Common knowledge is that there is a thin film of lubricant on the surface of miniDV tapes and each manufacturer uses a different type of lubricant. I heard that switching tape brands (using sony for one shoot then switching to panasonic for the next) can cause the lubricants, that unavoidably build up on the recorder head, to mix and screw up your recorder head. Obviously you can use a cleaning tape to clean it but do you know if this "lubricant build-up" story is true or false, even if you dont know... what are your opinions?

This is true. It can glob up your heads (they should not really be damaged
by this or anything) and this can destroy recordings or pose troubles with
reading tapes. It is always good to use a head cleanin tape before switching
tape types/brands. Try to keep this to a minimum! If you often need to
capture different tapes a seperate camera or DV deck might be an option.

What Brand do most of you use?

Choice of brand does not matter so much as not switching brands.

I use Panasonic PQ and MQ series but a lot of my friends use Sony Premiums.

I use panasonic. I know they are all basically the same but i trust Panasonic and TDK the most.

I have been using the TDK tapes in all 3 of my Canons without a single incidence of tape drop out. Like Chris says, pick a brand and try to stay with it.

-gb-