TDK and Sony
 

Hello.

About mixing brands: I always use Sony Premium with my Sony cams, but was recently forced to use a different kind, TDK. What's the word? Are these more or less comparable brands? Should I use a head cleaner? Should I be at all concerned? Thanks for your input.

I would always use a head cleaner before using a different brand, just to play it safe. It doesn't take much time or effort, and why take chances?

Yes, alright, I'll go with that.

I was almost in a similar situation a few weeks ago. I was shooting segments for a doc, and the producer asked what tape to get. I told him, "to avoid any problems to my equipment or footage, I have only used Panasonic tapes, and won't mix".

Days before the shoot, I get the e-mail saying he tried Circuit City, and they didn't carry them. So he grabbed whatever tapes he could find, while I went to EVS, and had them overnight some Panny tapes to me. I charged him $8 per tape, which is what they cost me with shipping.

Better than risking drop outs and gummed heads.

WARNING: What I´m about to post is just my subjective opinion.

I think TDK and Sony Tapes might be made by the same factory or use the same kind of lubricants.
Why do I think this?

1. - In the Film School I attended we were given the tapes for the shootings we did, and they will give us TDK and SONY (cheapest tape around here).

According to the tech guy on the School, they never had dirty heads or drop outs due to mixing brands of tapes..
And since I only saw SOnys and TDKs (maybe a few maxells once)it makes me think they might be "lubricant compatible".

2. - I´ve allways used Sony Premium, but during a Concert, we ran out of tape and I had to use a TDK. Then I went back to Sony without cleaning the heads.
I haven´t had a single drop out in about 10 hours of shooting after the "TDK Incident".

All very interesting. I'm wanting to keep the head cleaning to a minimum, and so am happy to hear about the possibility of what Fed has to say, but maybe I'll go ahead with it, while continuing to gather info on "lube compatibility". I used two full TDK tapes per cam, so the risk was perhaps not great?

I'll repeat what I said in another thread. In 10 years plus of previous broadcast work using 1" machines, we cleaned out heads a few times every day and used whatever tapes we had. I had never heard of this mixing tapes problem till now.

Someone posted a link to TDK where they, too, said they had no evidence that this problem exists.