[Catherine Ceigersmidt]

You are correct — I had a long chat with a B&H representative and figured out everything I need and I’ve settled on a multi-card reader that can handle both SDHC and CFast cards, no need for the HDMI editing card. Thanks again Roger!

Cathy Ceigersmidt
Mary Productions LLC

[Catherine Ceigersmidt]

But wouldn’t tranferring HD video files via USB take forever?

Cathy Ceigersmidt
Mary Productions LLC

[Catherine Ceigersmidt]

Hi Roger,

Thanks so much for the clarification! My Mac Pro tower doesn’t have an SD card slot and although my Dell monitor does, I’m not sure it would read an SDHC card…I bought the monitor in ’07 before SDHCs had been introduced. I actually haven’t tried getting the monitor slot to read the SDHC card because I just acquired the DSLR this week and haven’t had a chance to shoot anything to test it. Do you think it will read it?

I should have also mentioned that I have a Canon XH-G1 camera that has a full HDMI output and I’m trying to determine the best way to extend its life so I can shoot in 1080p HD using a ProRes recorder like the Atomos Ninja 2. The Ninja uses CFast Cards so I’m assuming that would require an HDMI port on my Mac to transfer the files via an HDMI cable? I had been using mini DV tapes since I bought the XH-G1 8 years ago but obviously it’s past time for me to convert to memory cards. I realize my issue has gone beyond the realm of this forum so perhaps I should pop over to the Canon cameras forum or maybe the workflow forum for a solution?

Best,

Cathy Ceigersmidt
Mary Productions LLC

[Catherine Ceigersmidt]

Good to hear — I was about to upgrade to Mountain Lion but then I believe I would have to upgrade FCP6 to FCPX and consequently I would probably have to upgrade my RAM and memory, and all of that at once is not financially feasible right now. Thanks a bunch for the advice!

Cathy Ceigersmidt
Mary Productions LLC

[Catherine Ceigersmidt]

Thanks! So whenever I get around to updating my OS, it’s just a matter of downloading the appropriate driver update? Is swapping the cards pretty simple, like comparable to installing more memory or an internal hard drive? Anything I should be aware of that may not be covered in the instructions? I did see some people discussing in a post on the COW a few weeks ago regarding hardware install issues in a PC.

Cathy Ceigersmidt
Mary Productions LLC

[Catherine Ceigersmidt]

It went pretty well — challenging to get everything with one camera, especially the cross-country portion of it, but I managed. Almost every participant pre-ordered a DVD, I gave them the choice between ordering just day 1 or day two or both for a $10 discount. I brought order slips for everyone to fill out.

On the technical side, the wireless mic almost ruined the shoot. Despite my best efforts, it kept brushing against the instructor’s shirt and the wind noise was terrible even with a windscreen, but then about halfway through the first lesson the organizers brought in a handheld wireless mic and loudspeaker so the auditors could hear him too. I was able to turn off the lav mic and just pick up the loudspeaker which was very good quality.

Thanks again everyone for the tips!

Cathy Ceigersmidt
Mary Productions LLC

[Catherine Ceigersmidt]

You added a lot of helpful advice, Mark — thank you. Yes I am definitely going to ask for money upfront. Love the suggestion of a sponsorship, if another job like this comes my way I’ll definitely posit the idea to the organization to help me connect with a sponsor. I’ll just have to sell the DVDs myself since the shoot is tomorrow morning and I accepted the job primarily to help out a friend and get my foot in the door for an entirely new shooting genre I’ve not worked in before. The instructor is apparently a “rock star” in the horse world and a really nice guy, so hopefully many of the people will want the DVD as a teaching tool/review. Thanks all!

Cathy Ceigersmidt
Mary Productions LLC

[Catherine Ceigersmidt]

Almost forgot, I’m in the Northern Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, near Winchester, about 40 minutes from Middleburg and an hour and a half west of Washington DC.

Cathy Ceigersmidt
Mary Productions LLC

[Catherine Ceigersmidt]

Thank you so much for your detailed response! Unfortunately I’m a little behind in my technology right now, I haven’t had the ability to upgrade to tapeless media, I’m still working with (gasp!) HDV tapes and I don’t have a laptop that can run editing software, still working with a desktop Mac Pro running FCP2. My husband has a Dell laptop but I’ve never experiemented with doing playback by plugging my camera directly into it, assuming I would need a PC editing software to do so. I haven’t been working much since becoming a stay-at-home-mom, hopefully at some point I’ll be able to upgrade all of my gear. I thought of having the participants interested in buying a DVD to prepay through Paypal, but now I wonder if anyone would actually be willing to do that. You made a good point about the instructor, I do plan on putting a wireless lav mic on him and running an on-camera shotgun mic on a separate channel as back-up. I will check with the event hostess to confirm he knows about the videography and doesn’t have any issue with it or expect a “cut” in sales.

Cathy Ceigersmidt
Mary Productions LLC

[Catherine Ceigersmidt]

Hi Walter,

I’m working off of three different hard drives. Two are internal Serial ATAs and one is an external(Fantom G-Force MEGAdisk eSATA) connected via firewire 800. My project file lives on my Mac HD startup drive. Half of my media is on the external and half is on a dedicated video internal drive. The external capacity is 1 TB, and there’s 369.5 GB available. and the internal one is 250 GB capacity with 71.1 GB available. The internal drives are 7200 rpm. I’m editing in HDV 108024p.

Cathy Runge
Mary Productions