OT: Mixing brands sometimes?

smashguy37 wrote on 6/15/2009, 11:12 AM
Hi guys, quick question. I work for a wedding company doing videography. I usually use their gear (VX's, PD's, the odd HD cam) but sometimes I use my GL2 (if we have a lot of shoots in one day). I do approx. 30 weddings a summer and for maybe half of that I use my camera. We use Panasonic tapes but I use Sony tapes at home. I know there is a long debate behind wet vs dry lubricants or if that's even valid anymore, but I still always see suggestions of sticking to one brand.

I would switch to Panasonic, but I still have a bunch of Sony tapes to finish off, and I move slowly. I shoot 5 tapes average per wedding and at home, personally, my cam doesn't see a lot of use during winter, but moderate through out the summer. I shoot short things here and there...maybe a week int he summer I'll go away and shoot for a few days and fill a tape or two. Otherwise it's sporadic and quick. I'm just wondering if I should worry about gunking up my heads?

I don't know if it's a faulty sensor but I had a dirty head message this past Saturday and had a short little 5 bar blip because of it. I usually never ever get these. I avoid using head cleaners unless necessary. I recently had my cam in the shop the other month for general cleaning and stuff and they didn't mention any sort of tapes particles or gunk on the heads (I had this reported a long time ago on another older cam).

I can ask my boss to give me Sony stock, but I'm not sure that will fly. Should I really worry about this? I bought my cam second hand so I don't know it's age, but it was very well taken care of and haven't had any major problems with it.

Comments

jrazz wrote on 6/15/2009, 11:25 AM
I stick with one brand- Pany PQ's. I don't have problems so I don't want to change anything.

Why not finish out your Sony tapes at work (see if your boss will buy you out of them seeing how you use your own camera for his profit) and when you run out, clean your heads well and then make the switch? I think that is how I would go about it.

j razz
Laurence wrote on 6/15/2009, 1:06 PM
The way I understand it, there are basically two catagories of DV tapes: Sony's and everyone elses. Sony uses a wet lubrication method whereas everyone else uses a dry lubrication method. What this means I have no idea, but I've heard from multiple sources that you shouldn't mix wet and dry lubricated tapes without some sort of head cleaning in between. From what I've heard, both methods of lubrication are equally good, but the lubricants don't mix well if you go back and forth. Going from Panasonic to Maxell or JVC, etc. is just fine, but going between Sony and anyone elses tapes needs a head cleaning in between.
smashguy37 wrote on 6/15/2009, 4:54 PM
Hmmm. Well, I only have 2 new tapes and various ones half used I still use depending on what I'm shooting. I know it doesn't sound like much, but I usually don't have a lot of extra time for filming personal stuff. I don't think it'd be a good idea to head clean every time I switch because it'd too frequent and damage the heads...

I'll have to see what I can do with my job. Thanks.
farss wrote on 6/15/2009, 5:37 PM
"I don't think it'd be a good idea to head clean every time I switch because it'd too frequent and damage the heads..."

Probably not as big an issue as you think. The Sony head cleaning tapes can even be recorded onto, I jest not!

A 5 second run with one of those cleaning tapes is very unlikely to cause much wear on the heads, I can't speak for the other ones. Sony include a free cleaning tape with their packs of 5 tapes down here.

I should say of all the reasons we retire a camera, worn out heads has never been one of them. The head bearings fail, the zoom motors wear out, the bodies corrode etc but the heads seem to last forever.

On the other hand we've had heads get seriously gummed up needing pro cleaning. That's got to have a more serious risk of damaging heads than anything.

Bob.
smashguy37 wrote on 6/15/2009, 9:35 PM
Okay, I'll see how frequent I film with it this summer. I have a Panasonic cleaner, but my work has a bunch of Sony's mostly.

Unfortunately, I'm familar with worn heads as my work's fleet of VXs and PDs have on average, 3000 hours of record time, over 6000 hours of playback time, etc. and they just get worse and worse as time goes on.

I had the camera for about 1.5 years before I got it cleaned and I used Panasonic and Sony back and forth for a good chunk of that time. Do you think if I was getting buildup of anything, they would have noticed it? Just curious.
ushere wrote on 6/15/2009, 9:59 PM
you'd notice alright!!!

surprised your pd's are suffering worn heads - as bob pointed out, most everything else will fail before the heads wear out (can only speak for sony's). my old vx1000 is still going strong with it's 4th owner who, like the previous 3 uses it constantly as a deck. (they're all students of mine and were warned from the start NOT to mix tape brands, and to use it ONLY to capture whole tapes, NO shuttling, etc.,). my 150, as well as my 170 are still in active service and both going strong....

leslie