Hi guys,

I recently purchased this video camera. It has been recommended by many great film dudes.

Im just wondering if any of you do filming and if any of u have this cam, or perhaps the HV20?

DO let me know.

If yes, what Mini DV tapes do you use? Panasonic? Do u use the cheap ones or the PQ or AMQs?

Mini DVs here in Aus are pretty expensive 7-10bucks each.

Also, i heard it is not recommended to tape over the tapes once used....

I know this is not the forum to ask... but I guess it's worth the try?

Cheers,
Brendan

If you are just goofing around recording for fun, you could reuse old tapes. But if its gonna be an important occasion, use a new tape.

What happened to me was this , I was rewriting over an old DV tape, a few parts could not be written over, thus there was a mix of old and new footage in the same tape, thus rendering the recording useless. You'll only know if this happens when you playback the video.

So if the recording was gonna be important (once in a lifetime thing, no possible chance of retakes, haleys comet, baby's birth, wedding etc, ) do use a new tape. Don't risk what happened to me happening. You can't ask the doctor to put the baby back in the womb again so you can reshoot.

By the way I don't have that camera. Mine's an old JVC DV cam.

I just bought 10 Panasonic Mini DV Tapes Professional Quality from Ebay.

I got sad new.... my HV30 wont arrive until abt 3 weeks later!!!! grrr.... they are out of stock at the moment!

Argh.. oh well....

Mini DV tapes are mostly the same, but I prefer using Sony and JVC tapes, even when I shoot for my TV shows. Panasonic sometimes gives me trouble when transferring and converting. Maybe it's just me, but I feel that Panasonic tapes are incompatible with other brands of cameras. But with Panasonic cams, they work just fine.

You want a great camera? Get an Canon XL1. :D

PS - Some shops could degauss your old tapes. It sorta formats the tapes and erases all the data, but Jeff is right, you'd be better off with fresh tapes.