[John Rosson]

Ernie,
Up for a breath of air from a boatload of work — and just now fishing full-bore for this tripod setup.
What issues, if any, did you notice with the Libec system?
Were you able to get smooth starts & stops? No drifting?
I’ve googled all over, and this system, if as smooth as your experience with it, beats the others hands down in cost — $2K or so for all.
Tough enough? And enough to support a 900?
I suppose I’m looking here for reassurance — because it’s 1/3 the cost.
Thank you,
JR

[John Rosson]

You know — I am so used to the mid-level spreader — I wouldn’t have considered otherwise.
I’m on uneven ground alot, steps often enough and was surprised to see your post Mark that the bottom spreader can even work on uneven ground.
Was surprised as well to see the price on the B&H Sachtler kit — around 7.5K for the sticks and head — yikes.

[John Rosson]

robin, mark —
beg pardon this late post.
haven’t checked in in a bit — and appreciate replies.
i’ll re-post when i buy.
thank you.
jr

[John Rosson]

John/Ernie,

I’ve googled and found the Sachtler name — and Ernie thank you for the Libec link.
Will investigate both — and thank you gentlemen for your responses.

JR

[John Rosson]

Ernie,

I forgot to mention one of the most critical steps in the process.
After the export using QT conversion – you have to drag the DV stream movie back into FCP in order to use the print-to-video function.

JR

[John Rosson]

Ernie —

Found it.
From the HD timeline — I chose Export>QT conversion>DV stream.
Then, the ‘options’ box allows settings of DV NTSC – 16:9 48 kHz. It comes out letterboxed — I’m going to play with the settings to see if I can get a version that will play full screen 16:9 on a digital monitor (I’m using an older 4:3 monitor).

The print was good — graphics solid and quality sharp.

I don’t know that others will find this handy — but it gives me the tape version of the SD DVD shot with HD — and secure backup that makes me comfortable when a lot of work goes into a product and it will be shown in a public forum.

Thank you for your help.

JR

[John Rosson]

Hi Ernie –

Am glad you contribute to this forum — thank you.

I’m familiar with Compressor — but still seek a way to export from FCP HD timeline to SD videotape.

I know the process to make an SD DVD from the HD material. But in the past I’ve seen DVD players ‘go south’ in a public forum, and always like to have a tape on hand with which to play the material. I guess I’m looking for the tape equivalent to the SD DVD made from HD material.

It’s easy enough to make a QT movie — but how to print that to video remains the issue. There’s got to be a way — but I’ve not found it yet.

Thank you,
JR

[John Rosson]

Martin,
Technical I am not — but this may help you.
I thought compressing to the web was the great equalizer.
We use a Canon XL2 for much our content to the web.
Then we recently bought an HDX 900 — for higher end production. My thinking was the web image would be much the same.
However, the HD image, compressed for the web (using 720/24p) looked significantly better to me.
Hope this helps.
JR

[John Rosson]

Ernie,
I’m so new to this camera I’m figuring it out as I go. The clarity of image is what is most important to me in the sports shoot — so 60p is the way i’ll shoot (I hadn’t thought about the slo-mo — that’s a nice benefit in post).
How do I set the shutter ‘as closed as possible’ using the ND filters (the wheel correct?) to get that wide depth of field you’re talking about?
An aside that relates to this — I shot some video the other day of people walking single file from a distance of about six feet (I was backpedaling). The first person in line was in perfect focus. But the second less so — third, even more out of focus etc. To be adequate, that shot needed all of them in focus.
Thank you for your help,
JR

[John Rosson]

Mark — did you every resolve this issue?
Am having an issue with low shotgun audio levels myself.
Thank you,
JR