Doesn't everybody??

Yea the edit search function isn't bad, however im pretty sure it takes your time code back to 00:00:00:00.. which isn't very handy when your logging and capturing.

Joe,

You'd be surprised at how many people I know who DON'T do that.

heath

Tails...
 

This bears repeating. I have never had a need to striped a tape for recording in a camera. Who has that amount of time to waste? Why put the added wear on your video heads and tape transport?

Follow George's suggestion or simply let your takes run extra long, it need not be black, just some extra video before you turn off the camera and you will be fine. Whenever I'm shooting doc, I simply count to five after I want to hit stop, and then hit stop. In narrative, when the director says cut, I count to five and then hit stop.
Tails, you want tails at the end of every take.

Then all you have to do at the start of each recording is make sure before you start recording again that you're camera is showing you reasonable timecode numbers (this is all assuming you are using RECORD RUN timecode). If they have gone back to 00:00:00:00 (as often will happen if you take the tape out and put it back in or turn off the camera and then turn it back on sometimes) simply back up the tape a few seconds, and voila, it will pick up the timecode off that little tail of extra video at the end of the last shot, so there's no problems with trampling over something important. And all your timecode break blues will wash away...

When using FREE RUN TIMECODE, on the other hand, it's a different story... depending on your camera, you have to use the control track display to make sure you don't have BREAKS in the videotape, only timecode jumps.

Like I said above, about a minute of color bars at the head is best.

heath

I get in the habit of always allowing a few seconds a tape to roll before giving the OK to start the show. I've learned that habit from others whom used older camera's and would have to "wait for speed" before production begins. Besides, it's a good habit to make sure that the tape is actually rolling. Years ago I've had a few false starts when I pressed the record button, but not far enough...

Ditto on the drum wear, but I also think stripping a tape is asking for trouble with the tape itself. I'm leary about drop outs, especially with HDV now. I would would never reuse tapes, and $10 is cheap compared to the cost of having to reshoot.

Bars
 

I am with Heath. One minute of bars at the head of the does it. If I can, I will prestrip 2-3 tapes before going on a shoot. The minute of bars does one more important thing: It prevents you from recording critical images at the very beginning of a tape. This really applies to a shoot where you have to fast switch tapes. You need to have some pad at the head of the tape.

yea i also always put 30sec bar + TC of tape number.
dont forget: after previewing, always press END SEARCH !!

Thanks for all your replies!