Something big for XDCAM July 26?

[Robin Probyn]

Whats this whole SDHC card thing.. if you are a professional camera person.. its your source of income then you invest in the gear you need for your market.. if you are lower on the ladder you can buy this camera and use SD cards.. yes much cheaper but with a well known higher failure rate.. shit happens.. but more to a SD card in an adaptor .. if the producers or person you are working for is paying you a low amount and you have told them.. well in that case I have to use SD cards and they are not pro level and can fail.. they roll the dice.. if how ever you are being paid a professional rate you would always want to use SXS cards.. for your own reputation and in fairness to the client who is no doubt expecting that you are at the very least recording to the best available media for your camera.. for a professional camera person its plain mad to not invest in SXS cards.. if you lose a client its going to cost you way more than a few SXS cards..

But you can’t have it both ways.. its a bonus that the camera can actually be used with SD cards.. so the low end market can record to a very good codec at a very low price.. rejoice !!

[Dean Longfield]

4:2:2 on a small camera with 1/2″ chips. That’s a good thing. I’m also very happy about the 4 channels of audio that I believe it has. Plus the audio select & control switches are all on the left side of the camera, which is good, (I don’t mean the line/mic switch, which is of course under the XLR inputs where it belongs).

The SxS cards slot is on the back of the cam and the door appears to swing out to the left of the camera, like a hinge. That concerns me as the door might be more prone to breakage if it accidentally opens and sticks out. Obviously one would have to see and handle the camera to determine if that’s an issue, (I’m just looking at the picture – see link below). Also the shutter on/off switch has been moved from the front to the left side of the cam. I’m not sure I want that switch where the camera operator might accidentally switch it; but it’s a switch as opposed to a button, which makes that scenario less likely.

Now I’m wondering if they fixed the sticky zoom issue on this model or if they put the same zoom motor as the EX1 – EX1/R on the PMW-200 ?

https://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/micro-xdcam/resource.latest.bbsccms-assets-micro-xdcam-latest-XDCAMPMW200.shtml

[Alister Chapman]

The lens has a new zoom servo, so slow zooms are improved. Still not up to $30K pro lens standards, but much better all the same.

Alister Chapman
http://www.xdcam-user.com

[Dean Longfield]

Wow. Thanks for the zoom servo motor info Alister. That’s encouraging news.

[Tom Greenwood]

Hi,
Would really appreciate a pointer here. I’m leaving to shoot a doc in Syria tomorrow. Just got a PMW200 and I can’t work out how to use the video I shoot with it. The log and transfer plug in for FCP 7 doesn’t work at 50mbps (though it’s fine for 35mbps).
Would be enormously gratefully if someone could point out a solution today (although I’ll have sporadic email access there, so even if it comes late it would still be brilliant).
Thanks,
Tom

[Robin Probyn]

Not an editor but had the same issue come up when I started sending 50 Mbps files from PMW500.. everyone is used to the BPAV folders from XDCAM EX but on one could deal with the 50 Mbps files in FCP.
The L +T doesnt seem to work for UDF folders ..

Answer seems to be XDCAM browser.. set pref to FCP7.. see the clips in Explorer window.. select all. right click and import to FCP.. also read recently better to start XDCAM Browser from FCP.. otherwise its in standalone mode,not plugin mode..

Now with the PMW200 being used I guess alot more than the 500.. Im sure this problem will come up more with FCP .. ?

[Tom Greenwood]

Thanks Robin, massively appreciated!
It seems to be working but it’s taking forever – an hour for a 3 minute clip. Any ideas on why that might be?

[Tom Greenwood]

Thanks again, got the slow problem sorted by downloading drivers from the sony site.
All the best, T

[Robin Probyn]

Hi Tom

Yes need the driver and the UDF driver.. mac has its own UDF driver but super slow as you and I also found out the hard way..

You dont need the ilnk /FAM stuff..

Good luck

[Marshall Wetta]

Which UDF driver do you need to speed up downloads from the SxS cards via ShotPut Pro? I can only find the PMW-500 udf driver and don’t want to cause any compatibility issues when I install it.

Thanks!