Camera Archive button does not function (Blackmagic camera source specific?)

[Jeremy Garchow]

Honestly, I’m not sure it’s the media, but more the disk format.

I haven’t had a chance to recreate an exfat card, but my hunch would say it would fail.

[Robin S. kurz]

[Craig Seeman] “given the popularity of BMPPC and FCPX, this would be widely reported”

Given that I think the vast majority of X users either don’t even know of the archiving feature, just don’t use it or simply think copying things by other means is way better anyway, I’m not really that surprised that it hasn’t. Assuming it’s a legitimate bug. Unfortunately mine is out and about, so I can’t test either. And I haven’t made any (or tried) under Yosemite yet.

– RK

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[Craig Seeman]

[Jeremy Garchow] “I haven’t had a chance to recreate an exfat card, but my hunch would say it would fail.”

ExFat is Mac compatible and the cards were formatted using Apple Disk Utility on the very Mac the cards are plugged into. The Mac and FCPX have no problems reading the card. It’s the FCPX Archive function that doesn’t work. The button is active but it doesn’t do anything. If I point to a folder with files in it on the other hand, it’s greyed out. So the Archive seems to see it as something that can be acted on but does nothing.

[Craig Seeman]

[Robin S. Kurz] “I think the vast majority of X users either don’t even know of the archiving feature”

That truly depresses me. A good and simple feature in FCPX so little valued by its user base. I’ve spent years in the COW XDCAM EX forum telling people to never drag and drop cards because you want the metadata intact… and Apple, much to their credit, built such feature in to FCPX.

Admittedly though, upon checking Apple’s list of compatible cameras, Blackmagic isn’t listed at all.
https://help.apple.com/finalcutpro/cameras/en/index.html?

Although on this page
https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/resources/plugins.html#camera

Blackmagic Cinema Camera
Record directly to ProRes using the built-in SSD recorder, and use the touchscreen display to enter metadata that can be viewed and modified directly in Final Cut Pro X.

But I’d add, can’t be Archived 😉

[Robin S. kurz]

[Craig Seeman] “Record directly to ProRes using the built-in SSD recorder”

To be fair… what’s the sense or advantage of using the archive feature (which I love and use all the time also) on a disk like that i.e. native ProRes footage? The whole idea behind it, as you’ve stated, is to avoid losing important files and metadata. But that doesn’t the least bit apply here… so why bother? Simply copying them via the Finder with no issues is a *feature*.

Maybe that’s why FCP isn’t doing it… it sees no point. 😀

– RK

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[Craig Seeman]

[Robin S. Kurz] “what’s the sense or advantage of using the archive feature (which I love and use all the time also) on a disk like that i.e. native ProRes footage?”

One is that I don’t have to leave the FCPX interface. Even if all it where doing is copying it shouldn’t make it more difficult because the camera records ProRes. The other is a visual convenience in that that all my camera masters have an archive icon rather than a folder icon.

In the OS 10.9 variant of the issue, it created an archive complete with .plist. Either the .plist was a problem in the creation or FCPX wasn’t reading it properly.

I should mention this function did work as expected for some time. It’s possible that it worked in 10.0.9 but broke in 10.1. I had been Archiving for some time and suddenly all my past archives and newly created archives showed the same metadata for all the clips.

[Robin S. Kurz] “Maybe that’s why FCP isn’t doing it.”

When FCPX sees a folder the Archive button isn’t active. In this case it is. If it weren’t supposed to work I’d think it would be greyed just as it is when pointed at a folder.

[Robin S. kurz]

Okay. I get the icon-on-the-sidebar thing, yes, since that’s what (and why) I do (it) also. 🙂

[Craig Seeman] “I had been Archiving for some time and suddenly all my past archives and newly created archives showed the same metadata for all the clips.”

Yes, that was the first and highly bizarre bug concerning the BMPCC only(?) for some weird reason. But I’ve reported it to Apple, so I know they know about it. I’d be very curious to know who’s doing what wrong/different.

– RK

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[Craig Seeman]

I believe I got the BMPCC about Oct 2013.
Mavericks 10.9 came out late October ’13
FCP 10.1 came out in December ’13

So it must have been working at least at 10.0.9 and 10.8.5 or maybe 10.9.0
I remember it working at least through around April ’14
Mavericks 10.9.1 Dec ’13
10.9.2 late Feb ’14
10.9.3 May ’14
10.9.4 late June ’14
FCPX 10.1.1 was Jan ’14
FCPX 10.1.2 was late June ’14

I reported the issue on in July with 10.9.4, FCPX 10.1.2
I confirmed the issues was there with 10.9.3, FCPX 10.1.1

So it looks like maybe 10.9.2, FCPX 10.1 might have been OK but I’m not sure.
Otherwise it was last working 10.0.9 and either 10.9 or 10.9.1.

If someone out there has 10.0.9 on Mavericks it would be an interesting test.

[Robin S. Kurz] “Yes, that was the first and highly bizarre bug concerning the BMPCC only(?) for some weird reason.”

The other variables would be .mov recordings but that would impact some Canon DSLR people although, unlike BMPCC, there’s other metadata.

Someone pointed out on another forum that they used to remove the other metadata from Canon DSLR and Archive still worked but that stopped in Yosemite.

Another check might be someone using ProRes recorded on an Alexa and see if that can use the Archive function.

[Jeremy Garchow]

I have SxS cards from a Sony F55 (exfat).

The Camera Archive button does not work. I also do not have the F55 software installed because I use the MXF files natively using the MXF4mac plugin, which is then using the MXF files as easily as ProRes.mov. So, the footage is seen as just a bunch of folders, instead of a “camera” set of folders. If I navigate to another set of folders, from a DSLR for example, and the card structure is recognized, I can make a camera archive from that subset of folders. The DSLR footage I tried isn’t even on a card, but rather sitting on my SAN, as it would any other hard drive.

So it seems this isn’t a disk format issue (exfat/etc) but rather if the import window recognizes a “camera” card structure, the archive button is then available. Obviously, the BMPCC camera card structure isn’t recognized by X in Yosemite.

Jeremy

[Craig Seeman]

[Jeremy Garchow] ” if the import window recognizes a “camera” card structure, the archive button is then available.”

Just to be clear, it is available. it performs no function though. If I point it to a folder it’s not available (greyed out).