Helmut Kobler
Forum Replies Created
-
Jeremy,
Im having the same problem with P2 AVC Intra files getting re-wrapped in my Events folder, even though I have all Transcoding and Optimization options unchecked. Maybe it’s a bug. Why else would Apple think I’d want an additional copy of my footage taking up space on the hard drive?
Also, I notice the re-wrapped versions have a color shift, and at least for 720p footage, reduces the resolution to 1248 x 702 pixels (as reported by the Quicktime 7 player), instead of 1280×720. Who wants a color shift, and
This is what starts to piss me off. I’m open-minded about a lot of FC X’s new interface, and have enjoyed working with it for the last couple of days. But then I run into a completely inexplicable issue (such as this one) and there’s no tech support, no one to ask, no one to report a bug to except a stupid black hole email system….ie, absolutely no feedback loop from Apple to reassure people that someone might be listening or aware. What a stupid, brain-dead way to interact with customers.
——————-
Documentary Camera in Los Angeles
http://www.lacameraman.com -
Is that Sony camera XDCAM disk? You say “moving parts” so I assume so. If I’m right, I would avoid the camera because XDCAM disk is a “dead man walking” format.
It used to be that the future belonged to solid-state, but now it’s clear that the present also belongs to solid-state. I would not touch a spinning-disk format that has such a short shooting capacity, and requires you to have some chunky and slow disk reader just to read the footage into a computer.
Also, many shoots call for multiple cameras….usually a bigger A camera (like the XDCAM) and then a smaller camera like a EX1 or HVX200 or 5D or whatever else. All those B-style cameras these days shoot to solid-state, so suddenly, you have to have two different workflows and archival approaches–one for your XDCAM disk camera, and one for the smaller B cameras. You might as well keep everything solid-state.
I really don’t think Sony will be making any more XDCAM disk cameras in 2 years…
As for the 3100, one notable feature it’s missing vs a Varicam is off-speed shooting (slow mo or 1fps). I would miss that a bit if I had a 3100.
——————-
Documentary Camera in Los Angeles
http://www.lacameraman.com -
By the way, Robin, I’m just checking out Shotput 4 now. Will post some impressions in a week or two…
——————-
Documentary Camera in Los Angeles
http://www.lacameraman.com -
Glad you like the reviews, thanks!
In my mind, there are a few reasons for an absence of buzz/noise about the 3100. #1) Panasonic has not been doing much Pro-oriented marketing at all, except for a few banner ads I see on the Cow and a few other sites. But beyond that, not much. 2) I think two of the most interesting features of the 3100 are the higher-res proxies it can record to an SD card, and the wireless metadata, but neither of these were available when the 3100 started shipping in October. They’ve only begun shipping since around NAB. 3) I have heard 3 dealers tell me that there’s virtually no interest in 2/3″ shoulder mount cameras now. It’s been DSLRs/AF100 on the low-end, and then the Sony F3 in the middle, and then Alexa and maybe Red on the higher-end.
Personally, I think there’s a ton of life left in 2/3″ cameras, but some of that life comes from smart workflow improvements, not a bigger imager or 2k/4k resolution that other cameras have. I really think Panasonic is missing a big opportunity to make workflow their thing, and impress people with some out-of-the-box innovations. But so far, no one’s listened to me. 😉
They’re just now shipping the proxy and wireless metadata options, but not talking about them at all. No sample videos online to watch. No sample proxies to download. No brochures. I don’t really get it…
——————-
Documentary Camera in Los Angeles
http://www.lacameraman.com -
With no metadata, the footage you hand an editor is completely unorganized. Someone has to review it, and give the clips names (“golden gate bridge”, “tom cruise interview”, etc.). Not to mention other helpful details like the show name that the footage is for (“Modern Marvels”), where it was shot (“Oakland CA”), and crew names.
When you enter metadata before the shoot, your clips get all that information baked into them as you shoot. When the footage goes to the editor, they don’t have to spend much time naming clips and entering in other useful info because it’s already done.
For years, P2 has let you create metadata scene files on a computer, save them to an sd card, and load that SD card into the camera. But the camera man or producer would have to set all that information up the night before (typically), and if the schedule changed during the shoot (oh, we’re interviewing this new person we weren’t expecting”), then there was no practical way to change the metadata in camera without going back to a computer, creating a new metadata file and uploading it into camera again. Very inconvenient, and that prevented a lot of people from using metadata at all.
But with wireless metadata, the producer can use their iphone or ipad to enter all that stuff in as you shoot it. They may even be able to place markers in the footage when they see something interesting (not sure if that’s supported…god I hope it is). Suddenly, entering metadata is much easier, and I think it will lead to metadata being used far more.
——————-
Documentary Camera in Los Angeles
http://www.lacameraman.com -
Yes, and wireless metadata is a feature I’m very very eager to try out. I’m hoping to review it for the COW in the next month or so.
But I don’t know anyway to pass metadata through SDI.
——————-
Documentary Camera in Los Angeles
http://www.lacameraman.com -
Ugh, Jeremy, that’s horrible news. No metadata support? How can Apple blather on about the brave new world of metadata but reject it when it comes in from camera? P2 metadata has been available for about 5 years, and Apple *still* doesn’t support it. That’s just pathetic. Maybe the only hope is that Final Cut X makes it easy for developers to create that functionality, but I tend to doubt it. Apple has messed so much other stuff up, why not this too?
CS 5.5 metadata support is better but not perfect. It reads custom clip names, the Creator field, the Shooting Location field, but not Program Title or other fields (as far as I can tell). I also don’t think it reads markers.
But given Adobe’s can-do attitude, and me writing emails to the product manager, I’m hoping an upcoming version will recognize the rest of the metadata.
P.S. Are you sure about no native AVC-Intra support in X? It says native support right on Apple’s web page…
——————-
Documentary Camera in Los Angeles
http://www.lacameraman.com -
Thanks for the info, Gary. Hmmm….if the Location metadata field came across, that’s promising, since that was never supported in Final Cut 7 (I believe). I may just have to buy FCP X and return it if I’m unhappy. I would probably hold onto it if it handled full P2 metadata. If not, what a disappointment after waiting for 5 or so years…
And Jeremy, I have to wonder how Andreas is sizing all this up as well. It will probably take a while for the dust to settle and know what the new Final Cut landscape really looks like.
——————-
Documentary Camera in Los Angeles
http://www.lacameraman.com -
It kills me that for all of Apple’s big talk about metadata, they’re not able to make that clear. You’d think fcp x would support custom metadat coming from a camera, but I’m skeptical that Apple would bother supporting the metadata formats of so many camera manufacturers. In other words: Apple is too lazy.
We’ll see.
——————-
Documentary Camera
http://www.varicaminla.com -
A Panasonic field rep once told me that a FireWire 800 bus can actually become overloaded, and result in corruptions when transfering P2 cards. USB doesn’t suffer from the same issue, due to the way it handles things when it reaches maximum throughut. When you experienced the corruptions, were you transferring from the PCD20 via FW800 to an external FW800 drive? That would do it.
I tested the PCD20 before I got the PCD35. I was very disappointed to find that FW800 was no faster than USB2, even though Panasonic clearly advertised that it was. A regretable ploy on Panasonic’s part. You spend $2000-some dollars on a device, and it doesn’t come close to the advertised speed.
——————-
Documentary Camera
http://www.losangelescameraman.com