Wet/Dry Tape List?
 

Does ANYONE have a definitive list of which brands of tape are wet or dry lubed??? I mean a "white paper" or a manufacturer's website that specifically lists which tape brands/stocks are wet and which are dry lubed?

I just spent an hour searching this forum and 2-pop, and collected a half a dozen conflicting postings.

"All panasonics are dry"
"Only the professional pannasonics are dry"
"All sony's are wet"
"Sony and Fujii are the same brand"
"All Fujii's are dry"

Get the picture

They're all dry - bar Sony

Graham,
Any "official" documentation to supliment this statement? I have received conflicting information from suppliers... so anything you can post would be appreciated. I am trying to avoid "definitive" statements with no supporting postings.

Thanks

No official source, sorry.

I learnt what I posted above from studying The Long Black Line.

There I encountered myriad conflicts of opinion about many tape related issues, including which brands were best and the significance of wet/dry.

I never encountered confusion with those two elements combined, i.e. which brands were wet and which were dry.

It seemed accepted that they're all dry bar Sony.

Graham,

On 2-pop - "Fuji tapes are made by sony, and hence the same tapes" This would imply they are wet.

From Zotz Digital "Only the Pannosonic PQ and MQ series are dry, the lower end tapes are wet" Hence their reccomendation to go with only the high end version.

To name a few conflicting statements.

Hence the search for a "white paper" or official standards paper, instead of "What I heard"...

Thanks again, I'll keep trying to sort it out.

Sure, good luck

I went straight to Panasonic to try and clear up this question, as well as some others, over a year ago. This was in reference to PQ vs MQ statements being made by retailers and consumers.

I Heard one thing from a rep, posted it online, caused a ruckus with my findings, was told the first guy was wrong, fielded calls/emails from various Panny reps for a couple of days (some helpful, some downright rude), but not once did I get a firm or clear, concise answer. I couldn't even get an apology for some of the incredible rudness I encountered...

Good luck finding an answer. And chances are I won't believe you even if you do... :)

Okay, is it some sort of proprietary trade secret issue, that they just don't want to reveal? Sure makes it hard on all of us poor geeks trying to do the right thing.

<<<-- Originally posted by Richard Alvarez : Okay, is it some sort of proprietary trade secret issue, that they just don't want to reveal? -->>>


Which would be fine, if they actually said that. My problem was that nobody gave me a straight answer, or at least, every answer I got contradicted each other. Is it so difficult a question that various representatives of a single company can't even give you remotely similar answers? Imagine if you got that kind of response when asking what size the CCDs were in a particular camera...

I've read horror stories about mixing wet and dry tapes, many other horror stories in the broader context of Mini DV, find it to be a very stable format and that the old 'sticking to one brand/type' rule seems to address many potential wet/dry fears: even if you don't know whether you're brand and tape is wet or dry, if you stick to it then at least you're not mixing...

Yet your concern Richard and possibly yours too John seem more intelligent and more deeply rooted.

Could you tell us a bit more about why you're concerned?

Graham,

The "Sticking to one lubricant" scenario, seems to be the only universal answer. Everyone seems to agree that you shouldn't change from one form to another.

In order to do that, it would help if I knew DEFINITIVELY that the lubrication does not change even WITHIN BRANDS.

I always thought that you should stick with a given brand first, and at least stay with the same lubricant (Wet or Dry) if you had to change brands. Recently, I was informed by Zotz digital, that a brand I always thought was dry (Fuji) was wet. They reccomended the Panny MQ tapes with my new XL2. I bought the panny tapes, but while shooting a doc recently, ran out of the ten tapes I had, and couldn't find Panny MQ tapes anywhere... so I bought the lower priced panny tapes... assuming the lubricant was the same.

Zotz informed me that the lower priced tapes were NOT dry lubed, and thus... my querry begins.


Now then, I had hesitated to bring up the reason for my querry, because I didn't want to engage in an endless round of "But so-and-so told me differently". I am, at this point, interested in some form of WHITE PAPER or Technical analysis or perhaps brand comparison grid, that will simply list tape lubricants by brand and model.

Will ADAM WILT weigh in on this??? I'd listen to anything he had to say.

Just had a look at Panasonic site - AY-DVM63MQ, AY-DVM83MQ Mini DV tapes are dry lubricant alright, says so here:

ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/pub/Panasoni...ter%20Tape.pdf

...but it won't give lubricant details for the regular Mini DV tapes. Damn. I always thought Panasonic were all dry though..

Graham,

Yeah, it was the comment from Zotz, about the lower brands not being dry, that got me to wondering if the wet/dry difference varied WITHIN a brand...

I have a whole box of Fuji's that I am not using because someone told me they were wet, after someone else told me they were dry...

The search goes on.

Just ordered my XL2 which is to be delivered Tuesday. I only used Fujis with my former XL1s. I did have a problem with lost recordings and interlaced footage, read here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=22063

From the resolution, I don't think it was a tape problem, but rather a manufacturing defect, but none-the-less I'm a little bothered by Zotz's recommendation. Should I switch from Fuji to Panasonics?

What is everybody else using with their XL2s? From extensive reading before purchasing my XL1s last year, I came to the conclusion that most people with problems were using Sonys and Panasonic tapes, where many people swore by Fuji. Problems may be relative to more people using the Sonys and Pannys though.

Kevin

My understandiing is that the only dry tapes are
the Panny MQs. The PQs and Sony and Fuji are
wet.