechanism in worst cases.

Also, there is always the very real risk of accidentally recording over material on a tape in the camcorder, especially if the camcorder has multiple users.

For short periods of time (hours or a few days) the risk is minimal, but for weeks, months, and beyond it is greater, potentially much greater. The decision boils down to the value of what is on the tape and the risk you can tolerate. If it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter.

In any case, most working shooters (as opposed to recreational home shooters) would probably remove the tape at the end of the day for editing, cataloging, or to go to the next shoot with a fresh tape for the next client.

I think it's a good practice to remove the tape when the camera is not in use, although a few days or even a week should not present a problem. In addition to what Don posts above, one of the real dangers over long periods of time is that there are some tiny, delicate little springs in the transport which can lose their tension if they're continuously stretched out from always having a tape loaded. That's the main culprit of transport failure.

Taking into consideration the last 2 posts, I'd like to add that the times when the tape had become stuck in the camera it was left in only for one night.

The cameras were in daily use shooting a soap opera in Africa, so obviously conditions were pretty dry and dusty. It may have been down to the harsh environment, but having had that experience I wouldn't leave a tape in a camera overnight.

Interesting comments.
 

Thanks for your responses.. they were very interesting. In case anyone is wondering.. I removed my tape from the camera. :)

-John

another good idea is the set the one custom key to "VCR STOP"

This is an interesting one. The only problem with removing a half used tape from the camera is that after that point the end search function no longer works, so it becomes tricky if you want to continue recording to the same timecode.

For this reason I leave my tapes in the camera.

Paul.

Just add few seconds of waste footage (e.g., the inside of the lens cap), and when you put the tape back in, be sure to queue up in this area to preserve continuous time code.

Or record a few seconds of color bars. This is a convenient way to find start and end points when shuttling through a tape.