Sony V1U capture problems in FCP

[Bob Torrez]

FCP does not support the Sony V1U yet, you need to capture AIC and convert with
cinema tools. Shoot 24pa. google sony v1u to find workarounds.

[Zack Hill]

any ideas of when FCP will support this camera?
jesus
http://www.zeechproductions.com

[Mark Maness]

[zeech26] “any ideas of when FCP will support this camera?”

I would have to say right after NAB. That seems to be a magic date for Sony and updates to FCP.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com

[Rick Diamond]

I just did a job for some folks that brought 2 PAL V1Us with them. This really excited me because I’m very interested in this camera. However, I was amazed at how bad the sensitivity was. Here’s the question: Is this 1/3″ 3-CMOS camera worse in low light than other current 1/3″ 3-CCD cameras? This issue is potentially a deal breaker for me.

Rick

[Zack Hill]

I found this online and thought it might be helpful:

24p workflow on the mac

I just shot and cut a little two minute piece so that I could shakedown the camera and the workflow with Final Cut Pro.

Worked pretty nicely.

Shoot 24p Scan A mode. Capture in Final Cut as Apple Intermediate Codec 1080i60. Open your capture scratch folder and, one clip at a time, right click the clip and open with cinema tools. Do not move the playhead!! choose reverse telecine, be sure conform to says 23.98 and near the bottom of the screen choose _CD_. After the footage has been pulled down you should see no interlaced frames of any kind. Create a new AIC 1080i60 sequence in FCP, but change its frame rate to 23.98 in sequence settings (you’ll see the field dominance switch to none).

Note it only works this easily if you shoot 24p scan A mode so that the cadence resets every time you pause the camera. if you shoot in regular 24p, you’ll have to find the A frame for each clip you pull down, and that is a pain with AIC.

You can’t use HDV native because cinema tools needs all I frames. AIC looks exactly like the HDV, it just takes up several times the disc space and you’ll lose the timecode. I did this with the current versions of FCP & CT. I’m not sure that it would work in older versions.

[John]

Rick… Regarding the low-light capabilities of the V1U:

First of all, the sensors in the Sony V1U are 1/4″ not 1/3″. And as you may know, Sony is using a very new technique of rotating the sensors 45-degrees and doing some tricky processing to obtain a sharper image (supposedly) than otherwise.

I just bought a V1U last week and played around with for the first time over the weekend. I have shot with Sony PD150/170 extensively and the Z1U a little bit (maybe two hours worth). For the past three years my main run-gun-camera has been a Sony PDX-10 and I also have a Sony DSR-570WS. I have not yet had an opportunity to direclty compare the Z1 with the V1 yet (hope to this weekend), but here is my hunch based on past experience:

In terms of low-light sensitivity, the v1U performs about like its 1/4″ chip size would suggest. That is, it is not as sensitive as the Z1 (which itself it not great in low light). Sony rates low-light capability of these two cameras as 3lux for the V1U and 4lux for the Z1, which I think is fair. I have compared the V1U with my PDX10 side by side, and in my opinion, they are very comparable — even though the PDX10 has even smaller chips (roughly 1/5″). If I had to rate all the cameras I’ve mentioned for low-light performance (from best to worst) it would be as follows:

1- DSR-570WS
2- DSR-PD170
3- DSR-PD150
4- HVR-Z1U
5- HVR-V1U and DSR-PDX10

Now.. when it comes to sharpness and contrast it’s a totally different story. The V1U creates beautiful pictures: very sharp, no smear, and with a very acceptable contrast ratio. In my opinion, the picture quality of the V1U is as good or better than the Z1U — of course that’s completely subjective. Ergonomically, the V1U is the best pro-sumer camcorder I have ever used. It is much better balanced than the Z1U or either PD170/150. And, it only weighs 0.4 lbs more than my little PDX10. So it is a very light package and beautifully designed.

All in all, I am thrilled with the V1U. My only hesitations in transitioning to this camera from my DVCAM equipment are:

1) the V1U isn’t great in low light (but that’s the price you pay for inexpensive, small, light 1080P camcorder)

2) the HDV format is a major pain to work with compared with DV/DVCAM (again.. the price you pay for cheap HD resolution)

3) FCP 5.1.3 still is not yet fully compatible with the V1U (esp. 24p/24pA mode; you have to capture as AICodec and run individual clips through Compressor)

Hope this is helpful. John

John Christensen
cdesign@airmail.net

[John]

Sorry.. I think I got my lux ratings reversed: 4lux minimum for the v1u; 3lux min for the z1u.

John