Don Greening
Forum Replies Created
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One mic per receiver for the Senn G2 100 system. If you want to have 2 wireless mics transmitting at the same time you’ll need 2 separate systems.
– Don
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You’ve mentioned a lot of different cameras and they all have their individual strengths and weaknesses, so it really boils down to what features are going to be the most beneficial to you for covering the football shoot.
On the plus side, the Canon XL2/GL2 both have 20x zoom lenses, great for getting close to the action on the field. No other cameras you mentioned have the zoom capabilities that these two have. Of the two, the GL2 is easier for handheld work because it’s smaller and lighter than the XL2, but you’ll have less picture shake with the XL2 because it IS heavier and that makes for a steadier shot when used handheld or on a brace. Unless you’re not using a lot of zoom, because the wider the shot the less visible the camera shake is. The XL2 will give you a a cleaner and sharper picture than the GL2 and it’s better in low light situations as well. These two cameras have stereo mics right from the factory, giving you a great sound to go along with the picture.
On the minus side, overall the XL2/GL2 are not so good in low light situations compared to the other choices you mentioned. When you start zooming in to a tight shot with these cameras the iris will start to close down and that will decrease the light coming through the lens even more. Will you be shooting night games? The image stabilization of both these cameras is about half as good as the Sonys you mentioned, so if you’re doing a lot of handheld work with a lot of zoom dialed in this becomes an issue.
Are you confused yet? Wait, it gets better.
None of the Sonys you mentioned have more than a 12x zoom, which is a problem videotaping people running around on a field that’s a hundred yards long. But the Sony VX2100 has great low light capabilities, the DSR-PD170 is even better. When I need to shoot in low light and I don’t want to blind someone with my on-camera light I’ll put down my XL2 or GL2 and reach for my PD170 every time. How much better is it in low light? In order to get the same exposure from the GL2 I’d have to crank up the picture gain to +12 or +18 to equal the PD170 shooting at zero gain. And the PD170 goes to +18 gain too. And the GL2 would be recording picture noise to boot. But all things being equal, and if you have control of the lighting, I like the picture from the XL2/GL2 better than the Sony PD170. I could explain why the Sonys are better in low light but that’s another phone call 🙂 And don’t forget that the Image stabilization of the Sonys are twice as good as the Canons. This means you can move/shake your Sony twice as much before the picture starts to show it. It makes a difference.
The Sony FX1/Z1U HDV series of cameras are still only 12x zoom and don’t come close to the VX2100/PD170 with regard to shooting in low light. But don’t stop yourself from buying one of these because you’re not ready to shoot HD yet. You can still capture to your Windows machine in standard def via firewire the same as any other SD camera, with the option to capture HDV later when you’re ready, as along as you’ve kept your source tapes. The only reason I didn’t buy two Z1U’s last spring is because of the 12x zoom thing. And you’d love the HD picture of these cameras.
– Don
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Nope you’re right. If the footage is 29.97 then trying to remove a non-existant pulldown won’t do a thing for you. So you just need to make sure you import your footage @ 29.97 into a DV NTSC 48K 29.97 timeline, edit using the same preset and output the same as well. Without looking over your shoulder to see what’s happening I don’t have any more help or ideas to offer. You said that once the footage is on the hard drive it playse back just fine, so it can’t be a transfer rate problem. Has to be a preset within FCP that’s giving you trouble or an issue with running a tape recorded with your other camera in the DVX-100A and there’s a tape alignment issue. But I’d say no to that as well because you said that you had the same trouble with your consumer cam connected with FW.
I just dunno.
– Don
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Your mention of the DVX100A brought up a red flag for me. What is the frame rate of the video you’re attempting to transfer to your hard drive? If it’s 24p or 24p Advanced there may be a problem with the computer trying to remove/add pulldown on the fly i.e. it’s not fast enough to do it.
– Don
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Andrew,
Then try trashing the FCP preference files and see if that works.
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/trashing_fcp_prefs.html
Make sure your capture preset hasn’t been changed to anything other than DV NTSC 48k firewire in/out, etc. If it’s still a no go you may have a situation now with a bad FW cable or port on either the camera or the Mac. It’s just a process of elimination, triying a different cable, camera, computer. There’s also the fix you can try with resetting the PMU switch inside the Mac that will reset the FW ports. This is a last ditch attempt and you should only do it after you follow the directions exactly in your Mac owners manual.
– Don
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Make sure the camera is properly plugged in. Sometimes the firewire cable will partially pull out of the camera end and it’s not noticed. Wait untill your mac is fully started up then turn on the camera, then start FCP. See if that solves it.
– Don
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I had a case of the stupids today, so I’ll now try to be as clear as I can:
When you choose to erase a media drive using Disk Utility you can format in 3 ways:
1. Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
2. Mac OS Extended
3. Unix File SystemChoose number 2 for any media drive. Choose number 1 for a system/startup drive.
I was in error when I told you that formatting was NOT neccessary because I thought that turning journaling on or off was just a radio button. It’s not. You need to reformat every time you change that preference. My mistake and sorry for the confusion. It was my turn to choose poorly.
– Don
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Why not make copies of your FCP preference settings and project files. The best way would be to have these copies on another hard drive or removable media for general backup purposes anyway, but you can create a new folder on your startup drive and put them in there as well. If you have third party plugins make copies of those and save them along with your project files, etc. Check first and make sure your third party plugins will work as copies, otherwise you may have to re-install the originals, just like you did the first time you installed them.
Once you’ve re-installed FCP4 again just drag your saved preference files back into the pref. folder on your startup drive and choose to overwrite the re-insalled ones when prompted by your Mac. Basically the reverse of what you did to save everything in the first place.
Your project files will be safe anyway. A FCP re-install won’t overwrite those. If you’re wondering if you’ll lose any existing media for projects, they should be on a dedicated media drive and not your startup drive, therefore a re-install of FCP on your startup drive won’t affect anything on another drive.
– Don
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Your reference was bang on.
No drive reformat is necessary. Just start Apple’s Disk Utility, choose your media drive from the list and turn off journaling for that drive. That’s all there is to it. Maybe do a restart afterwards and you’re good to go.
Now you have chosen wisely.
– Don
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Like Shane Ross and I recommended to you on Nov. 19th, keep journaling turned OFF for any media drive. Journaling on will interfere with the capture process big time. Your video editor at work has chosen…….poorly 🙂
– Don