[Bob Cole]

Working with this monitor, I get the sense of a company which knows what cameramen need. It’s 4:3, so when you use it to frame a 16:9 shot you’ll see a letterboxed image. Mine quickly developed a couple of missing pixels; I’m sort of hoping for some more bad pixels so it can qualify for a replacement.

The nicest feature for me is pixel-to-pixel mode (one tap on a programmable function button, and a cropped, larger version of the image occupies the entire 4:3 frame; another tap takes you back to 16:9 full frame). I actually like the fact that the LCD is 4:3 because it makes it obvious whether you’re in framing mode (16:9) or focus-checking in pixel-to-pixel mode. There are several other modes I haven’t used: some sort of artificial edge enhancement for focus assist, & false color for exposure assistance (haven’t used yet either).

imho this monitor occupies a sweet spot in terms of weight, price, and performance. There are a number of different models of the same monitor, for your powering options, video inputs. I think Marshall can modify the monitor after purchase, if your video outputs and powering needs change.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

[eric pautsch] ” You do the math!”

Good points. Never thought of the burning time. Makes sense.

Even so, BluRay does appeal to me as a more robust and less expensive delivery vehicle. More fully, this situation is a low-budget job for a non-profit, and a remote shooter documenting an ongoing process (at most one hour footage/day), and I need to keep tabs on what he’s getting. It would be as much as a weekly update. BluRay is his workflow and he is willing to absorb the time to burn a disk. All I would need is a reader.

[Bob Cole]

I wish someone would reply. Don’t know that I’d trust those water-filled weights for a crane. Matthews and others make refillable canvas weights with velcro flaps – you could put factory-sealed plastic water/whatever bottles in those and then have a drink at the end of the shoot. But for a crane? I’d just bring real weights for something that mission-critical.

I’m constantly leaving most of my sandbags home when flying to shoots, and I wish I had a better solution for you and for me both. But I’d avoid anything like the acqua bells – they look as if they’d fail at the wrong moment.

[Bob Cole]

[eric pautsch] “Blu Ray would be a bad option as well.”

Just curious – why? Amount of data that can be stored? Reliability?

I’ve been using HDD’s but they’re sort of a nuisance (more trouble to ship, a little too expensive to treat as one-ways).

[Bob Cole]

re life span: How do you know when the gauge is getting close to empty? I understand that there is a “gas gauge,” but that would require you to keep running some utility. Or do you know when the card starts to fail on recording/playback?

Or, is this a legal-department mandate — a theoretical limit which nobody has yet reached in the real world?

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

[Steve Eisen] “Buy ShotputPro and offload the cards.”

Please tell me more. I don’t own a P2 camera or deck; I need to use some device to interpret the P2 card first. Are you saying to use ShotputPro along with the HPG10, or is there some reader that you’re using?

btw – discovered that part of the trick with the HPG10 is to press and HOLD the menu button. It is a very tricky device to use. I put the material onto three different HDs.

Thanks.

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

This may be a record number of threads by only one person, but anyway:

I turned the machine off and on (by power button and by disconnecting entirely from power) repeatedly last night, trying to exit 1394 Host mode.

I finally abandoned the effort, leaving the HPG10 unplugged for five hours. This morning, it allowed me to navigate to the basic operation menu and I was able to change to USB Host mode. It seems to be working now, although even after transferring the first card, I can’t get it to go back to the Basic Operations Menu – perhaps have to depower it again?

1. Is it necessary to have the HPG10 verify? It seems to about double the transfer time, and I have 19 cards to transfer before the rental house gets its device and cards back tomorrow.
2. How do you check your footage? I plan to disconnect the HPG10 and the hard drive, connect the hard drive to my Mac Pro to make a backup copy of the files… then, what would be the fastest way to make sure the transfer is good? I imagine, just transfer into FCP.
3. I looked online for info about use of the AG-HPG10, but didn’t find much. Is this device not used much? Even now, after it is apparently working, I can’t seem to go back to menus that I used just an hour ago. (Perhaps I have to depower again?)
4. I am looking for my first tapeless camera, and this has made me very aware of the transfer process. I’m a one-man band when I shoot, which makes me very aware of the data wrangling aspect. If you had no investment in P2/Sony/Nano, which would you choose?

Bob C

[Bob Cole]

When I received the HPG10, I could access a basic menu that gave me the option of choosing USB or 1394.

Unfortunately, I chose 1394, and can’t seem to get back to the basic operation menu with the USB/1394 choice, or re-initialize the device to the factory settings. I’m following the manual as closely as i know how.

Someone?

[Bob Cole]

I’ve been looking through this forum and discovering the unique difficulty of 24pn footage: if I understand correctly, it won’t transfer via Firewire.

Unfortunately, the HPG10 I’m using seems to be stuck on 1394 mode. Does anybody know how to un-stick it? The manual does not envision that as a possibility.

[Bob Cole]

more details:

1. Although I am still getting the “Can’t Access Target” message, there does seem to be material that has been transferred to the hard drive.
2. I would like to try a transfer via USB, but the HPG10 can’t seem to exit 1394 mode. I’m following the manual religiously, trying every combination of disconnecting the Firewire, connecting the USB, etc., but I wind up with the words “1394 Host” on the HPG10, along with the “Setup” menu option, with everything else grayed out.

For #1, how can I verify that the media is transferred correctly? There appear to be 7 clips on the P2 card, and more than that on the hard drive.

For #2, is there a way to get out of “1394 Host” on the HPG10?

Bob C