If i am recording by the good old tape method in HD. Do you recommend i just use the standard mini dv tapes or is it better to pay the extra for the HD tapes? is this just a gimmick to make you pay more? isnt the data rate the same on either tapes?

Also i was told you should never use different brands as the gunk build up affects the heads, is this true? and what tape brand do you guys/gals use?

cheers.\\

A.

I was initially buying the Sony HDV specific tapes, but at that price? Oh good grief! $15+ per tape. I should have been committed. I recently tried the regular Sony DV tapes and you know, they work just as well as the ones that are 5x the cost. Not a single drop out yet. I think the general consensus is that they work just as fine as the more expensive tapes.

There is something to mixing different brands. Some use a dry lubricant and others use a wet lubricant. You can swap between them, just use your head cleaner between the different tapes and you should be just fine.

-Steve

If the (very) small chance of any failure is a problem for you, you need a backup. Buying the more expensive tape won't significantly reduce the chance of things screwing up (i.e. camera breaking down, etc. etc.).

If you can live with the chances of things screwing up, then buy the cheaper tape as there's no evidence the more expensive tape will reduce your risk.

2- Buy more tape than you need... this reduces the chance you run out of tape. They are like $3USD/tape if you shop around.

An old thread, but I will revive it with some recent experience. I have always used Fijifilm tapes at < $3 from one of our sponsors. With a great track record, I decided I would use them in my new HDR-HC7. That has been pretty much a bad choice. My best example was the 6 or 7th tape I just ran (I have only logged the 1st and the last). In 13 minutes of video, I had at least 7 dropouts and TC breaks. I watched some of my waterhousing footage after I shoot it and it looks like it has issues too.

I just ran 31 minutes with a Sony HDV tape last night in a helmet cam. No problems at all.

While this is not proof positive, I sure am less of a skeptic about using the Sony tapes. Or least I do believe Sony has finally figured out to make sure their products work best together.

few weeks ago when i received HV20 i tried the panasonic Master Q series ( $8)
1st tape had serveral drop outs .. 2nd tape ? in middle of tape it would record for serveral seconds then stop - then record for serveral seconds -stop ..
switched to the cheaper panasonic's (linear plus at $3) and no problem for the past 4 tapes

The anecdotal stories have legs. I personally don't care about mixing tapes( which I do ) nor would I buy into the high definition model. These tapes, regular miniDV can do the job of HDV recording. Paying $ 8 to $ 15 per tape is insane. Of course for the pros, this is included in the fee structure that they charge.

The anecdotal stories have legs. I personally don't care about mixing tapes( which I do ) nor would I buy into the high definition model. These tapes, regular miniDV can do the job of HDV recording. Paying $ 8 to $ 15 per tape is insane. Of course for the pros, this is included in the fee structure that they charge.
I have 3 Fuji tapes with significant, frequent dropouts. I have not had a dropout in more than 12 tapes now filming in extreme conditions with the Sony HD tapes. You can believe what you want as I did using DV equipment (where those same Fuji tapes were rock solid in my VX2100.) I now will not use anything but those $8.33 tapes as it is just too painful to reshoot.

Fuji and TDK have been flawless for me. Of course, as I said, if you have big projects against deadlines, then you ought to go with what you feel most comfortable with. So far my hi def edits have been without any hiccups with these tapes.

I use the Panasonic Pros--have used those for years. Drop-outs can happen on any camera, SD or HD, especially if your heads are dirty. Every once in a while a tape will lose a frame, but it's not real common (and generally does not happen if I clean my camera every 20 hours or so). On my last multi-camera shoot, one camera lost a couple frames on one tape--the other two cameras were fine.

I've never seen a technical explanation of why HDV mini-DV tapes are better than regular mini-DV tapes. As far as I can tell, there's no difference other than marketing hype.

I usually use my Firestore, anyhow, with tape as a backup. Only wish is that V1 (or any other camera) could switch from tape + FS to FS only without a break in recording....

Just my opinion--I don't feel there's any technical reason to switch from my Panasonics to some HDV tape that is 3x as much and does the exact same job....

ciao,
Matt

It's these hard drives that is making me uneasy- Compared to tapes hard drives are less stable