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  • Sony Cameras

    camera selection

    Posted by Robert Maier on August 27, 2010 at 10:26 pm

    I’m looking for three camcorders for a college video production program. Our mini-DV Panasonics are still going strong and serving us well, except for the capture time that ties up computers and cameras. I want to move to a memory card camera with SD capability; but HD capable for future upgrades, when I upgrade the computers. P2 is not a great option because students may easily lose/damage the cards. I’m looking at the HXRNX5U, but don’t need the simultaneous option, and it’s not clear if it will work well in the SD mode, or even clear if it will shoot and download in native SD. I’m editing mainly with Vegas, and soon buying a few FCP seats. I can spend about $5,000 per camera package (not including tripod). Any suggestions please? Or steer me to a dealer well-versed in the SD capabilities of the cameras? Thanks!

    Ian Cook replied 15 years, 8 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies

  • John Lenihan

    August 27, 2010 at 11:32 pm

    Robert,

    I have used a pair of them for 6 months now.

    If I were in your place, I would not hestite to buy three NX5U cameras.

    You can record in SD mode, which stores it as mpeg2 on your storage.

    If you want to do a multicamera shoot, you can plug into the composite output to your switcher.

    If you want to go HD, just swith a setting and you are in HD.
    You can choose the HDSDI output jack and connect into a HD switcher, if you want live switching.

    I purchased the storage device, I think it goes for $1k. I love that feature so much for my workflow. However, it is detacheable , so if you are afraid of a student absconding with it, just have each student bring there own SD cards.

    John Lenihan
    LeniCam Video Productions

    https://www.lenicam.com

    John Lenihan

    LeniCam Video Productions
    https://www.lenicam.com

  • Ian Cook

    August 30, 2010 at 1:34 pm

    Hi Robert,

    The NX5U shoots natively in both HD and SD. There is also a Time Code in/out port for sync-ing other cameras if you need to do multicamera shoots.

    FCP currently does not support the NX5s SD MPEG files, though this is expected to change in a forthcoming release. In the meantime a 3rd party converter can be used to ingest the files.

    Hope this is helpful…

    Ian

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