I have a 45 minute program cut and when I redigitized in hi-rez, all the footage came in dark. In the past, I redigitized leaving the video input tool at the default settings and the footage looked accurate enough.

Is it necessary to create a custom setting for each tape in the video input tool? What is the proper workflow?

 I leave the video tool at proper levels for SMPTE bars, and use TBC adjustments on our Sony Betacam SX decks to tweak video going on (as seen on a waveform monitor) as best I can, and then do final finessing using the color correction toolset.

Larry Rubin:

and use TBC adjustments on our Sony Betacam SX decks to tweak video going on (as seen on a waveform monitor)

Please excuse my ignorance on the topic... Your Betacam deck has it's own level adjustments?

 Yes indeed, all Professional Betacam decks, digi-beta, SX and SP have built in TBC's for adjustment of analog gain, set-up, chroma, and phase. Of course, this works for us because our flow in and out of the Avid platforms is still analog component. It's the one thing I really don't like about firewire and SDI, the absence of the ability to "pre-adjust" if you will, when video levels on tape are really wacked. An extra measure of flexibility.

We are going in analog as well, with a sony pvw-2800 betacam sp deck and a dsr-1500 DV. I'm unaware of any built in controls.

 It's been a while since I had my hands on one, but the PVW series does have TBC adjustments. If I remember correctly, they're behind the fold up panel with the transport controls. Or, if they're not there, the transport panel may pull out horizontally and reveal another panel of controls. Look for two small rack handles on the transport panel.