Re-recording on DV tape and head wear

[adli]

Hi everyone

I'm a bit of newbie to DV recorders and I have a bit of an unreasonable question: Roughy, how many times can one re-record over a DV tape without damaging it?

Let me give some context:
I'm running some research which involves observing a museum for about 2 months. What I'm looking at is about 5 hours of DV recording about 5 days a week. Unfortunately I don't have enough DV tapes to accomodate this, so I was considering using ONE set of 5 DV tapes and transferring my recordings onto a computer at the end of every day and reusing the tape for the next day. Is this unreasonable overuse of the tapes and will it result in headwear bad enough to damage the tape?

I would so so appreciate an answer!

[senu]

Im not sure there is an accurate answer but a figure of five times has been mentioned

Im certain that dirty or worn tape heads may reduce this somewhat

Im my own personal experience, risk of slight tape drop outs become more significant after 3rd use. But then I mainly record HDV now so reuse is limited to a single reuse unless Im really pushed

With such intensive use , try to stick with nice quality brands like ( Sony Premium) But more importantly try to stick to the same brand all the way. Youmay also need a tape head cleaner if you notice drop outs too early in use as the head may be a bit dirty

With long play you might save on tapes but LP tapes are best played back on the camcorder which recorded it.
HTH