SX tapes: 22, 32, 62 min tapes make a difference?

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<Buck>

Guest
Is there a reason why I shouldn't shoot on 62 minute SX tapes? There are some occasions where that is more convienent to me. I'm just wondering if that can cause any difference in the normal wear and tear of the heads or anything else.

Thanks.
 
Sportsguy

Sportsguy

Well-known member
No, there isn't. The head wear should be the same whether the tape is 12 minutes or 62 minutes. I've only shot on the 62 minute ones myself.

I don't really see why you shouldn't always shoot on 62 min tapes, unless your station doesn't want to pay the few extra bucks for them over the 32 minute ones. Granted, you'll probably only shoot on the first half of the tape, leaving the last 30 or so minutes unused. But if the need arises, you'll have that half hour to spare.
 
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Lil' Photog

Well-known member
Like SportsGuy said, there's no difference in tape quality.

However those 60+ minutes are expensive.

The only time I really use them is sports where there's lots of run and gun with little-to-no time for tape changes or for recording a feed that's going to be going for a while.

I can't tell you the last time I've had a general assignment story that I couldn't fit on a single 30min tape with space to save.

Why spend all the extra money if you don't need it?
 
K

Kaptnvideo

Member
The best reason to choose a tape of the right length is to make editing easier. As the last poster said, why have expensive 62 minute tapes with only a half hour of material on the front, seems like a waste of money. We use the longer tapes for longer format stories. 32 minutes of raw tape is a long time for a same day turnaround package, unless you are rolling for sound in a meeting or hearing.

In truth, the hardest thing on tape heads in the camera is logging the tape in the field. Sony just didn't plan on having folks fast forward and rewind tape in the camera all that often.

But try to match the story requirements to the length of tape, to keep juggling down in the edit room. Of course, it doesn't matter as much if you cut non-linear.
 
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BoomDrive

Well-known member
Originally posted by Lil' Photog:
I can't tell you the last time I've had a general assignment story that I couldn't fit on a single 30min tape with space to save.

Why spend all the extra money if you don't need it?
Click to expand...
I find it's faster to eject one tape and go to another during editing than hitting the fast forward/rewind button and waiting to go from a timecode of 30 seconds to a timecode of 40 minutes.
 
B

<beta sp>

Guest
You might want to use Beta-sp tapes on the sx camera...they are cheaper.
 
D

dinosaur

Well-known member
Sony Betacam SP BCT-30Ma Tapes are selling for
$9.48 ea, SONY BCT-32SXa Betacam SX sell for $12.11 ea.

There is vertually very little physical difference between the two stocks. None that would cause excessive headwear by using SP in the SX machines. Sony designed the SX decks to play analog betacam. In fact you might say that the only real difference is that one case is blue and the other is yellow. Additionally, on the SX there is a notch across the bottom and a sensor hole that "tells" the deck its an SX tape.
 
D

<DVC>

Guest
I shoot on 66 minute DVC, I love knowing when the comp has to stop and swap tapes at a long Presser that I can keep rollin.
But my favorite thing is I can shoot two or even three days on the same tape.
Right now I have 5 66min tapes I only carry two per day. and one I have held onto since Feb.
AP was looking for some city council video, since they always meet on my shift I had raw video they were able to cut instead of lookin up and sending precious minutes finding three shots.
 
I

imported_blank

Guest
If you shoot with BETACAM-SX then you have to keep in mind that a BETACAM-SP tape will run twice as long in a SX camcorder. The writing speed on SX is about half of SP so a 30 minute SP tape will run around 60 minutes in a SX camcorder, keep that in mind when comparing prices.

OX BETA = 118.6 mm/s
SP BETA = 118.6 mm/s
SX BETA = 59.5 mm/s
IMX BETA = 64.4 mm/s
DIGI BETA = 96.7 mm/s
HD-BETA = ???
SR HD BETA = ???


:D ALL BETA ALL THE TIME :D
 
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