Don Greening
Forum Replies Created
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You’re setting yourself up for lots and lots of heartache in the editing suite if you use the cameras with the settings you mentioned. Probably the worst thing you can do, resolution-wise, is to use that PD170 in widescreen mode. The 170 is basically a 4:3 interlaced camera. Period. When you shoot in 16:9 what happens is the bottom and top of the picture is cut off and what’s left is expanded to fit the widescreen aspect ratio. Lots of resolution loss there which would look awful if shown on a big screen at a film festival. If you must use this camera go rent an anamorphic adapter for the front of it and shoot in 4:3 mode. The adapter will squeeze a widescreen image into a 4:3 space and you won’t lose any native resolution.
Cons: PD170 anamorphic adapters are not “zoom through” which means the picture will go soft after about a 60-70% zoom in.
The Z1U’s progressive mode is a “pretend” progressive that throws away half of the information to get the progressive “look”. No one I know uses this mode on the Z1U. This camera is basically an interlaced shooting 1440×1080 16:9 HDV camera.
The EX3 is the most versatile of all the cameras you mentioned because of the various shooting modes it’s capable of using. If I was matching to the other cameras I would shoot HQ 1080 60i.
Back in the editing suite create an NTSC DV Pro Res or DVCPRO 50 (also known as DV50) timeline in (hopefully) Final Cut Pro and use that for your DVD edit.
– Don
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I’ve used the Glidecam 4000 with acceptable results with an EX3. It might be small enough to use with the 5D and EX1. It’s just a matter of proper counterweighting and setting the arm spring tension to match each device.
I don’t own a stabilizer system but want to try others out before I make a purchase. Or maybe you weren’t asking about a full on Glidecam/SteadiCam rig at all, but just a hand held stabilizer system. Can’t help you there.
– Don
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Ask you friend to turn off edge detail and do another test. If the noise goes away then the edge detail is set too high and the crispening setting is also triggering the detail setting to engage too soon. These settings, if they’re too sensitive would probably act on stuff in the water or the water itself to put edge detail on any “noise” in the water with an undesirable effect.
Turning off edge detail entirely is not generally recommended either, because other needed settings get turned off as well with the EX series of cameras. You can keep crispening and edge detail on but severely limit their settings so that they’re effectively off. Your friend needs to do some research to better understand how the EX cameras operate.
Perhaps Alister Chapman will see this post an add his considerable knowledge to this answer.
– Don
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I still go back to stuff like this just to refresh my memory, which these days lasts about 2 minutes.
– Don
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[joseph wilkins] “is there anywhere else? “
Here:
https://support.sonybiz.ca/esupport/eSupportHome.asp
You’re looking for the following filename: XDCAM EX Clip Browser v2.60
– Don
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Sony’s Clip Browser software is designed to do exactly what you want: it’s a copy tool. During the process Clip Browser will double check that everything gets copied correctly if you turn “CRC Checking” on in the preferences menu.
– Don
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[Noah Kadner] “And if it becomes a problem you can always conform everything to ProRes HQ 720p with a Compressor droplet and you’ll be all set. “
He’s only got FCP 5, Noah.
– Don
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I think I experienced this problem myself the first time I recorded anything with my EX1R. I did some test recording and the clips were all listed properly in the viewfinder in media mode. The next day I wanted to look again at one clip in particular and all the clips were missing, although the camera reported that the same amount of space on the card was still used up. The clips were not important but what was important (obviously) was that the clips were missing. I didn’t pursue the issue and it’s never happened since.
The other day I was in record mode and the camera had just finished switching slots. In the dark I mistakenly pushed the wrong eject button and the card being recorded to popped out. That’s a first for me. Oops. I put the card back in and the EX1R immediately asked to restore the card, which I did. There was no issue and all the clips remained fine. All of the above experiences were with SxS Pro 32Gbyte memory cards.
Anyway………
I’m wondering if the above experience rings a bell with Kimberly. If the SxS card with the missing media is still reporting that there is space used up then your clips are still there but it’s more of a directory issue on the card. Try mounting the card on your computer desktop and using something like DiskWarrior to scan for a directory and possibly re-build/restore it.
– Don
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On your older machine running FCP 5 my recommendation would be to use the NTSC DVCPRO 50 codec. I think it’s the best compromise between quality and file size. My .02
– Don
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Thanks, Simon.
– Don