I've used over 300 of the 63MQ - great tape.
I would stay away for the 83MQ Unless you have to roll that long with out a tape change.

I too would suggest avoiding anything over the stock 63 mins in length. I must have captured near 1000 hours of footage by now and the only tape I've ever had snap was a 83 minute tape.
Bear in mind that none of these tapes give you a better picture, only less risk of dropouts and hopefully they'll survive more shuttling but who does that with MiniDV tapes anyway, both Panasonic and Sony seem to do a pretty good snow job on this point. Better signal to noise on digital tape means nothing, the noise in your video and audio doesn't come from the tape.
Bob.

I started out using the 63 min. tapes from panasonic but I quickly moved up to the Panasonic 83 minute pro tapes and have not had a problem. When I went to reorder (right before I posted this) I saw that they had the Panasonic 83 min. master tapes which are new.

What is the reasoning behind staying away from the 83 minute tapes? I have only had a couple problems but I think I narrowed that down to reusing tapes, which I don't do anymore. But like I said, I have been using these 83 minute tapes for a while and haven't had any problems with tapes breaking, etc. So, what is the reasoning for staying away from them? (Also, I film weddings and find that I often go over the 63 minute mark and my cameras are all bottom loaded)
Thanks guys,
j razz

From what I know the tape base is thinner (i.e. not as strong). Look at it this way, if one could easily load 83minutes of tape into the cassette why isn't that the standard?
For weddings I'd buy the bog standard Sony stock and change tapes at every opportunity, those tapes are so cheap you can easily afford to do that.
I'd also loose the bottom loading camera or better still get a DVCAM camera, with 184 minute tapes you're laughing. Maybe look around for a good second hand DSR PD250, down here they're pretty popular with the wedding guys.
Bob.

I went through this a few years ago when I was using the MQ tapes and PQ tapes interchangeably. I ended up doing frequent head cleanings on my camera. I asked Jan Crittendon from Panasonic about it and she told me that they use different lubricants. The MQ uses a dry lubricant and the PQ uses a wet lubricant.
I ended up sticking with the PQ tapes as I often use the standard Panasonic tapes in the camera for less important stuff and that composition is wet lubricant just like the PQ tapes. I haven't had to clean the heads for two years now.

John

Thanks for all the info on this. I am going to be stepping up to the A-1's one at a time as it is outside my budget to "buy in bulk". I may just call them and tell them to replace my order with the pro tapes then as I did not realize there was a difference in the lube.
I believe the A-1's are bottom loaded... just can't seem to get away from them:)
Thanks again,
j razz

I have been selling them for quite some time. I sold the predecessor (XB), as well. According to the Pana Lit, they are Studio tapes, designed for makeing edited Masters for long term storage rather than shooting. It was explained that they "Sit" better than the PQ version, which is a "Shooting" tape.

Who knows, in reality?

Interestingly enough that's pretty much the same as what we've seen with the more expensive Sony HDV tapes. Looking at the Sony graphs etc it's not until the tapes have done many passes over the heads that you seem to get any advanatge with the more expensive tape formulations. Bear in mind the cost differential is pretty huge, AUD 7 to AUD 35 for a 63 minute tape.
Thing is though who shuttles camera tapes that often, especially with HDV and who archives camera tapes. For SD work I might at times archive to tape but always in DVCAM.
Bob.

I have been buying the 83 masters for length, little over 50 minutes
in DVCAM mode.
The tape is very thin and not what you would use for repeated stop-
start-rewind operations. I record long events without usually
stopping the tape with no problems in past. Don't need the memory
chip versions either.

As others have mentioned do not mix tapes.

> I asked Jan Crittendon from Pannasonic about it and she told me that they use different lubricants

WOW! I have always been going under the assumption that you should stick to a single "Brand" not just a single tape. This is shocking that Panasonic is incompatible with itself (with respect to using a consistent lubricant).

Does anyone know if Sony has this problem? For my HVR-Z1U I have PHDVM-63DM DVCAM Master and Sony DVM-63HD tapes for shooting HDV but I was planning to use the less expensive Sony DVM-60EX or even the Sony DVM 60PR when recording in DV mode or non-critical HD. Does mixing Sony HD and DV tapes have this lubricant problem?

~jr

I also use the Panasonic Mini DV Tape 63 Minute Advanced Master Quality (AY-DVM63AMQ) in DVCAM mode.

I render in WMV at 512 kbps for web streaming. Is the video quality better when shot in DVCAM mode? It's 30 percent less tape, however I've heard conflicting opinions on whether it makes any difference.?
Thanks.
lili