One Pass? at DVinfo.net

Sean M Lee · February 20th, 2005, 07:18 PM

I'm playing around with my new cam and shooting stuff that I'll never use for anything. I've got the Sony DigitalMaster tape.

Can anyone see a problem with using it as one pass? It will only be used for more test shooting and not for real source tape of a shoot.

Can the tape withstand 2 or 3 passes?

Robin Davies-Rollinson · February 21st, 2005, 02:07 AM

I think that people underestimate the quality of tapes these days. They will certainly allow much more than three passes...
Of course, stop/start will put a strain on a tape, but a continuous run will be fine.

Robin

Heath McKnight · February 21st, 2005, 08:14 AM

I'm a big fan of one pass. Also, since this is a tape discussion, I'm moving it to our tape forum.

heath

Sean M Lee · February 21st, 2005, 08:55 AM

The reason I ask is that I finished a show in 98 & 99 that was all shot on DV. The production company scrubbed the tapes for logging and digitizing the offline material. By the time I got the tape for online and color correction they were wiped out. I can't tell you how many frames I had to paint by hand to clean them up.

We did some research and learned of the "shedding" affect. Since then I've been leary of anything other than Shoot, digitize and store.

Thanks for updating me.

Glenn Chan · February 21st, 2005, 04:58 PM

From what I've read:
It might be that you got problems with tpae lubricant mixing together (Sony and Panasonics didn't mix together well and you'd get dropouts when mixing brands). Sony and Maxell reformulated their tapes in 1997 to avoid this problem. So maybe you had a tape with the bad formula.

Or it could be that the tape heads in your camera are differently aligned (and they recorded LP mode).

If you're doing linear editing I suppose tape shedding would be an issue, but with a low number of passes I don't think so. I suppose it would be really easy to test if shedding is a problem by scrubbing over your tapes 20-200 times and seeing if you get dropouts. Under 20 I'd say you're safe... but I'm too lazy to test.

2- Since many editing programs can automatically break things up based on date/time information, I don't really see the point of log and capture anymore. Storage is also fairly cheap.

February 20th, 2005, 07:18 PM	#1
Sean M Lee Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Indy Posts: 160	One Pass? I'm playing around with my new cam and shooting stuff that I'll never use for anything. I've got the Sony DigitalMaster tape. Can anyone see a problem with using it as one pass? It will only be used for more test shooting and not for real source tape of a shoot. Can the tape withstand 2 or 3 passes?

February 21st, 2005, 08:14 AM	#3
Heath McKnight MPS Digital Studios Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Palm Beach County, Florida Posts: 8,531	I'm a big fan of one pass. Also, since this is a tape discussion, I'm moving it to our tape forum. heath __________________ My Final Cut Pro X blog

February 21st, 2005, 02:07 AM	#2
Robin Davies-Rollinson Trustee Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Gwaelod-y-garth, Cardiff, CYMRU/WALES Posts: 1,215	I think that people underestimate the quality of tapes these days. They will certainly allow much more than three passes... Of course, stop/start will put a strain on a tape, but a continuous run will be fine. Robin

February 21st, 2005, 08:55 AM	#4
Sean M Lee Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Indy Posts: 160	The reason I ask is that I finished a show in 98 & 99 that was all shot on DV. The production company scrubbed the tapes for logging and digitizing the offline material. By the time I got the tape for online and color correction they were wiped out. I can't tell you how many frames I had to paint by hand to clean them up. We did some research and learned of the "shedding" affect. Since then I've been leary of anything other than Shoot, digitize and store. Thanks for updating me.

February 21st, 2005, 04:58 PM	#5
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	From what I've read: It might be that you got problems with tpae lubricant mixing together (Sony and Panasonics didn't mix together well and you'd get dropouts when mixing brands). Sony and Maxell reformulated their tapes in 1997 to avoid this problem. So maybe you had a tape with the bad formula. Or it could be that the tape heads in your camera are differently aligned (and they recorded LP mode). If you're doing linear editing I suppose tape shedding would be an issue, but with a low number of passes I don't think so. I suppose it would be really easy to test if shedding is a problem by scrubbing over your tapes 20-200 times and seeing if you get dropouts. Under 20 I'd say you're safe... but I'm too lazy to test. 2- Since many editing programs can automatically break things up based on date/time information, I don't really see the point of log and capture anymore. Storage is also fairly cheap.