loss of quality using miniDV tapes?
 

I have been using sony premium mini-dv tapes (sony blues) since i bought the camera, and I feel like I might be losing some quality by not using HDV tapes. Now this is probably just me overestimating the camera, but the footage i'm capturing doesn't look as crisp as I would expect. I'm going to do a test this weekend, but in the meantime do any of you have any experience with this?

Hello Jeff!

As I'm sure it's been debated over and over here at dvinfo,when it comes to digital camcorders, the medium you use has absolutely NO effect on the quality of your footage... the information is recorded to tape as digital data, and everytime you read it, it'll be exactly the same.
*Nevertheless*, my personal advice/opinion, based on my experience, is that with the Digital Master tapes, there's less chance of failure when recording the data. For any paid job, I'm now using, eexclusively, those tapes...not for quality, but for reliability. Of course you're gonna hear from hundreds of people saying they've never had any issues with the lower grade tapes, and that's great...but I did.

Funny you should say that...
http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=124468

That's right Jeff, the pictures and sounds are all the same, whether you record in SP, LP, DVCAM, HDV or CF. Digits are digits, and if you could record onto magnetic toilet paper the results would be just as good.

Posh tapes might give you fewer dropouts, they might last longer, they might look prettier. These are all mights.

tom.

thanks guys,
another thing, i know the whole thing about mixing and matching tapes ruins heads, but if i stay with sony brand but use different sony tapes, is this going to be an issue that anybody knows about? or is the lubrication the same for all sony brand tapes?

Yes, Premium, Excellence, HDV and so on - all with the Sony name are fine in your camcorder.

oh, now there i was thinking hdv tapes (at their premium price point) not only gave me richer colours, but also sharper focus.

damn, does that mean i have to start worrying about exposure and focus?

leslie

absolutely not. just put it all on AUTO...

heh.

tried that, but it STILL doesn't look like 35mm film. Are there any MORE expensive tapes i can try?

oi vey

Haha... yea.. the only thing with those more expensive tapes is that they are higher quality, less prone to drop-outs (supposedly)

But I've been buying the cheapest Sony tapes I can find, the only ones that got dropouts were when I was outdoors and dropped them (most likely getting dust in there)

That and the occasional dropout, but I'd say maybe ~25 dropouts for 75 hours of tapes... not bad... :)