What ever you decide, deffinately stick with one brand.

You might also want to check out my post from earlier.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...&threadid=6072

-Nori

The cheapie Panasonics are $3 at protape.

videotape brand recommendations
 

What is the brand of miniDV tape that is recommended to be used with the Canon XL1?

If you ask Canon, they will tell you that Canon miniDV tape is recommended.

I don't think it matters on what brand. Just pick a good one. My vote goes to Fuji.

Basic advice is to stick to one brand. I use Panasonic. Try using the search link and you will find a ton of posts on this subject with some pretty good discussions too.

I haven't any problems with any brands except JVC. What ever brand you decide to go with, try to stay with only that brand.

Read more about my experience with JVC here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...&threadid=6072

-Nori

I've used Sony for years and never had any problems. Seem pretty tolerant to different climates I've ran them in.

Most here seem to go for Panansonic, but never tried them myself, as I've used Sony - recommendations are you dont change, so guess I'll just stick to Sony.

I too have had nothing but problems with JVC, on my personal cams---in fact, with all the JVC tape I used, and big time problems; and I see that Nori is also from British Columbia. Perhaps JVC dumps ship loads of defective tape regularly at the Vancouver port.

http://www.dvfreak.com/tape.htm

Sony

Hollands largest broadcaster NOB" told "me to use sony dvcam pdvm-40n, expensive, but cheaper then a reshoot, this because of no dropouts, no compatibility problems, prof case etc. I never had a problem with these.

For me Sony has worked the best, I started working with Panasonic but the quality of the tape was not good enough for the tropics, Sony made something like tropic proof tapes, I have tapes as old as four years and you wont see a stain of mold on them... panasonic on the other hand...

I can guarantee you that mold-resistance is an attribute that we've never considered here before.

Does it help to store tapes and other sensitive materials in waterproof cases with a bag of silica gel dessicant?

I have nearly always used Sony tapes and find that they work great. Also I too have found them good at mold resistance in Mexico. I have used some Maxel ones but some have shown parts of distortion - the jagged edge type bands that go across. You all know what I mean. Even though I only record on a tape just once and only use it for playback during editing. So thats just problems occurred from playback or during recording. So I just stick with Sony now.

I know some people use the same tape twice or a few times for recording - recording over previous footage. But never having done that I wouldn't know what the tapes record like or if there are signs of 'wear' or slight quality deteriation.

Difference between DV tapes
 

Hi,

I am a relatively new owner of a Canon XL1s.

So far I have only used JVC professional mini DV tapes.

I felt it was important to stick with the same brand of tape.

The store that I usually purchase the tapes has run out of the JVCs.

They tell me the are only two manufacturers of mini DV tapes these being Panasonic and Soney.

Apparently Panasonic makes the JVC tapes as well as other brands. Therefore they are saying there is no difference between the JVC tapes and the Panasonic tapes. They indicated that I might run into a problem with Soney tapes if I did not run a cleaning tape first.

Does anyone have any comment on this tape issue.

My gut feel was that I should stick with the brand I started with but this could be due to my lack of understanding

Thanks for any help you could give me

Regards

Hello Peter,
It is really refreshing to hear of a store passing along good information. We so often hear of stores passing along voodoo and other rubbish to their customers. Sounds like you have a good store!

I think there are actually at least a couple of other tape manufacturers (TDK and Maxell coming to mind), but Panasonic and Sony are, indeed, the primaries. I think Panasonic does, indeed, manufacture JVC-branded tapes.

And, yes, our motto here is "Pick 'n Stick". Woe be ye who doth switch brands without first performing the sacred cleaner tape rutual. For he doth invoke the wrath of the dreaded Head Clogger Demon.

Sony and Panasonic make excellent quality tape and either will be yummy as a steady diet for your new XL1s.

Do a Search here and you'll find hundreds of posts concerning tape, as it's one of our most frequent topics.

Bon Appetite!