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Adding Camera to studio enviornment : Suggestions
I am not sure if this is the right forum to post this in, if not please direct me elsewhere.
So currently, our little studio we have has a Panasonic HPX170. We are going to be upgrading to a larger studio, and will be looking to get a second and in time a 3rd camera. My current workflow involves offloading the P2 cards through a DualApdater into my laptop, which I then transfer directly onto my macpro(in other part of the office) via our network. This has worked well for the past 4 years, but now, our new studio space is in a building a few blocks away, so I will not be able to transfers the files over a network and will have carry drives with me.
So basically, I need a new (supplement) camera, my first thought was to get the identical camera, another HPX170 so the footage will look identical. However my concern is, that it’s already a model that is several years old, I would prefer to get a newer model camera.
Also I have had experience in the field using AJA Ki Pro recorders, and wow are they awesome! Records everything on a hard drive, plugs in through FW800 and transfers right to my computer as ProRes .mov files. After using them I wanted to (if possible) use them in our new studio space. This would also allow me to venture to a different camera if I wanted to without needing to worry about P2 compatibility. My only concern then would be if the camera gives similar image quality. Also I would have to go with the Ki Pro Mini because the price, even though I wouldn’t have the hard drives I would need to get Compact Flash drives, which is probably fine.
Currently we do a lot of green screen work, interviews, and news segments. With two cameras and a bigger space, we will start moving away from green screen and actually have 2 camera shoots on interviews, as apposed to what we do now which is, shoot the interviewee answer questions on green screen, then shoot the interviewer ask the questions on green screen, and cut them together in post.So the main questions I have are
– What camera to get?
– What storage medium? (ki pro / p2 / or something else?)
– Which brings into, how to get it on my Mac Pro? I will need either a good p2 card reader or a CF card reader for it.any suggestions would be really helpful, thank you.
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MacPro Octo Core Intel Xenon 2.8Ghz 10GB DDR2 Ram
FCP 7.0.3
-I highly recommend el Gato Turbo264HD- -
3 Replies
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Build off of what you have.
This would be my suggestion. Get another HPX-170. Your other options are the HPX-250 or HPX-370. The HPX-500 or 600 are probably out of your budget. Invest in P2 cards. They are very affordable now.
KiPro’s are incredible! They are the perfect match with any of the P2 cameras mentioned above. Connect via SDI and with the correct setting, KiPro will record when you hit the record button on the camera.
PCD35 P2 card reader.
Can’t believe you are still using the Duel Adapter! Must using an ancient OS with it.
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Creative Pro Users Group -
I had been looking at the hpx-250, the 370 is probably out of our price range, also I don’t want to get something that is too much better than the hpx170, if we do a two camera shoot, I don’t want the different angles to look too different. If I ended up getting the ki pros, wouldn’t I not need to buy extra p2 cards? I would just be saving to the ki pros right?
Yea, the duel adapter is hooked up to a 2009 model laptop, it is probably running osx 10.5 or 10.6, I am not sure, I only use it to run the teleprompter and transfer p2 data, so the os was never a concern for me lol.
I probably would not want to invest in the good p2 card reader unless I ended up not getting the ki pros, I like using p2, but the ki pro workflow is so much quicker, I think it might be worth it.
edit: and since I realize I didn’t mention it before, I edit in FCP7
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MacPro 4,1 Dual Quad-Core Intel 2.26Ghz, 16GB DDR3 Ram
FCP 7.0.3
-I highly recommend el Gato Turbo264HD- -
I’d definitely go to a direct ProRes/ hard drive recording setup for studio work. If not the KiPro there’s also the Hyperdeck Shuttle from Blackmagic.
Noah
Call Box Training.
Featuring the Panasonic GH2 and Panasonic AC160/130.
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