[Bob Cole]

Try Sony’s Clip Browser software – free, and it does the error checking which you may need. You should be using it, even if you’ve been fortunate with drag-and-drop.

As to why drag-and-drop works on the MacPro but not the MacBookPro, these errors are pretty random with drag-and-drop. You would have to repeat that experiment quite a few times to determine whether what you’re seeing is random or symptomatic of something wrong with the MBP.

[Bob Cole]

[Michael Slowe] “Clip Browser should be used.”

Absolutely! It may have bailed me out in this case. But I think your practice of transferring everything to ProRes may be even more important.

The “lesson” here is: Use Clip Browser every time you copy a BPAV folder. My question is whether there is an additional lesson: don’t edit natively.

So, to summarize:

July, 2011:
SxS Card->ClipBrowser->RAID->FCP Log & Transfer->ProRes 422. All files transferred into FCP.
BPAV on RAID->ClipBrowser->Backup Drive 1.
BPAV on RAID->drag-and-drop->Backup Drive 2.

August-November, 2011: editing proceeds, all clips are good.

late November, 2011:
Clip 43 suddenly becomes unplayable inside FCP.
FCP refuses to open anything on BPAV from either RAID or Backup Drive 2.
Clip Browser sees every file on RAID and Backup Drive 2, except Clip 43.
FCP successfully imports BPAV, including Clip 43, from Backup Drive 1.

December, 2011: FCP imports BPAV, including Clip 43, from Backup 1 and Backup 2, and all except Clip 43 from the RAID.

I suspect that this whole situation could be due to problems I’m having with my RAID. But the question remains: does the complexity of the BPAV folder make native file editing less reliable than transferring to ProRes 422? If success in native-land relies on several different files for each clip ALL being good, doesn’t it stand to reason that a single ProRes file has a better chance of not becoming corrupted?

Thanks for any insights!

Bob C

{Interesting additional info: This morning, FCP opened the BPAV folders from Backup 1 and Backup 2, seeing every clip (INCLUDING Clip 43), and also opened the BPAV folder (EXCEPT Clip 43) from the RAID. The day before, FCP had refused to open the BPAV folders from RAID and Backup 1 at all.}

[Bob Cole]

It’s brilliant advertising, for the ad agency which produced it. It makes a good bargain with the audience: you’ll get a laugh, and we’ll get a couple minutes of your attention for our brand (=US).

Thanks Mark.

[Bob Cole]

I think there was a thread here sometime back about the overly-lit Bill Murray movie “Caddyshack.” iirc, I defended the lighting bec. the exteriors took a lot of time to shoot, due to some “talent” issues, and I thought that over-lighting was probably strategic, for continuity’s sake.

Reason I bring that up: if it’s a comedy, and you’re using amateur talent, the lighting (sun) might change a lot before you finish the scene, and you need to plan accordingly, so that all of your shots match.

[Bob Cole]

That is surprising about the weight problem on the Nipros ST-7, though I am not sure what it really means. I looked up the language in the online manual; is this what you saw? “They might damage the grip of a camcorder if you lift the camcorder up only with the grip or install a receiver of the wireless microphone, a hard disk backup unit, etc to the battery shoe of ST-7. A camcorder applicable to ST-7 is designed for single usage. We recommend you to use ST-7 as a supporting equipment. It can not be applied to the operation which gives a heavy weight pressure to the grip portion and the application to use a wireless receiver and a hard disk backup unit together.”

To me, that sounds like an overly-cautious engineer, and in all fairness it probably means that although the ST-7 can take the weight, the camera’s handle might not — which would apply to ANY shoulder-mount system which offers a ton of attachment points for hard drives, batteries, HD monitors, blow-driers, snow plows, and mini-fridges.

But whatever that means, I had arrived at the same conclusion as you apparently have. I like the looks of the DM-Accessory shoulder mount too; I’m planning to buy one, and will let you know what I think.

Thanks.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

[Dean Longfield] “(Sony or Anton Bauer with adapter plate)”

Philip Bloom has an interesting article on this unit on his site.

I’ve been looking at this online, and it is interesting, but it is expensive, and if you need compatible batteries (& charger), even more so. I was not aware of the option to use A/B with adapter plates; where have you seen that?

Battery questions, which this Nipros unit raises for me: I have three old – ancient – A/B batteries and an old A/B charger. I assume these batteries should be rebuilt, or perhaps discarded. Should I ditch that investment, and if so, what battery types should I be looking at, for corporate, all-day work? Li-on, graphite li-on? And, does the Nipros + Sony battery give a battery level indicator in the viewfinder?

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

[Scott Sheriff] “So you didn’t mention what codecs/formats are giving you problems, but I’m guessing that you have not quite done all you can to optimize your system and workflow, and/or you are working with a codec that was never intended to be real-time in FCS.”

Thanks.

I’m sure you’re right, and I’ve tried, but to no avail. I should have added that my MacBook Pro, with a firewire drive, is often faster than my MacPro. So something is clearly wrong.

Probably not, but perhaps a factor is that one of the eight drives in my CalDigit HDOne RAID 5 failed this week, so if it was failing slowly, that may have had something to do with it.

[Bob Cole]

(Edited reply)

[Bob Dix] “I believe is is essential “

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the reply. At first I thought you said “it” is essential — I assume you mean that image stabilization is essential.

Are you referring to the 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 lens? I wasn’t aware that there was a 70-200m f/5.6 lens.

How does the 70-200 remove the jello?

I’m interested in the whole issue of IS — there are all sorts of different ways of doing IS (I’ve used steadying devices like the Ken-Lab gyro). I don’t get the same visceral sense of IS from the Canon lenses, so it is hard for me to understand exactly what is happening here. Canon advertises its IS as having various “stops,” i.e. if a still photographer requires 1/125th second to hold a given telephoto steady enough for sharpness, with an IS version he or she can shoot three stops slower, i.e. 1/15 second, and get the same sharpness. But I don’t see how that translates to video.

Thanks and please bear with me – I’m trying to understand a new landscape here.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

About an eon ago in TechTime (c. 1994) I was watching a presentation for one of the latest-and-greatest NLE’s (IMX Cube perhaps?) with a very knowledgeable vendor named Bob Lamm. He listened to the spiel and then turned to me and said, “You know, 20 years from now Adobe Premiere will be the last one of these standing.” (a paraphrase)

Hmmm. Wherever you are, Bob Lamm, your prediction is looking better all the time.

I think I’ll look at PP.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

Hi Jim,

There’s a lot of information on this online! For Picture Profile info, you might want to start with Alister Chapman’s website, xdcam-user.com. But if you search (“‘picture profile’ sony xdcam”), you will find many other sites, including a uk-based Sony website with a couple of samples.

There is almost too much advice on this, which doesn’t keep me from asking for more – if anyone wants to share their recipe.

I’d also be curious about what to avoid – as one experienced DP has remarked on the COW, you have to be careful not to use a setting that was designed for the previous shoot, if it is inappropriate, and especially if that shoot was in an extreme situation.

Bob C