I'm a producer with a question

I have a huge shoot coming up. And I have a little problem.....

I went to Wal-Mart last night. I seen that they had camcorder "film" on sale for $2.47.

Once I seen "Clearance" I grabbed every last one of them. I spent about $150 on tapes and bought every last package of tapes they had, I figured where else could I get them for this price and eventually I would need them. I even had them go to the back and bring me out the last they had.

Well, I film on a hi8 camcorder.

Well, I bought regular 8mm tapes. I think I got the wrong ones but I wanted to check with you first to see if I can still use them before returning them.

The package says:

8mm
120 min
Brilliant color and sound
Standard
Sony brand (I film with a sony camcorder)

Can I still use these tapes? I'm hoping that I can because I bought 2 box cases of tapes.


Thanks for your support!
-JJ

You should be able too, but you will not get all the benefits that Hi8 would give (better line resolution, etc.)

However, that being said, you can have serious quality problems with older 8mm tapes. (Dropouts, etc.)

Not sure I would want an older tape in my camera, or any tape that was on clearance for that matter. You can destroy the record heads, etc.

Lastly, no self respecting Gay man should shop at Wal-Mart. They are very anti-gay and on the HRC watch list.

My vote is return them...for business and community reasons.

$0.02

WAL-MART:whip:

Yeah, you will be able to use them as Tropixxx said, but you'll not get the quality out of the 8mm as you would the Hi8.

Really, Hi8 is just a super duper version of 8mm. So it's all compatible and what not, but things just won't look as good on the regular 8mm as they would the Hi8.

I'd say that despite the good deal they got, might as well take them back to WalMart if you can. You already have the hi8 camera and, therefore, the capacity to film high quality images and so stick with that as you'll get better quality material out of it that will do better to transfer to whatever medium you choose to deliver them through (varying resolutions from a webpage, DVD, etc etc etc)

A shoot is too important to risk using old tapes and especially regular 8mm when you have the ability to shoot in Hi8. Take'em back. You won't regret it.

Bill

Repeat after me... "You get what you pay for... you get what you pay for"