Kodak Zi8 Cameras / FCP 7

[Luis René oliveros]

Hello guys and greetings from sunny Guatemala. Just stopped by this thread because I am thinking of getting a couple of these Zi8 cameras so I can shoot small-time multi-camera musical events at bars here in my City. Just to add to more angles to the work I’ve been doing with my Vixia HV-30 and another Panasonic thingy. I’m not worried about audio, I capture separately. The video however, how do you think It will match up with enough light to the other 1080p footage if I use the compression instructions you’ve mentioned so far? I can’t afford more expensive cameras right now. Am I crazy?

Luis Oliveros

[David Roth weiss]

[Luis René Oliveros] “how do you think It will match up with enough light to the other 1080p footage if I use the compression instructions you’ve mentioned so far? I can’t afford more expensive cameras right now. Am I crazy?”

No, you’re not crazy. All of these smaller cameras, the Zi8, FlipCam, etc. are a very nice way to supplement a multi-cam shoot. They don’t match perfectly with other cameras, but then no cameras, even identical cameras, match perfectly. And, when shooting live music there are often a myriad of different lights coming from all sorts angles anyway, and there’s an expectation of creative constantly changing lighting as well. So, who will really care.

There’s a lot of transcoding to do, but if you’re smart you’ll set up a droplet that will make that all happen automatically overnight while you sleep.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.com

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A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Luis René oliveros]

Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it.

[Ken Tierney]

Hey there,

I also own the ZI8 and it’s a nifty little camera but in low light situations it does not seem to record at a consistant speed. Seems like it is dropping frames but not accounting for the time discrepancy that causes. I still use it as a second camera, but now I expect to have to spend some time syncing the video if I was recording in low light.

YMMV
Ken

[Luis René oliveros]

Thanks for the heads up on that, either way I never got around to purchasing that camera since It was replaced by the playtouch and that one did not get as good reviews. Thanks again. Luis

[Courtney Griffin]

You know what really sucks though, is that with the Flip Cam and Zi8 – the Apple ProRes file is gigs and gigs and gigs larger than the original file.

Isn’t there a codec plugin for FCP to handle these H.264 files?!?

It seems to me like if iMovie can handle these files, it’s just a matter of installing some kind of FCP plugin to make it all come together.