Helmut Kobler
Forum Replies Created
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Thanks, all, for the troubleshooting recommendations regarding still photos.
I know that the photos I’ve used have finished rendering/transcoding, but the graphics card may be an issue. I’m using the top-of-the-line ATI graphics card for the Mac Pro from 2009…I can’t remember its name at the moment but it has 512MB. Many months ago I installed the latest Mac Pro graphics card, and did some tests with FCP X and couldn’t find any improvement in UI responsiveness, rendering, etc. but I may not have had any still photos in my tests, and I was also testing with a much earlier version of X….like maybe 10.0.1, maybe .02.
The fact that you guys feel photo performance is good (especially with raw images from a 7D….that would kill my system) means I’ll do some investigating…at least testing a new better video card again, and who knows, maybe a new Mac Pro altogether, depending on what Monday has in store for us (I hope this weekend goes fast).
Thanks all…
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Los Angeles Cameraman
Canon C300 (x2), Zeiss CP.2 lenses, P2 Varicam, etc.
http://www.lacameraman.com -
HI Bill,
I understand your point, but I assume that people will understand I’m talking about my experiences, and not everyone’s. It’s just easier and quicker if everyone assumes that the speaker speaks for themselves, rather than the speaker having to make qualifying comments about “this is only my experience or my opinion” every time they want to join in a conversation. And I’m all about quick and easy. 😉
Anyway, I’m surprised and jealous that you’ve had such an easy time with photos, because I have noticed a slow down in Timeline playback, and in general UI responsiveness (in the Event browser for instance) when I start importing photos appreciably larger than 1080. FCP 7 seemed more adept to me. And wiping my hard drive and doing a clean install of Lion and FCP X didn’t help recently. Also, my hardware is a Mac Pro 8 core 2.93GHz 2009 model with 32GB of ram and an 8 drive raid connected via miniSAS, so I feel like it shouldn’t be a hardware limitation.
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Los Angeles Cameraman
Canon C300 (x2), Zeiss CP.2 lenses, P2 Varicam, etc.
http://www.lacameraman.com -
It struggles with titles, AND with still photos too, especially if the stills are bigger than 1920×1080. That gets annoying for doc work.
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Los Angeles Cameraman
Canon C300 (x2), Zeiss CP.2 lenses, P2 Varicam, etc.
http://www.lacameraman.com -
Looks like a nice computer. I wonder how the fan noise is? One of the reasons I’ve shied away from PC workstations is that even the ones known to be relatively quiet sound like small vacuum cleaners.
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Los Angeles Cameraman
Canon C300 (x2), Zeiss CP.2 lenses, P2 Varicam, etc.
http://www.lacameraman.com -
The PCD20 is not nearly as fast as it should be given the Firewire 800 port. I’ve done tests. It’s actually just as fast when using USB, so you gain nothing with FW800, speed wise.
I was disappointed that Panasonic didn’t follow up the PCD2 with a USB3 model, but now they’re transitioning the whole P2 line to SD cards, so maybe they’re waiting to introduce an SD-based product down the road.
Anyway, yes, P2 users who can’t use the PCD35 or the newer 3-card USB3 reader that Panasonic sells (also for over $2K) are stuck with slow speeds.
I recently got a Canon c300 and was able to buy a $50 CF card reader that uses USB3, and flies. $50 vs $2000+. That’s one of the reasons that P2 feels stuck in the mud lately.
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Los Angeles Cameraman
Canon C300 (x2), Zeiss CP.2 lenses, P2 Varicam, etc.
http://www.lacameraman.com -
It’s stable, in that it doesn’t crash, hardly ever.
However, I regularly encounter a bug where the skimmer functionality stops working on the timeline. I can get the skimmer working again if I hit the Project Library button on the timeline to bring up the project library, and then hit the button again to make it disappear. It takes about 2 secs but is annoying nonetheless.
I also notice how video skips during timeline playback on an 8 core 2.93GHz 2009 Mac Pro with 32GB and an 8 drive miniSAS raid. It skips if I have the Waveform monitor on, and/or it skips if I have playback settings set to High Quality instead of Better Performance. You’d think on a system like this FCPX could playback ProRes 422 video reliably. So that’s annoying, but if I set Playback Settings to Better Performance, then playback is smooth. Of course, the video doesn’t look beautiful anymore.
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Los Angeles Cameraman
Canon C300 (x2), Zeiss CP.2 lenses, P2 Varicam, etc.
http://www.lacameraman.com -
I think the fact that there’s been no new Mac Pro announced (even though new Xeons are available) AND there are rumors of matte-screen iMacs on the way cast a lot of doubt on the chances for a new Mac Pro.
Personally, I can’t believe Apple would be so stupid. One more Mac Pro with Thunderbolt would go a long way to appeasing long-time customers, and keep media professionals in the Apple camp. But Apple seems to be in such a hurry to dump the machine, just like it was in such a hurry to dump Final Cut Studio.
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Documentary Camera in Los Angeles
http://www.lacameraman.com -
Just FYI, there’s a super-fast PCD35 for sale in the Personal Classifieds right now.
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Documentary Camera in Los Angeles
http://www.lacameraman.com -
I don’t know Motion that well. I use it for lower thirds titles in FCP X, and for that, it’s good because you can bring the title design into FCP X from Motion, and then tweak “published” parameters within X, and change text content.
BUt for heavier duty motion graphics (mostly 3D picture collages with a lot of camera moves, fancy map graphics, etc)., I’ve stuck with After Effects. Generally, it’s because After Effects seems like it is always ahead features-wise by a version or two (3d camera, depth of field effects, etc.), and also because I find a lot of AE tutorials when I’m trying to do something new.
And then, yes, there’s the fact that there’s no dynamic linking between Motion and X.
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Documentary Camera in Los Angeles
http://www.lacameraman.com -
I’m using it now for a 3.5 minute documentary profile.
But I’m now wishing I had started this in Premiere, because I’m doing a fair amount of After Effects shots for the project, and the time taken to render out movies in After Effects and then import them in FCP X and place them on the timeline is adding up.
Dynamic link in Premiere and After Effects would have made this go a lot quicker.
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Documentary Camera in Los Angeles
http://www.lacameraman.com