On Mon, 05 Nov 2001 14:41:30 GMT, Five wrote:
>In article ,
>wally@nomail.com says...
>> >
>> >It has been my experience , more than once, that LP tapes often require the
>> >camera they were shot on to be reporduced or captured faithfully. I got bit
>> >by it once and will never use it again.
>>
>> Sony warns about this in the manual of both my camcorders. Still there are no
>> shortage of usenet posters that will claim LP mode works "perfectly".

>That is because most users do not switch cameras.
>It is really noticable between canon to sony models.
>If you stay with thte same brand, it is less noticable.

Whenever I buy a new camcorder, I put it through a
"check-list" to detect defects (I do not assume that
a new or low-use used camcorder is without defects...).
One of those checks is for LP-mode compatibility
among camcorders for record/play. With all the warnings,
I have yet to find a problem with this, with at least
12 different Sony camcorders + a Sony replacement of
heads and transport on one... Beyond this, I have used
LP-mode for several jobs that required uninterrupted
recordings of about or over one hour, and for much of
my recent "casual" shooting - all without problems.
On one recent job that required more than 1.5 hours
record time, I talked myself into using an 80-minute
tape in LP mode (whew!), with again no problems
(all Sony tape, both PR and EX...). Yes, problems
with dropout are more likely in LP-mode, and tape-crinkle
is probably more likely with the extended-length tape,
but in practice (with gear kept carefully clean), I
have not (so far...! ;-) experienced problems...