On 26 Oct 2002 06:36:17 -0700, sorry_no_email@yahoo.com (BrianEWilliams) wrote:

>I have a TRV-900, and I have been babying it because I want it to
>last. Thinking about getting a cheap camcorder to use for rewinds and
>captures to save the wear and tear on the 900. Before I spend the
>extra money though, are there folks out there who have heavily used
>their 900's for years and years with nothing more than the occasional
>head cleaning? If the 900 is really durable, I might just forget
>about babying it, get a lot more out of my investment, and skip the
>cheap camcorder purchase.

Depends on the level of use for you - I would not worry
if you shoot maybe 10 tapes a year, but if you average
one or more a week, well, mebbe...;-) BTW, close-out
or used low-end DV cameras can be cheap (I've seen
several this week in the $400 area, for Sonys...), and
if they had in them only the tape brand you use, these
can be a good buy for "deck" or second-camera use.
Balance this against a $300 transport replacement cost
for the TRV900, still maybe the cheapest option...