On Sun, 9 Dec 2001 22:56:41 -0800, Pep wrote:

>I want to thank all of you for all of the help. David, especially has
>been a true Saint for his personal experience. However, I don't want to
>bother him with this, and I'm sure he has other things to do then be my
>professor.

Naw....! ;-)

>What is the actual problem with using different tape in a miniDv cam? Is
>it the glue that holds the particles to the tape as in the post about
>Hi8? David mentioned some expensive repair/maintainance bills if I run
>other brands of tape, which is a bummer as I've been having clients want
>to just drop off a tape or tapes. David suggested meeting with clients
>and doing firwire to firwire transfers using the client's cam as well.

From what I gather, it is lubricant incompatibilities,
possibly no longer an issue (but I will not risk finding
out the hard way...).

>However, some of the people I've worked with aren't too fussy about
>their lower end gear, and I don't want to turn this into a deal breaker
>for me getting the work, so I'm trying to learn just what it is that is
>bad. Previously, I've rented cams to do the capturing and exporting. At
>$100/day, it eats into my takehome.

Just ask them to drop off a playback camera/deck and
supply/charged-battery with the tape - when the situation
is explained, most are OK with this... Or buy a cheap
Mini-DV camcorder assigned specifically to deck duties.
If you run into trouble, it is better to have it with
a camera you can spare/risk...

>Secondly, I'm getting private email from people asking me for info.
>Blonde leading the blind... hahaha! Does anyone have any good links for
>the VX-2000 or favorite links for those new to miniDV?

Well, www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/sony_dcr-vx2000.htm
and www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/camcorder--comparison.htm
of course!
And: www.David-Ruether-Photography.com/camcorder-comparison.htm
and www.bealecorner.com
and http://www4.big.or.jp/~a_haru/index.html