Al Bergstein
Forum Replies Created
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Yes, it came with different size plastic screwnuts that hold it various distances from the focus ring. Works just fine.
Alf
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The Panasonic HDC-TM900 is likely what I would seriously consider if I was buying a low end camcorder. It really seems to have almost everything you need. The alternative might be the Canon at about $1200 or so ( I can’t remember the model) but it has possibly a bit lower light ability, and dual card slots along with internal memory. Either is likely to be a great camera if camcorder is what you like.
Alf
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well I just learned something! John, you are saying that Prores footage is editable in Vegas 10.x as long as I have QT installed? That would be great, as I have lots of Prores footage on my Mac that I would love to bring over if necessary in the future, which seems closer than it did before X was shipped.
Also, I have had no problem, when forced, to take my xf305 footage shot in Canon’s MXF and importing it natively into Final Cut Pro or Vegas. So if you are looking to upgrade your camera at some point, and want a broadcast quality, both Sony’s EX-3 or Canon’s xf300/305 are great choices. I am loving the xf305. Footage is out of this world wonderful in either Sony or Canon.
Alf
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I use the DFocus rig, and leave the gears permanently on my lenses. Works fine.
Alf
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+1 for Bill’s post. I think that TB is worth buying if you are going to stay on Mac given the X issues we are all sorting out.
Alf
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To the OP, I’ve had great success so far in the last year with Other World Computing’s drives. I’m sure there are lots of other companies out there, but their multi-tb RAID drives are pretty inexpensive, and can give you at least RAID 1 for basic redundancy, though it won’t protect you from ultimate problems with theft, fire, etc. The drives have been very reliable, quiet and fast for a pretty low price. One of their models has a RAID card built in, so you only need a single esata cable, or you can even run FW or USB into it, if you are working on a laptop. I agree with the thought that you will have an easier go of it by getting more storage. Time is money. Maybe if you are cash strapped you can buy a couple of single drives and swap them out. I have been also using a drive caddy, costs about $35 (plus an esata card if you don’t have one, or use FW),and can run down to an office supply store and buy raw 1TB drives for less than $100 a piece. You didn’t mention how you are backing up all this data…which is also going to be an ongoing cost. The caddy allows me to backup the RAID arrays for off site storage, on a project by project basis. So far, I’ve not filled up my bank lock box. One friend has bought a fire proof safe for home use, and bolted it to the floor of his concrete garage.
And to be clear, on a ‘pay me now or pay me later’ thought, by moving to a competing platform, you pay now, but avoid needing the greater storage, at least for now. You could get all your editing done, save up for some more storage, and then take the final footage and convert to Prores or some other codec like Cineform that other software competitors support for grading. However, you might not have enough storage to do that! With storage so cheap, it seems worth buying more. I recently bought a 4 TB (3 useable in RAID 5) from OWC for less than $500.
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Hmmm. well, I think I’ll install it on my laptop first before just upgrading. Has Boris made a statement about compatability yet? How about Frederick B. who did the wonderful little white balance color correction add on?
I always like to wait a month before installing anything, unless it fixes a flaw I’m waiting to have fixed. Unless Vegas’ team is some gigantic high rise full of people, I would have to assume that their test teams are pretty small. Trying to do a test with all possible scenarios of gear is, to say the least, difficult.
It’s one of the nightmares of Windows that, unlike the Mac, they can’t control the vast array of hardware and software build possibilities.
It’s been odd, my 10.d has been extremely stable for me, for reasons that I can’t figure, so I’m not likely to just jump on some new build because it’s new. I just completed a job with five different cameras, four different video codecs, and it didn’t hiccup at all. I multicam(ed) 7D, T2i (same codec), Canon MXF, and JVC MOV files, on one timeline, then added AVCHD intro footage with Green screen handled by Boris. No crashes.
Someone not long ago on this board discussed doing upgrades by taking a system image in Windows of your OS drive (i.e. C:) and then swapping the drives out, doing the upgrade, and seeing what happens. If it all works, then you can swap the drives back and do the ‘real’ upgrade. I would make sure you have two of the same drives. Restore points don’t always work. But you should be able to do a restore point back to where you were just before the upgrade. I’ll likely be doing that for this upgrade.
Alf
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Josh, sorry I didn’t get back to you yesterday, I was out on a shoot, and then was editing until now. The settings I rendered that video out in was 1280×720 at 30p and 8 Mbps to keep the size reasonable.
Alf
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Thanks Joshua. It always helps to be locked down on a tripod (G). I’ll be updating the video with board fed audio later this week. But the sound off the shotgun was ‘good enough’ for now.
Alf
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Yes, I saw the differences on the Sony page, but wanted to see if there was stuff that maybe wasn’t so clear, such as the hex hacking (G). And since the Protitler is available only on Pro, it points to the fact that they should just pay up and get it. If they could have saved some money, they would have liked that. I’m not really interested in downgrading for one client, unless there was some fun consumer things in it, like in iMovie, which has a very nice trip mapping animation. Put in two coordinates and the animation draws a circumnavigation around the globe. Simple but effective.
Thanks for your feedback.
Alf