[Don Greening]

There are 2 different kinds of XDCAM codecs in FCP:

• XDCAM HD
• XDCAM EX

XDCAM EX codecs are more recent than XDCAM HD. To edit XDCAM EX in FCP you need the following minimum requirements:

• FCP 6.0.2
• Quicktime 7.3.1
• Mac OS 10.4.11

– Don

[Don Greening]

You’re missing the XDCAM EX codecs and FCE does not have them, only FCP. You can test and buy a QT plug-in from Calibrated Software that allows you to view XDCAM EX video without FCP but I don’t know if you can then edit in FCE. Check it out here:

https://www.calibratedsoftware.com/QXD.asp

– Don

[Don Greening]

I don\’t use SDHC cards so I don\’t know if it will work or not. There\’s no harm in trying. Either the settings will stick or they won\’t.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[jim stamos] ” was telling a friend this and she is convinced that the inner workings of the camera only allow 35mbs out of it “

The camera records to the memory cards in MPEG2 @ 4:2:0 colour space at a maximum of 35 Mbits sec. When hooking up an external recorder to the SDI port the camera bypasses its own compression stage and outputs an uncompressed 4:2:2 stream at a substantially higher bit rate. I have no idea what that number is.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[Paul Schultz] “This effect I’m having is actually recording on the image.”

Oh, okay. That’s not right then. I’ve never heard of this issue before. So it’s not across the entire image. Just where the really, really bright areas are? If those areas are really blown out (107-109 IRE) you may see that sort of spill. Am I on the right track? Do you have your zebras and your centre bright display active to check if those areas are indeed blown out?

– Don

[Don Greening]

Are you sure you don’t have the peaking function activated? The default colour for peaking is white and would indeed look like a halo effect around an object in focus. I have my peaking colour set to blue for just this reason.

– Don

[Don Greening]

I hate it when that happens.

– Don

[Don Greening]

I’ve been doing a bit of research and as far as I can tell there’s nothing wrong with FCP as you suggest nor are you reading the sequence/QT settings incorrectly. I’m still waiting on some answers from other sources but essentially the HDTV 1080i sequence setting exists because the EX shoots square pixels in PSF format. You’ll notice that the HD formats are all anamorphic.

I don’t have a clear idea of why the 720p setting isn’t listed in the same way. I’m under the impression that the EX shoots PSF in 720 as well but this might not be the case. Therein lies the ambiguity in the frame size aspect ratio confusion.

In any case, in order to ensure that your sequence matches your clip settings is to just let FCP conform the timeline for you.

– Don

[Don Greening]

First of all I’d post this in the Sony Vegas forum as well. Someone may be able to point you to a thrid party plug-in that reduces or eliminates video picture noise/grain. Sadly there’s not much you can do to make your XL2 produce less noisy video in low light. You can create a picture profile that gives the camera a bit more exposure latitude but won’t do anything to increase the low light sensitivity. Some things to get the most low light performance out of the camera that you may or may not be using already:

• Shoot interlaced in low light instead of progressive, which needs more light for the same brightness.
• Interlaced gives you +18 picture gain whereas with progressive you can only get to +12
• Obviously open up the iris to the widest setting. Use man. iris instead of auto.
• Shutter speed no more than 1/60th sec. Sometimes 1/30th sec. works depending on the subject matter.

– Don

[Don Greening]

Robert,

If you create a custom picture profile you can use a preset white balance that’s part of the profile. I have my w/b in PP1 set to daylight 5600K. With PP1 active in the viewfinder you can activate that particular w/b setting by moving the white balance switch to “PRST”. White balance position “A” is where you set your w/b manually using a white board. Once you’ve done that you can switch between the two positions while you’re recording. position “B” is the auto tracing w/b mode which I don’t use for the obvious reason you’ve described.

With the way I’ve set up my w/b, and if I have to go from indoors to outdoors, for example, I’ll manually white balance inside using something white and then when I’m on my way out the door I’ll switch from position “A” to “PRST”. Hope this helps.

– Don