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Christopher Targia 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- -
6 Replies
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I’ve always loved Panasonic products and use a lot of them but never been a fan of P2. Panny itself seems to be trending away from P2 in new models that can handle SDHC cards.
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Hi,
We are not trending away from P2 at all, and in fact, has introduced 3 new cameras this year under the P2 banner. We do offer a nice line up in the lower cost cameras of AVCHD?SD Cards which will allow the recording of AVCHD.
But since the OP already has P2, this quandry of accepting P2 is moot. I think the beautiful step up in this studio situation would be the AG-HPX255, as you can add a real, remote paint box.
Hope this helps,
Jan
Jan Crittenden Livingston
Product Manager, AVCCAM, AG-3DA1, AG-AF100
Panasonic Broadcast & TV Systems -
what is a remote paint box?
also if I end up using the ki pros, the fact that I am using p2 currently becomes irrelevant, as I will just be recording on them, and since there is one less step once I bring the footage back to my computer, I think it may be worth it, even if I get another p2 camera.
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MacPro Octo Core Intel Xenon 2.8Ghz 10GB DDR2 Ram
FCP 7.0.3
-I highly recommend el Gato Turbo264HD- -
and since I realize I didn’t mention it before, I edit in FCP7
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MacPro Octo Core Intel Xenon 2.8Ghz 10GB DDR2 Ram
FCP 7.0.3
-I highly recommend el Gato Turbo264HD- -
Also called a CCU (Camera Control Unit). It takes key functions of the camera to an outboard remote interface so an engineer/operator can “shade” and “paint” the camera, adjusting the white balance, iris, the black level, and the red. green, and blue color mixing, to manually adjust the camera’s output live in realtime. When the Big Boys do live shoots, every camera has its own remote CCU in the truck or studio rack and an engineer is constantly adjusting each camera to get the best performance out of it, leaving the camera operator to concentrate on framing and focusing.
The term is also sometimes used in reference to a digital tablet and art system that went by the brand name “Paintbox.” But I’m pretty sure Jan meant a CCU in the context of her answer.
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given the size of our studio, and the lack of complexity, (pretty much, set focus/iris and leave it), I don’t think a remote CCU unit would be nessisary
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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-
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