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Best solution for dumping off footage
I will be filming an event this weekend where I will be needing to dump off a lot of my footage. I only have 1 16gb P2 card so after that fills up I will need to dump it off. After reading my manual I noticed there are a few routes I can take… What do you think would be the best route?
To carry my laptop with me and dump it onto there via firewire?
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I read there is a way to hook an external drive up directly to the camera and dump off the footage onto the drive without having a computer involved. Is this true? If so, how would I do it?
This would be the best way since it would eliminate one more piece of equipment for me to carry around.
Any help would be appreciated!
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4 Replies
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Best option is to bring your laptop and offload your single card. I would also recommend offloading to multiple drives (check out ShotPut Pro). What happens if one of your drives fails? Why take that chance.
You will have to reformat your hard each time you connect directly to your camera. I would not recommend that.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Board of Directors
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
That’s what I figured. I will definitely take the laptop route!
Can I just import through FCP? That’s what I have been doing for now and it seems to work fine. Or do you recommend using a 3rd party software like ShotPut Pro to dump the footage off?
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I don’t know what kind of event you’re covering, but you might want to consider picking up, renting, or borrowing another P2 card so you can transfer one card while shooting another. Otherwise you are down until that card is done transferring.
I recommend Shotput P2 as well, but there are issues with 10.5.6. I have not tried the new version yet to see if it’s fixed.
Jeremy
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While you could import directly into FCP I’d consider dumping the whole card and importing it later, seems safer and your metadata would remain intact.
If you were to offload directly from camera to an external firewire drive then you will need to have the camera format the drive the first time. Each card offloaded creates a new partition, but keep in mind there is a limit to the number of partitions (16?) that can be reached before you run out of disk space. Offloading for me takes around 20 mins per 16GB card, including verify time.
If you have a laptop with compatible slot (or a Dual Adapter) then offloading to a laptop is likely the best route – faster than coming from the camera, doesn’t tie up the camera, and with the ability to make dual backups.
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Video Photographer / Avid & Final Cut Editor
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