I just bought a Canon GL2 used it once and the tape deck is sticking. I called Canon and they told me it was because I was using seveal different DV tapes and the different lubes in the tape were not compatible. Is this a load of BS? Do I just need to exchange the camera or will a simple cleaning and sticking with Fuji DV tapes solve the issue.

Lots of folks claim this is true. Lots claim it's BS. But if you did mix brands and you got the problem Canon said you would, that sounds like pretty good empirical evidence to me.

Try using one brand for a while and see what happens. Did Canon recommend a particular brand? If so, I'd use that one.

Good luck.

Dennis

No comsumers are not allowed to ever use this tape

You sure can use this tape. It's just not found in your mill of the run electronics store.

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Back on the thread, he didn't say only miniDV tapes that were easily available. You can use any miniDV tape, professional (priced or sold) or "consumer". I'd avoid "HappiFoto" type brands from an unknown source/brand though. Thankfully, I haven't seen anything so obviously a lower quality knock-off in the US, but I am sure you could find it in an Asian street market.

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Any why wouldn't "Consumer" tapes be better? A professional tends to use the tape and then archive it... the hobbyist is the one who continually re-uses a tape, doesn't rewind it, tosses it in a glovebox or coat pocket, etc. It seems the consumer tapes should be made better to hold up under the more stressful environments of consumers than professionals!

I suspect "professional" means "heavy markup for those who make a profit doing video work" among other things. The main point for consumers is "professional" tape will work the same and cost more. There will be no difference in video quality.

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I would use comsumer because the price is cheaper. MP tapes are for re-use for many recordings, it's the ME tapes that you want to through in the glovebox.

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XL1S, not picking on you but I want to clarify something if it needs to be: I am not sure what you mean by MP and ME; if these are "lines" of a brand, then ignore this message.


ME and MP can refer to a manufacturing process that descibes how the iron bearing particles (which have magnetic properties) are put on the tape.

Most tape media is Metal Particle (particulate) including CompactCassette (audio), 8-track, many old reel computer tapes, U-matic, VHS, etc. This type is cheaper to produce, and adequate in terms of smoothness and coercivity.

Metal Evaporate tapes are used to get the very fine grain (many small particles close together so tape is "smoother" and can hold a higher data density by allowing more field reversals per area). All the miniDV tapes are Metal Evaporate (or should be). Because they are so smooth, and the density so high, there MUST be lubrication added to the tape.

I wouldn't treat any tape carelessly - usually the data on the tape is more valuable than the tape media itself. And I make my wife and daughter put their cheap & open market bought audio tapes in their OWN tape player, not my good deck! Putting a tape in a glovebox or leaving on the dashboard of a hot car is not one of the better things to do with tape, ME or MP!

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LOL! The glove box was not for real, I thought you used the description for holding on to a video print for archiving in a safe place, like a video vault. MP for Metal Particle: for taping over and over again a lower grade of tape. ME for Metal Evaporation: which is better for storing media for many years before they start to degrade longer than Metal Particle. Not lines of brand just the tape type.

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Then, I can see choosing MP for 8mm, VHS, etc. MP is available, though not required, for 8mm and Digital8. But if you see anyone selling MP for MiniDV run the other way - ME is required to get the data density necessary for DV on a miniDV tape.

(Harking back to the topic about MiniDV, not just digital tape in general which could include Digital8)

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WOW...Mucho information to digest from all of the experienced users. I want to thank all of you for your inputs, you all have given me new insight into the quality and care of my newly purchased Sony DCRTRV38. I do need to politely disagree with Kerr Avon: Any why wouldn't "Consumer" tapes be better? A professional tends to use the tape and then archive it... the hobbyist is the one who continually re-uses a tape, doesn't rewind it, tosses it in a glovebox or coat pocket, etc.

I would think a professional would continuously run the tape on a desk top machine to edit it so that he can publish or sell. (that's my two cents worth)

Anyway, thanks again, but I am still torn between Fuji/Sony/Panasonic. It's been 4 days since my camera came in and I still have not put a tape in (call me crazy). I don't know how long I'll be able to hold out!!

I was trying to be a bit flippant. But it seemed to me that the consumer tapes would be more abused and thus should be of a more enduring quality than a professional who would take proper care of their tapes.

But you raise a good point. Certainly in the old and analouge days a tape could get quite worn in a linear editing machine/deck. But with computers and the NLEs, I wonder if this (heavy tape usage) is still true? Any professionals or anyone know?

There are/were (haven't seen her post in a while) some ladies here who are "prosumer" at leaat (maybe professional?) and will use a tape, then dump it inter her computer for processing, and reuse that tape. But she doesn't reuse the tape too many times before consigning it to "archive".

And you can always politely disagree with me. Or just plain disagree and we'll discuss it politely. I'm nobody but a hobbyist who likes to understand details and engineer the best result for my limited resources.

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Sony HDV camcorder info (FX1, CX7, HC3 HC5, SR1/3/5/10, SR11, SR12, TG1, UX1, Z1) -> http://www.SonyHDVinfo.com

I am sorry for any mis understanding but when I said consumers were not allowed to use this tape I WAS JOKING !

Awww, don't ruin it. I've been playing along! (But trying to make sure the clueless do grasp and understand the important details).

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I just came back from the hospital had a stroke LOL

Sorry, a bit late on this thread, since I haven't been on the net this last weekend. I work in a university video department as a engineer/tech, not as an editor. We have dropped most our A-B roll edit type of equipment in the recent years and are very focused on Non-Linear editing. The tape usage with NLE is very light compared to the A-B roll editing. A tape is logged and a timecode window dub is made, and probably played once or twice more to get the footage onto a hard drive for editing, then it is archived.
Kerr, you mentioned the lubrication issue, and this has been a problem that has arisen in many threads on some pro boards. We haven't seen a problem yet, but we are trying to stick to one brand and type of tape for MiniDV. (It was Fuji, but we have switched Sony recently, but it seems to me that they might be the same tape with a different label.) That is only when we shoot with Mini DV, as we still have some older Beta-SP cameras, whose footage which is either directly converted to digital, or bumped (dubbed) to DV, either MiniDV or DVCAM. I really don't know of any 'PRO' tapes that are not available to consumers, as anyone can get on the web and find some fair prices.