MiniDV tape
 

I´v tried to find a test for miniDV tapes but couldn´t find any.
Can anybody tell me wich tape makes the best quality?
I just bought 50 Panasonic MasterQuality tapes (Panasonic AY-DVM63MQ)
They got to be good! Just want the best for my XL2
Thank You
Per Oellgaard

DV Tape
 

Panasonic has come out with a new ADVANCED DV Tape AMQ 63.
They say it's better but I haven't had a chance to try it out.
PS
It's a lot more expensive.

I'm not saying that there are no differences in tapes at all. But bear in mind that large companies have teams of people who went to college and majored in a thing called marketing. They are not to be trifled with--they've figured out how to get us to pay $1.50 for a pint of ordinary water.

It's well known that the psychology of the buying public is such that there are segments of it that WANT to pay more and get the sense that they've put themselves ahead of the pack, or that they've spared no expense for their passion, or that Grandpa is smiling in Heaven because they are heeding his advice that you get what you pay for. And it's well known that this psychology was exploited in the past with "grades" of VHS tape.

is the difference really that significant depending on the type of DV tape you use?

what I have seen
 

I have been using miniDV from Maxell, I am not sure if it would make a difference but I saw some of my footage on a Pioneer Elite HD plasma and it looked good. Maxell could be junk but the quality looked good to me.

Kipp, the quality of the DV tapes will not affect how the image looks, since it is a digital signal. In theory, higher quality tapes should offer a lower probability of drop-outs, and a longer shelf-life. Whether the incidence of dropouts is different between low-grade and high-grade tapes remains to be seen (at least for me). I've used about 50 of the cheaper Panasonic tapes with my GL2 since March, and never got a single drop-out.

I agree with Fred that it's more about marketing that anything else. I believe that drop-outs, if they occur, would be due to the equipment itself rather than the quality of the tapes (unless damaged). Maybe I've just been lucky so far, but I just don't see a reason for upgrading. It's like when a store-cleck tried to convince me to pay four times as much for optical and coaxial cables carrying my digital sound: as if digital drop-outs were going to occur over a 3-foot long cable...

Yes I agree... as far as miniDV goes, image quality isn't (or shouldn't be) effected by the tape, because after all, in the end it's just ones and zeros to the camera and computer.

This is one of the things I've loved about DV -- not having to worry using just the right tape to get the image to look as good as it can.

Thank You all for the answers.
I don´t have to worry about my Master Quality tapes. They could have been cheeper, but what the ....
Per Oellgaard

I might be wrong but I believe one of the other reasons to buy better quality master tapes is for the cassette mechanism itself that holds the tape being more robust. Seems if you are spending $500 on a shoot or more paying $3 more for a tape with enhanced reliability and longevity is worth it.... on the other hand, if tape constitute a major portion of your expenses on a given shoot then perhaps the standard consumer ones are just fine. Mark