Panasonic Tape Question/tape type

[mr cameraman]

I've only had my Sony VX2000 for a week now and it's a great camera.

I wanted to buy the best in tape for this camera and read that I should use Sony tape and stick with it. Then I heard that they use a wet lubricant on their tapes.

I think I would feel better going with the dry type lubricant tapes and I was wondering if I should make the change now? I've only shot about an hour of footage on my camcorder with the Sony tape and haven't changed brands.

Also could somebody out there that knows a lot about the Mini DV tape formulations give us a list of which brand uses which lubricant such as Fuji, Maxell, JVC, TDK etc.

[Bryan Beasleigh]

Why not stay with Sony? You trusted Sony's expertise in Cameras and now your going to the competition for tape?

It really means nothing so long as you don't switch brands. I use Sony Premium in both of my cameras and have never had a problem.

It is my understanding that Sony is the only one to use wet lubricant. Ray at the tapeguys.com really had some interesting comments on the different grades. This isn't a big plug, the guy is very knowledgeable and has been in the tape bussiness for years.

[Jeff Donald]

Wet is a bad name, it's not really wet. In comparison to other tapes, it's lubricant is different. I agree with Bryan. Why not stay with Sony?

Panasonic, Fuji and Canon are dry. I suspect JVC. TDK and Maxell are dry also, but I've never used them. Any one know for certain?

Jeff

I have been buying the Professional 80 minute tape from B&H ($9.49 if I buy 10)

I thought this was the best they offered, but have now seen 2 tapes that confused me:

Panasonic makes an 83 minute "pq" professional quality tape and an 83 minute MQ master quality tape.

The MQ tape is upwards of $15 apiece. The 83pq is at least $12.

Is there any reasonable value moving up to the 83 minute tapes?

[mr cameraman]

I'm not really knocking Sony for making inferior tapes, I just don't see why they would want to be one of the only companies to manufacture a "wetter" type of tape lubricant. They must know that most people would not know about "tech" type things about what companies are doing with tape lubricants on their tapes.

Personally I think it's a major mistake for a company such as Sony to go the "wet" type formula when most other brands are dry type. And yes, in my opinion they make the absolute best camcorders in the marketplace. But that dosen't mean that their accesories are the best.

I've owned the Digital 8 format for several years now and I have had as good of results from Fuji, Maxell, and TDK tapes as I've had with Sony tapes. What if a person sticks with Sony tapes and runs out of tape and only the other brands are available?

I'm a wedding videographer and I've been in countless situations where I've had to buy different brands of Digital 8 tapes for the same wedding ceremony because of out of stocks at retail. I've had no problems with different brands in the 8mm/Hi 8mm category. Do the same thing apply with brand/lubricants for 8mm/Hi 8 tapes as well? If so, it has not affected my cameras at all.

[Bryan Beasleigh]

It is my understanding that one shouldn't mix any brands of mini DV tape. I don't think there is as much an issue with digital 8 tapes as the mini DV.

[Frank Granovski]

The higher priced Sony tapes are good. I've heard nothing but good about them during the past year. I've also heard good about Panasonic and Fuji.

I don't know about JVC. A few years back I had horrible problems with JVC. Though I don't know about now. I've heard bad about TDK and Maxell.

I use Fuji, and never had problems.

DON'T MIX TAPES!!! (as Bryan pointed out)

www.dvfreak.com/tape.htm

[mr cameraman]

Thanks for all your feedback. But if it's such an issue and really affects the performance of one's camcorder, why wasn't it made more open to the public?.

I have also owned a JVC Cybercam Mini DV camcorder for a few years now and used different tapes in it but it has never caused me any problems that I could notice although it hasn't been used a whole lot.

I think that consumers out there that own Mini DV camcorders should be better educated by tape and camcorder manufacturers as to what can happen when mixing tape brands. You can not read anywhere in manufacturer's owner's manuals about such problems such as described above.

I love my recording equipment and treat it with as much care as is possible and if I would have not read these issues I wouldn't think it any harm to purchase other brand tapes to use in my camcorders as long as they were made by reputable name brands.

[Josh Bass]

15 bucks apiece for MQ tapes? Dude. . .I was just at protape (who I know ships) and they have them for about 6.95 per tape! The lower grades are even cheaper (3 dollars for the lowest, the Linear Plus) PQs were 4 or 5 bucks. I believe you'd have to buy in bulk to balance out the cost of the shipping (unless protape has other stores than the HOuston one--like my motto says, I really have no idea what I'm talking about half the time. Those prices are correct, however.) Shame on B&H!

By the way. . .you're not in Houston, are you?

[Frank Granovski]

I presume the master quality tape is more robust. Why not just use 60 minute tapes? They are thicker than 80 or 83 minute tapes.

[Frank Granovski]

There's been lots of discussion regarding to or not to mix tapes---since from the early days of miniDV. If you've never had problems before, consider yourself lucky. Mixing tapes on VCRs can be another no no. All this I learned the hard way, by the way, and then thanks to the pros from boards/websites etc, their articles and test reviews, I don't mix tapes.

[Josh Bass]

Here's what I know about the different qualities of tape.This is courtesy of the protape gentleman.

If you imagine, visually, the tape itself (I can't remember the name of the material, something oxide?) as a sheet of tape, all these different kinds of tapes are cut from this same sheet. The difference is from where in the sheet the "tape" is cut. Master Quality tape is cut from the center of the sheet, while Professionaly Quality tapes are cut from between the outer edge of the sheet and the middle, and Linear Plus tapes are cut from the outer edge. The closer to the middle of the sheet the tape is, the less prone to problems (dropouts, etc.) since it is the edges that are more exposed to the elements.

Does this make any sense at all? I hope I didn't confuse you. I hope I didn't confuse me. Just relaying what I was told.

[Adrian Douglas]

What about the lube used. Has anybody experienced repeated banding issues with the Panasonic tapes.

I sent my XL into Canon 12 months ago to get the banding issue sorted and they relpaced the drum assembly. That and the service cost me about USD$400. Now, only 12 months later the banding is back, bigger badder and worse than before.

I've been using Sony DVM60's and was wondering if they could be the cause?

[Frank Granovski]

Could be...:

www.dvfreak.com/tape.htm

[Blake Barratt]

I read another post last night that also said if you always change tapes every 4 tapes or so it would be cool.
having read this post i am worried cause i bought some sonydv premium tapes cause they were on sale and cheap then i read these posts and well
Am i completely screwed. the comments about the problems occuring during warranty period really got me going.
After reading these posts i certainly dont want to mess up my nice new cam but well i dont want to use these tapes forever either as they are obviously not the best.
Any suggestions.
I am new to all this and would rather not learn from very expensive mistakes :)
bb