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Which Mini DV Tape is Best?

Started by NinjaVsPenguin · 11 months ago

On Friday, I found that one of my mini DV tapes was broken.  The little plastic flap under the tape came out of its slot.  Since I only had two tapes left, for 2 hours of SP shooting or 3 hours of LP shooting,  I figured it was time to buy some more tape.
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3 comments

  • Jeff

    2 years ago

    The one thing I would caution is that for the 80 min MiniDV tapes they actually have to make the tape thinner to fit in the cassette's shell, which might make them a bit more prone to wear out or crinkle. 60 mins is the standard length.

    Everything else you found out is definitely true. I usually shoot on MiniDVCAM, which is sony's pro tape for their DVCAM format (can't use these on non Sony Cameras). These are 40 min tapes. It costs me almost twice as much, but the tapes have less drop outs and come in cases that seal them better from outside dust and moisture. The length isn't a problem because I never shoot more than 40 mins in one take.

    I've also shot on TDKs and Sony's Premium MiniDV tapes. Both are aite, but I never shoot important stuff on those and I try to avoid using them too too much cause they dirty the heads more than the pro tapes. I've heard good things about Panasonic's tapes. There's a pseudo format war between them an Sony. DVCPro vs DVCAM. And now of course there's HDDV. My own personal drool-cam is this one: http://www.gizmag.com/go/7522/. Shoots on solid state memory and has better resolution and and much better color depth than DV or HDDV.

    It's definitely true that you should avoid mixing tapes and tape brands as much as possible. It's a good idea to have the camera's heads professionally cleaned every so often too. Otherwise you'll start seeing this weird digital banding thing where parts of previous frames are visible over the current frame. I've actually found that DV camera are more sensitive to dirty heads than their analog counterparts.
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  • NinjaVsPenguin

    2 years ago

    Thanks for the info, Jeff!

    I read about the DVCAM tapes, considering I'm using a Canon GL2, I don't think those are an option ;)

    Thanks for the info, Jeff!
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  • Jeff

    2 years ago

    Yeah it's largely dependent on what kinda camera you're shooting on. Reminds me of still photography in some ways in that you're not really buying a camera, you're buying a system (lens, tapes, accessories, etc.). All that has to be factored in to a video camera purchase decision.
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