SD with EX-1

[Don Greening]

The EX1 does not shoot in SD but you can have the camera do a down convert to SD through its many output ports, SDI, component etc.

– Don

[Rafael Amador]

I haven’t try to record he SD output yet (BlackMagic cable broken), but I’ve plugged it to the SD IN of my JVC monitor and looks great.
I’m more concern about downconverting in FC. Until now I think that what I’m getting looks wonderful. At least in my MBP.
What about your experience?

Mac OX 10.5.2-FC 6.02-QT 7.4.1
G5 2x2Gh 4GbRAM-BlackMagic Extreme
PMBP 17″Core2Duo 4GbRAM-AJA ioHD
JVC DTV-17″
SONY EX-1 . SONY PD170
..and always a big mess on top of the table.

[Michael Slowe]

Rafael, I am getting my new EX1 this week and will be shooting in SP mode which is HDV I believe. That way I get 140 minutes on two 16 gb cards and can transfer the media to tape via firewire. That is presumably not quite what you meant though. The camera only shoots XDCAM (HQ mode) or HDV (SP mode) I believe.

Michael Slowe

[Chris Stevens]

SD downconvert in camera looks good, better than edit suite downconvert in my opinion.

G5 dual 2.7, OS10.5.1, 4G RAM
Media100 HD V12 & Producer, AE 7
5.6 terra RAID

[Michael Slowe]

Chris, vital question for me. Which would look better, shoot in HQ and downconvert to SD in camera thence to DV tape into a DSR 20 and edit as DV, or shoot in SP then down to tape to the HDV M10. I then convert to uncompressed HD through Convergent Design’s HD-Connect for editing in Media 100 HD. For digital tape and DVD distribution I then of course have to downscale either in Media 100 (very good) or for DVD’s in BitVice (even better downscale). With the former route I don’t of course have the option of an HD master for future use. How soon will HD become the norm, many years yet I think.

Michael Slowe

[Craig Seeman]

Of course you could drop the HD into an SD timeline. I did that recently and was quite happy. It gives you the flexibility to reframe the shot, do a fake dolly or tracking shot, cut to close up from a longer shot as if you had multiple cameras.

[Kevin Jones]

Craig,
Could you elaborate on your workflow?:
Dropping HD footage into an SD timeline.
Thanks.

Kevin Jones

2.5GHz Quad-core PowerPC G5
Final Cut Studio 2

[Chris Stevens]

Never shot anything in SP so can’t help with that one. However, capturing in HD permits pan & scan in post. Great results with v slow panning/crabbing on locked off shots… try it!

G5 dual 2.7, OS10.5.1, 4G RAM
Media100 HD V12 & Producer, AE 7
5.6 terra RAID

[Rafael Amador]

I’ve been dropping the EX-1 footage (HQ) in a DV sequence. A bit of Color Correction and then changing the codec to Proress HQ. Rendering in high precision and Motion rendering BEST.
What I’ve got until now, I think is very good.
BTW I think that when going from 1080 to 480 or 576 there is not problem with field orders (no way for a line shift). At least what I get in my MBP monitor do not show any interlaing problem. I have to check it with my CRT interlaced monitor. But next week. Blackmagic out of order. I want to heck too how it works the Nattress “Chroma sharpening 4.2.0” with the EX-1 footage.

Mac OX 10.5.2-FC 6.02-QT 7.4.1
G5 2x2Gh 4GbRAM-BlackMagic Extreme
PMBP 17″Core2Duo 4GbRAM-AJA ioHD
JVC DTV-17″
SONY EX-1 . SONY PD170
..and always a big mess on top of the table.

[Chris Babbitt]

The only problem I’ve encountered with this method is when speeding up or slowing down footage in FCP. For some reason, with this function, the field order isn’t changed, so you have to apply the effect to the original HD clip, render, and then save it as a .mov before adding it to your SD timeline. Kind of a hassle! I don’t know if there might be other filters that might be affected by this issue.