There’s a long held contention that you shouldn’t mix your tape brands, because their chemical make-up can intermingle in an adverse way, causinggunk to build up on your heads. This seems particularly true in the case of DVCam.
While the manufacturers tweaked their formulas way back in 1997 to resolve this issue, there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest it’s still a problem. It’s said that the two mixtures that cause the most build-up are Panasonic and Sony, and the problem is at its most prevalent when you go from sustained use of one to the other.
Thus, it is good practice to do one of two things:
1. Always stick to the same brand.
2. Constantly switch between brands.
There is one problem with this however, and that’s the complicated OEM arrangements whereby one manufacturer allows another to use their tapes and simply re-brand them. While Sony make all their own tape, you can never be quite sure which tape is inside the cassettes of other brands.
We’re quite pleased that our recycling process can eliminate this problem entirely, but we won’t bore you with that now. We talk about it a lot throughout the site.