Posted by Peabody on 08/27/07 17:46

Richard Crowley says...

> Are you shooting digital video tape of some format?
> Which format? Have you actually found a bulk eraser
> capable of really erasing digital tapes? Most of us
> have not been able to find one. Please tell us what it
> is?

It's just regular miniDV - a Canon Elura 100, and standard
Sony tapes. The eraser is a Radio Shack "High Power
Video/Audio Tape Eraser", #44-233A.

>> I just assumed that at the least this wasn't doing any
>> harm.

> Likely no harm to the tape. If it is digital, maybe not
> even erasing it as you think.

It may not be erasing completely, but the camera no longer
finds anything on an erased tape.

> OTOH, for formats like mini-DV, if it isn't worth $5 to
> keep the original camera footage, why bother shooting it
> at all? Isn't the original footage worth at least
> $5/hour? Or if you are shooting for $$$, the $35 for a
> DVCAM (etc.) tape? Seems equivalent to rinsing out and
> re-using paper towels.

Most of the stuff I shoot is not worth keeping, like pool
parties, or somebody's golf swing. Or there may be one
short family thing that I want to keep, and I usually bring
that into the computer and then erase the tape. However, I
do have a couple "archive" tapes that I use to store more
important stuff. Those are clips written back to the camera
after editing.

I erase most tapes basically to prevent confusion later on.
Otherwise, previously recorded stuff appears at the end of
more recent stuff, and it just makes capturing and
editing more complicated because I forget. And since the
erasing just takes 30 seconds or so, and produces a "blank"
tape, it just makes life easier.

I do have a collection of original 8mm camcorder tapes. And
I still have the camera they were recorded on. But I have
never, ever, looked at them again after digitizing them. So
I decided I just wouldn't save tapes this time, except in
unusual circumstances.

You guys are probably all pros, but I'm not. So no, most
of the original footage really isn't worth $5 an hour.

> Also, re-using tapes is like playing Russian roulette.
> You never know which recording will fail because you
> tried to re-use it once too often.

That's a good point.

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