[Don Greening]

Did you have any programs running when you attempted to transfer? If so, which ones?

– Don

[Don Greening]

Replied to in Sony CineAlta – XDCAM Forum

– Don

[Don Greening]

[David Hetzer] “1. I would like to have a decent sized LCD HD monitor in the field 17” min and a case to go with it. “

Have a look at the Panasonic BT-LH1760 17″ LCD Monitor:

https://provideocoalition.com/index.php/awilt/story/review_panasonic_bt_lh1760_17_lcd_monitor/

[David Hetzer] “2. What is the best way to off load the SXS cards. I do a lot of interviews! Laptop & external hard drive?”

Yes, laptop with Express 34 slot and an external FW800 drive. Get a good one and make sure it’s reliable.

[David Hetzer] “3. What is a good inexpensive matte box? “

Maybe the one from Red Rock Micro or Cavision.

https://www.redrockmicro.com/

https://www.cavision.com/pictures/EX1/EX1.htm

[David Hetzer] “4. Is there a wide angle lens available yet? “

Sony has a 0.8 WA adapter that came out a few months after the EX1 release. I have one and it’s fine, although the tulip shade is glued on so you can’t use the adapter with a matte box. Unless you want to saw off the shade somehow. Obviously it’s a zoom through adapter.

Century Optics released a 0.75 WA adapter but pulled it because of quality issues. They still make their 0.6 non-zoom through adapter and I think a fish eye adapter for the EX series and others have had success with those.

[David Hetzer] “5. Best choice for batteries, Sony or Anton/Bauer? “

Probably Anton/Bauer. The Sony batteries are readily available but are pricey for what you get. I have 3 BPU-60’s and they get me through the whole day without recharging.

https://www.antonbauer.com/EX1_gold_mounts.htm

[David Hetzer] “1. How do I monitor HD video out of FCP and what is a good monitor to do so?”

If you by a Matrox MXO you could use an Apple 23″ display and get a broadcast signal good enough for colour grading/finishing. But if you get the Panasonic HD LCD then you already have a solution.

https://www.matrox.com/video/en/products/mxo/

[David Hetzer] “2. What is the best way to import the footage from the EX3 into the computer? “

I use my Macbook Pro in the field to transfer from card to hard drive. Back home I hook the hard drive to my editing suite and use Sony’s Transfer Tool to transfer and re-wrap to MOV format for editing in FCP 6.

[David Hetzer] “3.What is the best way to archive footage? “

There is no best way but there are multiple workflows. Your options are:

– archive to dedicated client-specific media like external FW drives.
– archive to dual layer DVD-R media
– archive to DLT tapes
– archive to Sony’s XDCAM Disks. This would mean buying the Sony PDW-U1 reader/writer.

You have to choose the best archiving method that suites your workflow because we all work differently and in different areas of the industry. We all have different needs: long form projects, short form with lots of graphics, etc.

– Don

[Don Greening]

At our last meeting our video association president was relating a conversation he had recently with the owner of a well known wedding video company in Washington State. This company owner said they usually average about 40 wedding shoots a year with a price tag of around 7 grand each. Fairly high end clients too, by the sounds of it. This year because of the economic downturn they did 6. Yikes.

– Don

[Don Greening]

If you have Compressor look in the filters tab in the Inspector window. There’s a filter in there called Noise Removal and removing picture noise/grain is what it’s designed to do. This filter is present in Compressor 2 and later but I’m assuming it’s there in earlier versions as well.

Drag a video clip into the processing window, choose the same codec as your source clip and then add the filter. Do this as a test on a short clip first to see if you like the results. If your final output is for DVD then the noise removal becomes part of your pre-processing set up before MPEG2 encoding. Have a look at this:

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/preprocessing_hodgetts.html

– Don

[Don Greening]

[Steve Holdsworth] “PC:
– Even with the external reader price on top, it’s much cheaper. “

If the external reader for the PC notebook is USB only then don’t bother. The transfer times will be much slower than an Express slot or a firewire reader. Time is money and if you’re offloading the SxS cards in the field you want to get the transfer over and done with ASAP so you can view the transferred clips, empty the card and get it back to the camera for more shooting.

With my Macbook Pro and an external FW G-RAID mini hard drive I can transfer a full 16 Gbyte SxS card in about 5 1/2 min. Then I use Sony’s Clip Browser to check that all the clips have transferred properly, use the laptop to empty the card and I have it back in the camera for recording in less than 8 min.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[gary coler] “i have an ex1 how and where do i get the firmware update”

You have to send it in to the nearest Sony repair facility. They’ll update the firmware, give your camera a general checkup and charge you only $100.00 USD. I know, I know. Sony doesn’t want the firmware update available to the general public for you to do it yourself. They want to do it.

– Don

[Don Greening]

If you’ve got FCS 2, the Motion 3 the tutorial at the link below might help with your Photoshop files and subsequent animation. You may not want to have the same result at the end of the tutorial but the explanation about setup may be useful to you:

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/fcp_homepage_index.html

Look for the title “Motion – Animating Photoshop Layers in Z-Space (Movie)” in the New Releases section.

– Don

[Don Greening]

Hi Michael,

I just checked my EX1 and went through the 3 focus modes:

– focus switch set to auto and focus ring in forward position: twisting the ring changes focus.
– focus switch set to manual and ring in forward position: twisting ring changes focus.
– focus switch set to manual and ring pulled back: twisting ring changes focus with positive stops.

Note that when you physically pull the focus ring back you’re entering full manual mode regardless of the positioning of the focus switch.

This was all tried with the magic button (full auto mode) off. I’m assuming that if you pull the focus ring back into full manual mode you are able to affect focus with positive stops at both ends? And it’s just with the focus ring pushed forward and focus switch set to auto that twisting the ring does not change focus?

If this is the case and it’s with both of your EX3 cameras I can only conclude that either both cameras have the same problem or there’s nothing wrong but there’s a fundamental difference between how an EX1 and an EX3 operates in full auto-focus mode.

– Don

[Don Greening]

I used to have the iris ring lock up on my original EX1 but never the focus ring. I used to have to turn the camera off and then on again before the iris would unlock. My replacement EX1 is fine. Your issue with the focus ring is the first case I’ve heard. Having the same issue on two EX3 cameras is quite interesting. Make sure it’s not operator error and that you’re not unknowingly hitting the full auto button. The buttons on these cameras are pretty small and it’s not unheard of to activate something by mistake. If that’s not the case and the full auto button is not lit up when the focus ring locks then the only thing I can suggest is to phone Sony Repair and tell them about it.

– Don