I have an early "A" version of the HD100. The drop out issue has plagued me since day one, it finally reached the point where the camera became unusable. The last time I used my camera I got this annoying "Clean Tape Head!" warning flashing on the LCD, not to mention more dropouts than a Bible Study group at San Quintin Prison. So I took the camera to a local technician, he said there was a lot of dust on the Drum but allegedly in a spot that tape head cleaning tapes don't contact. So I'm holding my breath that it's gonna work. It's only a minor disassembly of the tape door, so it's not an expensive fix.

thanks for the tip..

what kind of tapes do you use?

I have the least drop outs from the premium Sony HDV tapes and
I used the JVC PROHD tapes only initially, but they had lots of
dropouts all the time.

I suppose being a in a dusty environment would not help either way though.

I get many drop outs (using PRO tape only) but interestingly they are never recorded on tape. They mostly come from the deck.

Brian- are the dropouts recorded or do they just show up when digitizing?

UPDATE:
Dropouts gone. For now at least. The tech said, again, that it was the drum, not the head itself and that it was extremely dusty. For the life of me, I can't figure out how it got that way.

The dropouts occurred on playback, in the NLE, everywhere.

The tech said that playing the old tapes that have dropouts will probably trigger the "CLEAN HEAD!" warning, but as long as the tape was fresh, shouldn't be an issue.

I have stuck with Panasonic from day one. I've used every flavor recommended here and the dropouts were relentless--like a dog in heat.

Despite my camera's rebirth, I still ordered a Firestore 60 gig from Band H. Only 700 bucks now.