Jeff Carpenter
1
COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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Yes, the problem is that USB can reach very high speeds but only in bursts. Firewire is not always as fast, but more constant. Over time they average out to about the same speed. When you’re talking about copying something from a hard drive or an iPod it should take about the same amount of time, and so either is fine for things like that. But when it comes to video you can’t afford to have a drop in speed for even a moment because you’ll drop frames. Thus, most video cameras and video programs are designed to use firewire. If your camera has USB on it your guess about copying photos is probably correct…it’s most likely what that’s for.
You may see a consumer camera every now and then that copies video by USB but it is not as reliable and should be avoided if at all possible.
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No, you need to use a firewire connection. This is the camera, right?
It says it has firewire on it, as should your Mac. Just use that.
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I’d go with the iBook. It won’t be the fastest thing on the planet but it should get the job done. Running it in the Emulation mode is just asking for trouble. Better to go with “slow and steady” on the iBook that you can at least trust won’t mess up somehow.
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There’s no reason that 2 RAM chips work any differently in the Macbook PRO, but since you brought it up, I wanted to mention the “regular” Macbook (non-pro version).
In THAT laptop they say that having 2 chips of the same amount is BETTER than 1 chip because it uses integrated graphics that share system RAM as video RAM. In that case, having the 2 chips match gives it better video performance.
This is NOT an issue with the Macbook Pro model that has its own, seperate, video RAM and video card. So it’s not a problem for you but I figured this was a good time to mention that yes, SOMETIMES having paired RAM chips is a good thing. The regular Macbook is an example of one of those times. (The G5 Powermacs like it that way too, for some reason that has nothing to do with VRAM. I’m not sure why in that case.)
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“Pulling Focus” is, quite simply, changing the camera’s focus. It’s more than just changing it between shots, however. It refers to the act of changing it WHILE the camera is running. Imagine you are zoomed in down a street and a man is walking towards you. You would have to change the focus as he’s walking to keep him in focus. That’s called pulling focus and most film and movie crews will have a person who just does THAT and the camera opperator doesn’t touch it at all.
A “Rack Focus” is when you have 2 things in the shot and one is out of focus and the other is sharp. The “rack” is when you swiftly change from one to the other. As an example, a nature documentary may have a leaf close up and sharp and suddenly the focus changes and the blurry background sharpens into a lion or something as the leaf becomes blurry.
Actually, you don’t have to have 2 items, that’s just a common method. Technically you could simply have a shot of an out of focus lion that you then bring into focus. That’s a “rack focus” too but usually when someone talks about racks they’re talking about having 2 objects in the shot.
ALL of these things are hard to do with any video camera and very VERY difficult to do with small, mini-DV cameras. We all sure try to do them a little bit, but they’re much easier to pull off with film cameras that have larger lenses.
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Also I noticed that you can get the ram split up for a smaller cost…for example you can get a 1gb card or two 512mb cards for a hundred bucks less…whats up with that??
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If you have 1 chip then you have an empty slot and can buy more RAM later. If you get 2 chips then the only way to upgrade later is to throw away the RAM you already have, thus wasting money. So 1 chip is more desirable than 2 chips. When something is more desirable, it usually costs more.
And I’d go with the non-glossy screen for photo work, but that’s just me. If he can go to an Apple store and compare each himself he may decide otherwise. It’s probably best to judge that in person.
And as Simon said, the V-RAM probably isn’t a huge deal UNLESS this person is eying ‘Aperature.’ If he is, getting the higher card could help although it wouldn’t be a dealbreaker….ALL of the Macbook Pro video cards support Aperature. Anyway, 128 is pretty good by laptop standards, I woulnd’t worry about that too much unless they are a “Motion” person (which they probably aren’t if they’re a photographer).
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You heard correctly. You’ll get all the discs and the little booklet with the legal information and code stickers. That’s it.
I did the same thing you are but with DVD Studio Pro. This was a second Final Cut Suite for me so I already had all the books, but in your case you’re out of luck. There’s always the help manuals, which should have all the same info in them. Not as easy to read as a nice big book, but I guess that’s what Apple expects you to use.
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I’m assuming this is a DV file that’s about 1 hour in length? Is that correct? If not, how long is it?
Is this a website where you can type on the top of it: “VIDEO REQUIRES QUICK TIME 7” or is it something that you want lots of people to see without having to worry about players and downloads? If you’re just showing something to other video-savy people that’s probably ok. If it’s the general public it might not be.
Is the entire video handheld or tripod footage? If a mix of both, how much of each? (Rough guess)
Right now you can open it up in Quick Time Pro and export just the audio as an MP3 file. That should be simple enough to get started on. There are lots of options for the video, but I’d need to have those questions above answered before I could suggest something.
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Non-ECC will be fine.
I also suggest Crucial. Using their system will get you to the exact right type of RAM for your machine.
Be sure to follow the instructions in the Powermac manual about how to install it. Not only does it have to be installed in matching pairs, it matters WHICH slots get filled first and which ones get left empty.
Page 1 on this document makes it all pretty clear:
https://www.info.apple.com/usen/cip/pdf/g5/memory_c.pdf -
lol – “Google them” is the prize-winning answer of the day!
LOTS of fun reading there. I mean, fun for the people who haven’t ordered anything from them. For the people posting…not so fun.