Topic: Any good deals on miniDV tapes right now?

[philR]

just got a camcorder and am looking for any deals on minidv tapes.  the $17.99 for two at staples is a bit much for me.  thanks in advance!

[allan]

I buy mine in bulk, about $2.10 a tape on eBay.

[fanofthemule]

quantity from b&h, around 2.40 each

[willndmb]

sams has 8 packs for under 20

[wilsonedits]

be learing of switching back and forth between tape brands trying to save money... pic one and stick to it....


I use pani pq's professional grade for around 3.50 a piece.... worth spending an extra dollar not to have dropouts of errors or problems years down the line

[allan]

be learing of switching back and forth between tape brands trying to save money... pic one and stick to it....

Definitely, the wet/dry tape issue... technically i don't know too much about it, but we decided to go with panasonic tapes and never use anything else.

[willndmb]

hmmm my camera is about 7 yrs old now
and i thought it needed to be cleaned good because from time to time you will get digital artifacts/blocking in the screen
which causes a skip affect when imported

so it could actually be from using different brand tapes?

[stantheman1976]

hmmm my camera is about 7 yrs old now
and i thought it needed to be cleaned good because from time to time you will get digital artifacts/blocking in the screen
which causes a skip affect when imported

so it could actually be from using different brand tapes?

Yes, it's possible.  From what I understand it used to be more of a poblem than it is now because different companies had different standards during production. 

[allan]

it probably does need to be cleaned, but from the small amount of knowledge I have is that theres "wet" and "dry" tape formats, sony uses wet, panasonic uses dry, not sure about other manufacturers. From what i've been told its not good at all on your heads to be switching back and forth. Also, I don't use the same camera to import to my mac, I have a canon XL1 thats only used to film, and a crappy consumer camera that I do the transfers with. I dont know how good of a camera you have, but if you've been switching tape brands, filming and transferring with the same camera, the heads are probably pretty worn and it may just be time for a new camera.

[Low Spark]

Check your local Costco. We are changing pkg to a 10 pack. So they lowered the price on the 8 pack. 14.95 I believe.

[willndmb]

it probably does need to be cleaned, but from the small amount of knowledge I have is that theres "wet" and "dry" tape formats, sony uses wet, panasonic uses dry, not sure about other manufacturers. From what i've been told its not good at all on your heads to be switching back and forth. Also, I don't use the same camera to import to my mac, I have a canon XL1 thats only used to film, and a crappy consumer camera that I do the transfers with. I dont know how good of a camera you have, but if you've been switching tape brands, filming and transferring with the same camera, the heads are probably pretty worn and it may just be time for a new camera.

great well io learned somethign and yes for the most part i used the cam for transfers too
i figured for the cost of a good cleaning i can prob get a new cam (which will be smaller too) for not much more anyway

[mozmoz8]

Hi, I get mine from ebay...around $2.25 from what I remember.