HPX 250 clips broken into 5 min clips

[John Fishback]

Best way to ensure sync between 2 or more cameras is to send reference (black or tri-level) to all the cameras Ref (or Gen) inputs. Then, send timecode to the cams timecode inputs. This will hold sync all day and have synced timecode. With just 2 cams you can use composite video out from cam 1 to Ref in Cam2, and timecode out cam 1 to timecode in cam 2. For short scenes you can use a slate at the start of the scene, and/or use FCPX multicam or Plural Eyes to match the audio tracks from both cams. That will hold for short scenes and then start to drift. If your cam doesn’t have ref in/out or timecode in/out, you’re stuck with syncing with audio. Feed the same audio to both cams to get best results. When the tracks start to drift, blade the tracks and re-sync.

[Craig Alan]

[John Fishback] “send reference (black or tri-level) to all the cameras Ref (or Gen) inputs.”

The hpx 250 does have gen lock and tc inputs.

Will this work as well as external devices that go out to 2 or more camera?

Do I just use SDI cables between the two cams?

From the manual

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Mark Smith]

if you can’t cable in both genlock and TC , TC alone will work but the cameras won’t be iin perfect sync as the vertical interval will likely be off. Does this matter ? not so much. There are Lockit boxes which hold very precise time code and can be used to pass TC to the camera. There is also Tentacle sync boxes which are far less expensive than Locki boxes, smaller and generally more efficient and perform the same function of acting as an external time code clock for cameras . I’ve used those a few times recently with success.

None of this really addresses why FCPX is not seeing your P2 clips as one long spanned clip. For some reason the app doesn’t see the metadata which tells the NLE “this is all one clip”.