Sorry, I didn't have the info complete--it's the AMQ I was referring to for 9 bucks--Advanced Master Quality. B&H has them for about that or a little less, and also Zotz Digital is, I think, $8.50 Brian at Zotz Digital highly recommends the AMQ and says with all the Canon H1s he's sold, and now A1s, there have been almost zero problems. The only dropouts he says he's seen are from people out shooting in the wild with blowing dust and stuff, and they change tape under dirty condtions. That fits with what I've seen too with miniDV tapes--the only dropouts I've seen have come from people who practice the opposite of good tape handling.

Brian also said the Panasonic PQ, MQ and AMQ all have the same graphite coating, so if you have been using one and want to covert to another, there shouldn't be any head clog issues. Stick with the graphite coatings, he recommended. Even at around 9 bucks, the AMQ is still significantly cheaper than what we spend on Sony mini DVCAM tapes. They were $12-$13 last time I looked.