mini-DV tape moisture with Redbull

[manisolo]

2 days ago I had an incident where a mini-dv tape in its protective cover got redbull spilled over it.

I dried it and rewinded, it plays back to about 7minutes from where the tape was during "the incident" and then it gets black. I know the camera may be exposed to sugaryfluids also buts its an important tape.

Is there a way to clean the tape manually? I need approx 7 minutes of the tape. A photostudio I contacted said I should dump the tape but I wanna give it a last shot!

Any way to clean the tape with alcohol or something like that?

[redwudz]

The only way I know to remove sugary stuff is a long warm water soak and several rinses, using distilled water and no additives, especially detergents or chemicals. But I would hesitate to try that on a tape. But if the stuff has soaked between the tape layers, not so easy to remove it any other way without destroying the tape surface. I can tell you it will really gum up your player if you try to use the tape without some sort of cleaning.

If there is just part of the tape that's damaged, you might be able to open up the cassette and cut out the bad part. But I suspect the Red Bull made it throughout the cassette.

Professionals may use better methods, but they would still likely have to soak the tape to 'unglue' the layers before removing the tape and running it through some sort of rinse and drying setup.

[Jensen]

I just went thru this, and I damaged a Camcorder. Good Luck

[thecoalman]

You can try this guy if you want: http://www.videointerchange.com/

I was in contact with him over a different subject so I really can't comment on his video business.

On a side not he did mention the digital tapes are harder to recover and if you get tapes wet they should be kept wet until he gets them.

[zoobie]

there's a de-gunk rinse photographers use...coke, syrup, etc...it separates prints without damaging the finish.
it's available at your camera shop...
between rinsing and even cutting some out if necesssary, you should be able to save most of the tape
your tape will have to be spotless or it will gum up your player