On-Camera Recorders

Cinematography

On-Camera Recorders

Posted by Todd Terry on October 11, 2017 at 6:10 pm

Hey gang…

So, anyone know if there are any of the current batch of small recorders that accept DV (firewire) in??

I’m trying to get some more life out of a previously-retired Canon XLH1 (a great camera back in its day). Probably 99% of the time I do single-camera shoots (primarily with the C300 PL), but there are occasions that pop up now and then that warrant multi-cam setups and I’d like to be able to use this camera… and there are some instances when I want a shoulder-mounted camera with a nice video zoom for more ENG style work instead of my daily cine primes.

Recorders in the various brands and flavors now seem plentiful and are fairly inexpensive… but most of them seem to only accept either HDMI or HD-SDI in (or both).

The H1 has no HDMI output. It does have SDI output, but the first generation of the H1 (which mine is) did not embed audio in the SDI signal, and I believe its output was limited to 30fps (I almost always shoot 24fps).

So… I need a firewire recorder. Is there one?

I’ll admit I haven’t exhaustively researched this… but thought I’d ask here first.

Thanks!

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

Todd Terry replied 8 years, 7 months ago 3 Members · 8 Replies
8 Replies

Steve Kownacki
October 11, 2017 at 6:49 pm

Hi Todd,
I have a Samurai Blade https://www.atomos.com/samurai-blade and this may do what you need. Will take SD SDI in, and it has analog audio in, although only 3.5mm.

Steve
Todd Terry
October 12, 2017 at 5:34 am

Thanks Steve, appreciate the thought…. but sadly, no.

I unless I missed something, I believe all the current various flavors of Atmos recorders only accept HDMI or SDI inputs (or both). As I said in my original post, I need a recorder that will input Firewire.

I’ll keep looking….

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
Bouke Vahl
October 12, 2017 at 7:53 am

Todd,
You’re missing the point.
The blade HAS audio in, so you could use that. (But it’s crippled)
Alternative is a SoundDevices PIX, that has both SDI and balanced audio in.
I doubt there are FireWire recorders left. FireWire is limited to HDV afaik, and that means sacrificing 1/3 of the resolution and a bad codec. (Highly compressed 4:2:0)

Bouke
http://www.videotoolshed.com
Steve Kownacki
October 12, 2017 at 10:39 am

What I figured you would do, Todd, is to BNC your SDI signal for video, and then use a RCA to 3.5 mm plug for your audio direct out of your camera. This would allow you to have your XLR‘s for audio into your camera and have the camera convert the audio from whatever mic you are using into the camera. You could certainly come out of an audio mixer and convert XLR to 3.5 mm, but you mentioned about being mobile for a run and gun. The analog input audio on the samurai is very good.

Steve
Todd Terry
October 12, 2017 at 2:46 pm

[Bouke Vahl] “You’re missing the point.”

No, I get the point… it’s just that’s not what I was asking for, nor what would work for me.

Appreciate it but I was only asking about the availability of Firewire recorders, since my camera as I said in the original post does not output 24p footage via HD-SDI.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
Todd Terry
October 12, 2017 at 2:51 pm

[Steve Kownacki] “What I figured you would do, Todd, is to BNC your SDI signal for video, and then use a RCA to 3.5 mm plug for your audio direct out of your camera.”

Hey Steve…

Yeah, i get the workflow, and had previously considered that (also considered a component-to-HDMI converter… but I’m trying not to jump through hoops or create a Frankenstein rig). More importantly (and sadly) though, as I said above Canon in its infinite wisdom (along with not embedding audio) chose not to output 24p footage via HD-SDI, only 30/60. So while the audio has an easy workaround….video, not so much.

Fortunately I did find a couple of Firewire recorders… DataVideo still makes one, as does one other company that I was not as familiar with.

Thanks for the input!

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
Bouke Vahl
October 12, 2017 at 3:29 pm

Ok
24 FPS is ONLY used in high end Hollywood productions.
The rest of the world uses 23.976, 25 or 29.97
If you want to be in the 24 world, you would have the cam to work with.

Now, did you do your homework?

Bouke
http://www.videotoolshed.com
Todd Terry
October 12, 2017 at 4:23 pm

[Bouke Vahl] “Now, did you do your homework?”

Only for the past 30 years.

I typically shoot video 23.976 unless there is the rare occasion that I am shooting for a legitimate film print-out (rare), which I then shoot at true 24fps. Or when shooting 35mm film (also rare these days) I shoot at true 24fps but it is telecined at 23.976. My reference to 24p footage meant, obviously, 23.976.

Homework complete.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

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