Drop-out Problem

[Pygmy King]

Hi - I've browsed through this forum for a few months, only just registered. As is appropriate for my first post, an amateur's question:

I acquired an HV30 a couple of months ago, and have been gradually picking up accessories along the way. I bought the camcorder secondhand (eBay), the seller claimed very little use & it arrived in near-mint condition. It was packaged with a couple of JVC tapes, so I presume that was the brand the previous owner had been using. After having shot an hour's footage on one of the JVC tapes to test out the camera, I bought a head cleaning tape (Panasonic) to prepare for a switch to Panasonic AMQ tapes.

I accidentally hit fast-forward when running the cleaning tape, stopping it after a few seconds. I then played the tape as instructed.

I'm a little worried that the fast-forwarding may have caused some damage. I've taped about 35 minutes of footage on my first AMQ tape, initially without problems. It's my first experience with 25p (I ran the JVC tape in 50i), and so I presume the slightly stuttery quality of the motion is part of the well-documented drawbacks of capturing progressive footage with this camera.

I was taping a conversation in my garden (testing out accessories - Rode Videomic, Velbon 7000, Raynox 6600 - all as suggested on this forum!), and when I looked back at the footage through my TV, there were two significant "drop-outs" in quick succession. I watched the footage again to check, and both moments were still present.

I thought that using AMQ tapes would almost entirely eradicate the likelihood these errors, and so I'm worried that my amateurish treatment may have affected the camera's performance. Do I have any reason to be concerned, or am I just a paranoid "noob" who doesn't know the drawbacks of the 'video experience'?

(Sorry for the lengthy post. And: hello!)

[CycleWriter]

Dropouts are a fact of life with a tape-based camera. Some tapes resist them better than others, but there are none that are impervious to them. FF the cleaning tape did not do any damage.

[Frank]

I doubt if fast-forwarding a cleaning tape would cause damage; hopefully consumer products are a little more forgiving than that.
I think there is always the chance of dropouts, whatever tape you are using. I've been pretty lucky in that regard, but they still crop up once in a while.
I wouldn't worry about it unless it keeps happening consistently.

[Pygmy King]

Thanks for the quick responses, chaps. I'd read that drop-outs were an occasional occurrence, it only caused me concern because they happened on my first "tape of choice".

To throw out another quick question: The manual mentions that it's not advisable to leave the tapes in the camcorder when it's not in use. Is it really necessary to remove them between shoots? I find the 'End Search' function quite useful, so I'd like to leave them in...

[CycleWriter]

Leaving tapes in for hours or even days is not usually a problem. Longer than that the tape is in contact with the head and can develop a curvature that will result in dropouts or stretching that hurts performance. If the camera is not to be used for more than a day or two it is best to remove the tape or, at the least, rewind it so that the clear leader part is what is in contact instead of actual tape.

[Pygmy King]

Cheers for the advice, CycleWriter. It's great to join a forum where my first questions aren't treated with indifference or sarcasm!

[CycleWriter]

Cheers for the advice, CycleWriter. It's great to join a forum where my first questions aren't treated with indifference or sarcasm!

Trust me, I'm saving the indifference and sarcasm for when you've been here a little while. Welcome to the forum.

[Pygmy King]

I'm on my guard...

[bluegrass]

"I'm on my guard..."

And well you should be my friend. Welcome.

[Janke]

Speaking of dropouts, to get back to the subject :-) - I've had only one noticeable dropout (horizontal bands over an entire scene - probably due to dirt stuck to one of the video heads), and that was with my previous Canon miniDV (not HD) camera, and with a Fuji brand tape. One Maxell miniDV tape did malfunction, the tape got stuck on ejecting (in a Sony DVCAM deck), had to cut it to get it out.

Since then, I've so far used some 45 tapes in the HV30, exclusively Sony Premium ("made in France"), without any more problems... knock wood!