[Don Greening]

[Tyler Leisher] “or am I screwed to dealing with this over/under exposure in the final film?”

You’re not screwed and it is worth a shot. There’s actually more colour info in the EX 4:2:0 frame than there is in, say, a 4:2:2 Panny HPX 200 frame because of increased pixel density with the EX picture. It’s just basic math. Before you try Open EXR you might want to re-compress some of your problem EX footage to ProRes or another similar Windows editing codec and start pushing your CC. You’ll probably be surprised at the results.

– Don

[Don Greening]

This shooting tip may provide a more detailed explanation on how to set up the matrix adjust. to alter a certain colour ‘in-camera’. Right or control click on the link below to download the PDF:

https://www.sony.ca/xdcamex/files/XDCAM%20EX%20Shooting%20Tips%20Volume%204.pdf

[Don Greening]

With the EX cameras you adjust the “knee” and “knee slope” values to keep the highlights from blowing out. You need to turn off “auto knee” first, though. To find out how to do it you can go here and click on EX Shooting Tip #9:

https://www.sony.ca/xdcamex/tips.htm

– Don

[Don Greening]

Craig, what does that Calibrated Q stuff look like in demo mode? Just a wild guess.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[Grant Cronyn] “On Location, I will plug the SXS card into the Express Slot of my MBP, and then transfer (drag and drop) the raw files from the SXS Card to My FW drive.”

Make sure you create a new folder on your connected hard drive each time you transfer the contents of a card. Give it a unique name (such as card 01 offload 01, etc.) then transfer the complete BPAV folder on the card to that folder. Don’t alter the BPAV folder name in any way. This is the reason why each card offload needs to have its own unique folder.

[Grant Cronyn] “(I don’t want to import or preview the files as i’m only running FCP 5 on my powerbook.) “

You don’t need FCP 6.0.2 (minimum) to preview your EX clips. All you need is Sony’s Clip Browser software on your Intel-based Macbook Pro to view the files. It’s a free program and it’s recommended that you use the Clip Browser to transfer your BPAV folders anyway, rather than the drag and drop method. The reason here is that with CRC checking enabled the Clip Browser will make sure there are no errors during the transfer process. So it’s a win-win thing with Clip Browser: you get to preview your clips on the Macbook Pro and also transfer your video with a program that makes sure everything is transfered properly.

You can find the Clip Browser software here:

https://www.sony.ca/xdcamex/support.htm

Don’t forget to also download and instal the SxS software driver at the bottom of the page for your Macbook Pro, otherwise the SxS cards will not be recognized as an attached device when you insert them into your Express 34 slot.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[Kirk Johnson] “It seems a little shady… “

Your question seems a little vague. Are you referring to the various low cost alternatives to Sony’s SxS Pro memory cards? You can purchase a number of secure digital adapters that fit into the EX camera’s SxS slots with SD cards in turn fitted inside the end of the adapters.

Here are some companies that sell them:

https://hoodmanusa.com/products.asp?dept=1063

https://e-films.com.au/shoppingcart/categories/MxR/

More info here:

https://www.glasseye.com.au/articles/sdassxs/

Hopefully these links will answer some of your questions.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[Tom Brooks] “I think that 23.976p is definitely part of the DVD spec”

You are correct. Graeme’s article can explain things better than I can. The following excerpt was written in 2005 but is still true today:

“The advantages are that it gets you nearer the look of film, and, if you remove the extra frames and edit in a 23.98p timeline, you can make a 24p DVD (See pages 45 and 90 of the DVD Studio Pro 3 manual for full details on making a 24p DVD) which will look better than the same video as a “normal” 29.97 DVD because less frames of video have to be fit on the disc and hence a higher bit rate can be used for the remaining frames.”

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

– Don

[Don Greening]

Calibrated software now makes a plugin that allows direct FCP editing of the native XDCAM EX .mp4 files from the SXS Pro memory card. This method bypasses the log and transfer step.

https://www.calibratedsoftware.com/

– Don

[Don Greening]

DId you transfer the BPAV folders to your Mac formatted drive or did you transcode the native .mp4 files to .mov and transfer those to the drive? To keep the EX video as generic as you can for the Windows editor just transfer the BPAV folders to the drive.

You want to make it as easy as possible for your client to access the video on their Windows machine. What I do is to format a small hard drive in Windows NTFS format and then I bought Paragon Software’s program called NTFS for Mac® OS X 7.0.

https://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

This will enable you to read and write to a Windows formatted hard drive. Then you go to your client’s Windows machine and connect your drive to it. It will show up on their desktop because it’s now a Windows hard drive.

FAT32 is much more trouble than it’s worth for a few reasons:

FAT32 has a 4 Gbyte file size limit. That’s the same as the SxS cards but you have to make darn sure that the BPAV folders are successfully transferred. I’ve never been able to transfer a BPAV folder over to a FAT32 drive without my Mac telling me that the files didn’t transfer properly.

You can format a hard drive in FAT32 using your Mac but I’ve never been able to get a Windows machine to see the drive properly. Maybe I’m doing something wrong but the Paragon solution is seamless, quick and easy. Surely there must be someone close by to you with a Windows machine that can do a low level NTFS format on a small USB hard drive. You only need to do it once then you can use it over and over again to transfer files to a Windows computer. You could even use a USB thumb drive to transfer files and mail it to the client. I’ve done that, too.

– Don

[Don Greening]

[Mike Trzaskowski] “I take care of my camera so it isn’t exposed to prolonged harsh conditions or getting wet, etc.”

Indeed, but the camera is now almost 9 years old. Possibly an internal intermittent main battery connection. Make sure the contacts on the outside are in good shape. If they are and you’re still having issues then it’s time to send it in for repair. Depending on how much you like your camera will depend on whether or not you send it in to Canon. It’s pretty much guaranteed that the repair will cost much more than the camera is worth considering its age. Might be time for a new one.

If you know of a repair facility close by you might ask them to have a look at your GL1 first before you make a final decision on a course of action.

– Don