[Bohus Blahut]

My shoot was last Friday, and I thought I’d share how I got around my camera’s dead tape drive. Long story short, I’m reluctant to spend the money on fixing up the XL-H1 right now, I’d opt for an external recording solution to at least get the convenience of file-based recording, and maybe even better than HDV quality.

The two Firestore solutions out there (hard drive and solid state) cost about the same as the tape drive repair, and don’t offer an image quality boost. The convenience of file-based recording might be worth it, but there’s also the possible risk of the firewire connection having problems during run and gun shooting. I’m also quite disappointed that (if I read this correctly) you have to buy the more expensive FireStore if you want to be able to playback from the unit itself for spot checking.

There are lots of SDI recording solutions out there, each with compelling features. My problem is that I have an early XL-H1 which, for some reason that defies me, the SDI does not carry audio. So that means shooting double-system, or finding an SDI recorder with analog inputs.

So I’ll keep exploring that, but in the short term found a great solve. Using a Canon HV-20’s firewire input, I simply rolled tape on the little camera manually. I secured the camera to the tripod with a friction arm. That was my backup. My primary recorder for the session was a TriCaster XD-HD300. A bit overkill for this sort of thing, but great to be able to spot check takes, have full meters to check the signal, etc. The client was also pretty impressed. 😉

Here’s a photo of the setup in action in case this can be of use to anyone here…

Thanks for all the help, and the good words. Depending on what job I get next, I may just run out and get a new camera (which is a whole other adventure) and I’ll use the XL-H1 primarily as a studio cam. My shoulder is already celebrating.

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Bohus Blahut
(BOH-hoosh BLAH-hoot)

modern filmmaker

[Bohus Blahut]

The frustrating thing is that I seem to have the perfect storm of incompatibility. No HDMI on the camera cuts me off from the affordable recorders out there that I’ve found so far (the Ninja does look quite wonderful and versatile).

The Canon/Focus is just as costly as the other gear out there, but I don’t get any resolution boost for my trouble. Especially galling is the extra playback functionality in the Pro unit. So much more money to be able to play back clips on the unit itself… you know that’s just a difference of firmware. If a client wants playback, I can’t stop everything to pull the CF card to load it onto a computer. Blech. Also from what I’ve read, there seem to be varying opinions on the actual quality of the thing.

I think that I’m okay for my current gig using a stew of the gear I have here. These guys are high profile enough that I can’t just march in with my HV-20, but I think I can get by for a little while. It really looks like the solution for me will either be to invest in the Canon/Focus recorder (though I really don’t want to), buy a DSLR setup for about the same money (I was planning to wait until the T4i came out), or pick up the XA10 camera. Lots of nice features packed into that little camera.

As for your studio, it looks outstanding to me. I rent space when I need it, and I’ve been very happy with what I get. But to have more consistent access makes me think I’d go for more of those kinds of gigs… or do some of my own stuff I’ve been putting off for years. 😉

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Bohus Blahut
(BOH-hoosh BLAH-hoot)

modern filmmaker

[Bohus Blahut]

Hello again. I had a look at your website BTW and it looks like you’ve got an outstanding spot there. The stage is especially nice. I mostly do location work myself, though for the last year I was working for Tribune Broadcasting to help launch a national TV show (I was one of the hosts too, for no good reason!). We didn’t have a spot nearly as cool as yours to make our show… though I did have an oil projector in my office like the one in your edit suite photo.

So this has become an interesting challenge. My camera is indeed one of the ones that only outputs video on the SDI jack, not audio. Of course there’s no HDMI either, so it’s as you said, firewire output is my best bet, and that means sticking with HDV material. Not the end of the world, by far.

Canon’s own Firestore seems like a good bet since it supports the many flavors of Canon video. I can get one for a bit more than having the tape drive fixed. Plus I need the camera working faster than sending the beastie out to a service center.

I may look around at other firewire based recorders tonight, but I’m concerned that none of those will integrate smoothly with the Canon. As much as I like the idea of getting into a system that would let me bypass the HDV compression of the camera, seems like there’s no other choice but to double-system for audio (yeah, I was a film guy too!) and for the jobs I do most of the time, it’s not in the cards.

Couldn’t have done this without your help! Let me know if there’s something nice I can do for you sometime! You’ve got it covered as far as production, but if you ever need VO or a host-type guy in Chicago, I’m your lad…

https://youtu.be/0lVsqDpW8Po

Again, thanks!

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Bohus Blahut
(BOH-hoosh BLAH-hoot)

modern filmmaker

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[Bohus Blahut]

So is there a Todd Terry fan club I should be joining? 🙂

You bring up some excellent points. Basically I’m trying to weigh the costs of keeping the XL-H1 going versus getting a new cam (which I really don’t want to do right now). In poking around some more (don’t know how I missed it) Canon offers a Firestore of their own that has CF on it rather than a hard disk. That looks okay provided I’ve got audio output on SDI as you point out. I had forgotten that peculiarity, but fortunately I do have a way to test it here before I do anything.

it looks like I can migrate this Firestore thing to other devices around here, which is nice. What I especially like is that it has a built in monitor so I can check footage in the field, and not be dealt the crushing blow again of having all of my footage pooched.

Secondary is to break out of HDV if possible, perhaps to squeeze some extra visual quality out of my shoots. Sounds like this baby can do it. Thanks for taking the time to pen such a thorough run-down. I’ve to some homework to do before I pull out my checkbook.

Again, thanks.

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Bohus Blahut
(BOH-hoosh BLAH-hoot)

modern filmmaker

[Bohus Blahut]

Thanks for the zippy response – that’s what I was afraid of… that the footage is pooched (to use a nice word 🙂 ). I had a feeling that if it was playing back poorly on both of my cameras, it must mean that the tape was recorded with the glitches baked in.

I’m glad to hear that it’s $600 to fix, but seems like my best bet is to put that money into adding some sort of solid state or hard drive recording to this camera… or maybe it’s time for a new camera…

Again, thanks for the help.

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Bohus Blahut
(BOH-hoosh BLAH-hoot)

modern filmmaker