what kind of tapes?

[B.J. Adams]

i use Sony Premiums, we are filming a Tv show, and never had any dropout problems with any of my 2 cameras.

[Don Palomaki]

Sonys have a wet type of lube and will reek havoc with your heads if you switch to them.

That once was true - no more. Back in the mid 1990s, then the manufacturers (mainly Sony and Panasonic back then) agreed on a compatible lube (Sony had a fire and there was a brief shortage of MiniDV tape to go along with this) Since then, the lube issue has been resolved for probably 10 years, but the story continues to loop in the web. Of course if you find a very old tape from the mid 1990 ...

The actual issue deals more with other physical properties of tape. My understanding of this is that each manufacturer's tape has slightly different physical properties, which will cause the tape to leave a slightly different deposit pattern as it moves through the transport over a period of time. If you then change to a tape with different physical properties it may cause the deposits to break free/move, and you have the potential for a head clog from the broken-free deposit. The usual solution is to stick with one type tape, and a head cleaning when changing to a different tape formulation (which might even extend to a different grade of tape from the same maker ).

[Kevin Ta]

this is all great info, thank you everyone for your input.
i've got a lot to learn on this little gadget, looking forward to it.