[Denis O’keefe]

Another possibility to consider is getting a Nanoflash. The CF cards are cheaper than SxS and it will allow you redundancy, recording to both SxS and CF. Send the CF cards back and forth – you can edit right off them or copy to your drive as needed.

It is an investment but saves spending on multiple drives, Sxs cards, bluray burners, saves you time. You also get better picture quality.

[Denis O’keefe]

When I first got the EX3 it did read the EX1 suf files, and the pictures seemed to match pretty well. Then one day on a job I couldn’t get the SDI output to work, every time I read the suf it turned on the ilink, then the camera froze.
End of experiment. I got a setup that generally works, got the cameras to look alike and I leave them alone.
They don’t take much tweaking in post and I have fewer gray hairs ( although that may just be the progression of baldness).

[Denis O’keefe]

I successfully did this a few weeks ago, delivered the video in Avid DV 25 codec. I got the codec online from one of the avid sites andadded it to QuickTime.
I then converted the xdcam video to mov files with Browser or Transfer, opened all of them in MPEG streamclip And did a batch convert to Avid 25. Put that on a disc and it should import right into the ancient Avid

SSO 206009510

[Denis O’keefe]

Several years ago my D600 was stolen in New York City. Just before the insurance check arrived I made one more check on ebay, and sure enought it was there for sale. I recognized it from some of the “custom” mods and memorable scratches it picked up over the years. The NYPD retrieved it from KP PRO VIDEO, a large purveyor of “used” broadcast gear. They said they bought it for a couple hundred bucks from a guy with no identification. At any rate, his name was not my name, which was prominently displayed over the camera bars and etched inside the tape transport door, along with my address and telephone number. They never called me, and even with ownership established it took a month and the threat of further police action to get the camera back.
The point here is if you put a paint mark, some stickers that are hard to remove, a different color viewfinder sock or mic cover you may very well recover your gear, and with luck get some idiot locked up.

[Denis O’keefe]

Thanks Craig – that is what I’m using and just what I hoped to hear.

[Denis O’keefe]

Thanks, I’m hoping someone can use it to replace a fried set of boards or something – any suggestions whereto post it? Is it an Ebay item?

[Denis O’keefe]

Panic can set in pretty quickly, is it possible that the cards got mixed up? Have you copied each into the clip browser and checked every one?
A card that shows up with just a BPAV folder, no video clips, sounds like one that has been freshly formatted. You say that it looked like that early in your travails.
Restoring the card won’t delete all, if you confused restore and format you may be beyond redemption.
If you have not written anything to the card it may be recoverable with PhotoRescue or similar.

At the end of a long day of shooting when concentration is wavering I’ve scared the hell out of myself copying to a place I promptly forgot, mixing up cards, moving stuff around. I now have an SOP ( and almost all the time follow my rules).
First thing I always try to do is copy the card (I confess, using finder, not the browser) into a folder on my desktop. First thing – always. That is my first backup to the backups – after everything else is copied I dump it.

Second rule is “don’t shoot paid jobs on cheap cards”. It just isn’t worth the stomach ulcers.

Good luck, hope it turns out to be a bad dream.

[Denis O’keefe]

Recently I’ve heard more about the Easyrig, which seems especially popular with people doing reality shows with a lot of hand held video. There was an article in the last few weeks about a woman in Europe who shot a year long documentary with an camera and 35mm lens adapter, retty heavy and unwieldy, but she said the rig worked for her.

[Denis O’keefe]

Hello Michael – in my experience I tape off the focus ring and make sure I’m at zoom setting 77 or so to clear the edges of the groundglass. From that starting point I’ve had no problem zooming to 99, either to reset a shot or use a creeping zoom. Beats changing glass in the short ranges 35 to 50, 50 to 85, 85 to 105.

[Denis O’keefe]

You can change the zoom setting on the camera to tighten up the frame, you just can’t go wider than the groundglass and the widest point of whatever lens is mounted.
There is a “hoodman” eyecup that I think would work well on the EX1, as well as other options – the “sock loupe” which I use for example.
I have not heard about heat issues with the letus, but usually you’re checking focus all the time anyway, if needed you adjust.
Ultimately this isn’t a run and gun rig, its more like shooting film with a CP16 than video with a handycam – but the images can be spectacular, and well worth the time it takes to make them.