I dont have a separate deck and for now I use my camera to load my footage. I know that you should stick to one brand of tape for recording because of the different lubricants on the tapes. DOes the same hold true for simply playing back differnt brands of tapes in the camera. I usually use the Canon Master Tapes but have some Panasonic tapes that I need to view using the camera. WIll doing htis require me to clean the heads afterwards or does just playing the tape engage a differnt part of the camera than recording?

Kevin - there's no difference in playing or recording tapes - either in LP, SP, DVCAM or HDV - the deck mechanism works in exactly the same way. You can use a cleaning tape in record or replay - it matters not a jot.

It's been some years since Sony had to change their tape lubricants so as not to conflict with all the other manufacturers, but even so I'd be tempted to say 'stick to one brand' or at least run the head cleaner for a few seconds between different tapes just to be on the safe side.

tom.