The private conversations are the ONLY real reason I would comb through the footage to make sure everything was "clean" before releasing hte raw footage (never the tapes, I always keep those.. I would either transfer via external HD or burn to DVD-R).

My objection to providing the raw footage is that doing so is potentially damaging to our industry.

I think wedding videography is in a similar place now to where digital photography was a few years ago. Photographers back then were faced with the decision as to whether to provide the raw images to their clients.

Now, it is standard practice for the majority of photographers (at least in my area) to 'give away the disc' as part of their packages. This in turn makes it more difficult for the photographers that don't do this - and it also tends to drag down the pricing. 'Giving away the disc' has become a bargaining tool or 'carrot on the stick' to seal the deal.

Clients think that they're getting more value for their money by receiving 800 raw images on a disc - but they're actually getting shortchanged. Quantity vs Quality.

Bringing this back to wedding videography ... I don't have a problem with offering the raw footage at a decent price. By decent I mean at a price that represents the value of the footage plus the time it takes to convert and burn it to a DVD. It's not about the value of the footage to you ... it's about the value of the footage to the client.

Offering the raw footage as an incentive to clients or as a way to get a leg up on the competition, or basically giving it away for $10/tape - it is this practice that is potentially damaging to our industry.

I'm (un)fortunate enough to only shoot tape or XDCAM, so I archive that media in large safe deposit boxes when I do my 'spring cleaning'. Otherwise they're kept in a fairly industrial fireproof safe. I do have a box of Hard drives in storage though for the odd footage that I don't have the original tapes/xdcam discs for.