Hi Everyone,

Hope this is the correct section, if not my apologies.

Just seen A Mini DV Tape Rewinder by Hama for sale at Amazon.

Just wondered your views on these as I have seen on other forums that tape rewinders (Not Hama) are very dangerous to use.

The reason they give is that my cam (a Sony PD 150) has a sensor that slows the tape down before it reaches the end of the tape. Whereas basic tape rewinders don't and therfore the sharp tug at the end can snap the tape.

So just wondered if anyone knew anything about these new Hama ones.

Thanks for looking.

Glen.

Not an expert never having had or used one but my thoughts are....

1) It would save an awful lot of wear and tear on the camcorder to do the rewinding outside of the camera.

2) I wouldn't worry about the tape breaking. That's not to say it won't. I'm just thinking that you should keep an eye on it and press the stop button when it gets close to either end of the tape.

I say go for it. but then again, what do I know...

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Thanks Alan, makes a lot of sense. Yeah I will get one and give it a try.

Thanks ever so much for taking the time to reply.

Cheers,

Glen.

I own a Hama Mini DV Tape Rewinder and thankfully I haven't had any problems with it. It certainly does prolong the life of the camcorder, but I had the opposite problem to you. I have a number of Hi8 tapes that i needed rewinding to get them transferred onto the computer last year. I purchased a Canon Hi8 cam last year but couldn't find a tape rewinder so had to use the camcorder itself. It had no problem rewinding the majority of tapes but it pulled the tape out of 4 of them, so it is all now sitting on the left reel with nothing on the right reel. Someone told me the tapes that were pulled out may have been 'too loose' or 'slack' or 'damaged' in some small way as they had been kept in a compartment for over ten years and maybe that played a part in it.

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