Is there a difference in clarity in dry tapes for the xl-2 ?i'm going to stick with dry tapes and was wondering if there is a clarity difference looking at tdk, maxell or sony as per canon tech service. Buying xl-2 tomorrow and was wondering about the dry tapes. Wanted to get opinions before i stick to one tape. Thanks. Tom

Hi Thomas, and welcome to DVinfo! The tape brand has nothing to do with "clarity" of the video. Remember, we are dealing with digital data - the camera is essentially just writing ones and zeros on the tape.

The wet vs dry concern is centered around problems with "gunk" clogging your recording heads and mechanisms. If there is a tape related recording problem it's manifested as "dropouts" which are data errors that result big blocky patterns when they occur.

Good luck with the new camera!

thanks for the info, i've been doing a lot of research and the more i read ( in some cases) the more i second guess myself, Thanks for your input.Tom

Hi Thomas, and welcome to DVinfo! The tape brand has nothing to do with "clarity" of the video. Remember, we are dealing with digital data - the camera is essentially just writing ones and zeros on the tape.

The wet vs dry concern is centered around problems with "gunk" clogging your recording heads and mechanisms. If there is a tape related recording problem it's manifested as "dropouts" which are data errors that result big blocky patterns when they occur.

Good luck with the new camera!

I second that.

Glad to have you guys aboard! BTW Thomas, I lived in Sterling NY for many years myself, about 50 miles East of Rochester.

Be sure to visit out tape forum if you haven't already. If you just browse back through the pages of threads you'll find that these sort of issues have been covered very thoroughly: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=64