and getting good results w/ few , if any dropouts. Could we have a little poll ? thanks - Kurth

I'm using Sony Premium tape only with no problems. It was the first tape in the camera and I'm sticking with them.

Robin

I won't use the cheap stuff. The good stuff is very affordable, saving $2-5 bucks isn't worth it IMHO. Compared to D1, Digibeta, HDCam, etc...these tapes are just so cheap, so get the best....unless your footage isn't worth it LOL!!

Sean - it looks to me like more of a $10 difference though. Over at cow , there's a thread running with the opposite theme- that people are getting good results using $3 tapes . Now is this just a Sony marketing ploy or is it about that 1/25th of 1% that might get lost. Maybe I could live with that - I'd like to know that's an option anyway. I mean if your shooting a narrative piece that depends on the momentary, never repeatable effort of many people - then obviously go for the best tape but if more casual efforts could get by on less , then that possiblity should be explored . thanks- Kurh

Kurth, your reasoning is perfectly sound, except for one unknown factor -- the Cow article is talking about the new Sony tapes as having an incompatible lubricant, a repeat of 1996/1997 all over again.

Whether their facts are accurate or not remains to be determined, but the gist of the DVDoctor article is that if you mix the new Sony HDV tape with any other DV tape, you get clogged heads and gunk. So if you were to go with the high-quality HDV tapes, you may have to stay committed to them, and if you go with regular DV tapes, you may not really have the option to go to the high-quality stuff.

But that, to me, is unproven as of yet. It's just a summary of what the DVDoctor article is saying, which is the subject of the thread over at the cow.

I have ran 30 tapes through it, (non Sony, they use a wet lubricant, which means once you use Sony, you have to stick with it) not one dropped frame from el cheapo tapes (JVC $3.95)



Mike

Shannon < -- cheap $3 sony excellence.

Hi, Kurth
I havn't had any trouble as long as I use sony tapes in my Z1.
I have used Sony excelence with just a few dropouts and Sony digital master tapes with no dropouts. I have decided to use digital master tapes.
I did have problems when I used my panasonic tapes in my Z1
I have had many tell me to not mix brands. I did learn a lesson that I won't repeat.

It was only yesterday that I found a place selling the HDV tapes in the UK. I have been using the Sony Premium, like RDR. There is a £10 difference between each tape cost and at up to 10 tapes per event, that is a big difference in cost at my price level. At that rate it is cheaper to buy a direct-to-disk-solution or use a backup cam.

Murph <<---- Sony Excellence too. Best tape just shy of DigitalMaster

I'm using TDK bulk from costco. I have 40 hours of footage shot and captured this way. I have about one dropout per 2 tapes, but I find that if I play over the dropout again it isn't ever there twice. So in that respect I haven't had any dropouts.
Thanks,
Eric James

Can everyone tell me where they buy tape? I'm looking to buy some and I wonder where the cheapest is?

I have used www.taperesources.com until now - and of course B&H!

I'm using Sony Premium, 4€ each. On the first five tapes I used there were about 3 dropouts while playback, and they all went away after rewinding. So after some 25 tapes, I have no permanent dropouts on any of them.

Im using Panasonic PQ and MQ tapes. Not one dropout......

<<<-- Originally posted by Robin Davies-Rollinson : I'm using Sony Premium tape only with no problems. It was the first tape in the camera and I'm sticking with them.

Robin -->>>

as i am too...

j

I was told that the drum head on the Z1 contours to the tape you use and that you should stay with the same tape. No particular kind, but just don't switch tape types.

anyone tried using sony DVCAM tapes - PDVM-40N - we have a heap of them and I'm not sure whether to use them or not