I am concerned that the reuse of my mini DV camcorder to playback into my computer for editing is putting too much time on the heads of the camera. I thought of just buying a cheap mini dv camcorder to use as playback, but I am concerned that the quality(video and audio - Church services) won't be as good as the original.

Has anyone got an idea to do this at a reasonable price? When I look at the mini dv players, they are in the $1500-3000 range.

Thanks for any ideas.

Chris Barnes

Chris,
I can assure that there will be NO loss in video or audio. The tape information consist of only digital data information (1 and 0). As long as the original recording was ok without any dropouts etc. you'll be fine!

The "quality" of the deck used for transfering the data to PC does not matter, as long as it works, it is digital copying, not a record player or similar analog thing. As long as the heads are clean and there are no dropouts all decks and cams are equal in quality (perfect, actually, what comes to reading tapes...).

I am not all that concerned about usring the same cam for transfers (capturing some people like to call it), the heads last for several thousands of hours, I think you'll move on to the next generation of cameras before the present one wears out. Besides head replacement is cheaper than a cheap cam.

Thank you for your assurance. My camera is not that great of a camera (Panasonic DV-60), but it was a considerable amount to me and I don't want to be in a maintenance mode very often.

Thanks again,

Chris

I Googled for Panasonic DV-60, it looks like it's not a camcorder but a tape model. What exactly is the camera you're trying to protect? Unless it's something in excess of a couple thousand dollars, it's not worth the investment. Think about the dangers you're exposing your tape to when running it in a cheap tape transport mechanism.

I work with a few Sony Z1Us and never even considered buying an additional camera for transfers - both transport mechanisms and video heads last thousands of hours nowadays. If you work mostly in a church environment (like I am), consider using a laptop and capturing directly to hard drive without even using tape at all.