[Mark Thompson]

I’ve noticed a similar problem. The monitored audio comes over fine but when you check the recorded levels they seem to be lower.
To be honest I always thought it was operator error ☹ so it helps to see others have the same problem.

By way of a fix, if I use a lav mic the recorded levels seem better. i.e. power with the mic.
Rode mics on phantom power seem to give me problems.

[Mark Thompson]

Craig,

did you know about this Sony Utility?

https://www.sony.net/Products/memorycard/en_us/px/dlcondition_mmu.html

it might help.

The only other thing I can think of, is it a new mac? Perhaps you haven’t updated to the latest drivers?

mark

[Mark Thompson]

Hi,
just a suggestion for you, you will have to confirm for yourself whether this is the problem!

The FS7 has a problem such that if you normally have it set to CineEI/SLog*, then switch to Custom mode it will change some settings but remember the SLog2/3 setting.

You can confirm this by looking at a clip you recorded in Custom Mode in Catalyst Browse (or similar software that can read all the metadata on the clip). It will let you know what format the clip was recorded in.

If this is the problem, the best solution is to set the camera to all the Custom Mode settings you require, then save that configuration using the FILE MENU > All File and name that configuration as your custom format. Similarly do one for CineEI.

If you post a small clip somewhere I will have a peek at it.

[Mark Thompson]

Joe,
After Effects does support Mxf files, I use Sony cams and that’s all they produce. What version of After Effects are you using?
I just did a quick check using AE 2017 and it at least will load and display.

However Mxf is a container format, so you need to determine the format of the essence. A quick way to do that is to use Premiere Pro to look at the properties on that clip. Alternatively use G-Spot or similar to have a look.

For example I just looked at the properties on an Mxf clip:

File Path: K:\AlisonPod2\Media\XDROOT\Clip\726_0107.MXF
Type: MXF
File Size: 371.25 MB
Image Size: 1920 x 1080
Frame Rate: 25.00
Source Audio Format: 48000 Hz – 24 bit – 8 channels
Project Audio Format: 48000 Hz – 32 bit floating point – 8 channels
Total Duration: 00:00:25:02
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.0

MXF File details:
Wrapper type: MXF OP1a (type: SingleItem SinglePackage MultiTrack Stream Internal)
File generated by: Sony, Mem (2.00)
AVCI 100
Sony bitstream format

VR Projection: None

Depending on what you find you may need to transcode to a format that is does support.

[Mark Thompson]

Adam,
thanks for the details. That all looks good. The Frame Rate is 29.97, that is for a complete raster. The Capture FPS is 59.94 (I) that means 59.94 Fields (i.e. half a frame) per second. Which is what Interlaced footage should be from a Sony cam.
The Footage is 50 Mbps and color is 4:2:2. Normally you don’t broadcast that, the colorist/editor/post would work their magic and take it down to 4.2.0 and the bandwidth would go down to about 30 Mbps (or less). So what is doing that part of the process for you?

What does he means by “choppy” , that is a bit of a loose term. Is it all the time? just sections with a lot of close up motion?

Does the footage look ok to you In Premiere?

Is there a clip small enough to post here that shows the problem?

mark

[Mark Thompson]

regarding 1080i – I’m on the Freeview multiplex at Hannington and most of BBC HD News is 1080i. Posh nature shows are in 1080p. I know that because my tv announces the mode when you change channels. Also commercials are supposed to be submitted 1080i, probably for compatibility with SD services. I think I read that in the DPP guidelines.

So 1080i is a fact of life, for a little longer, unfortunately. This is in England, don’t know about the rest of the world.

mark

[Mark Thompson]

Adam,
how are you getting the footage off the camera? Direct from the XQD or a recorder on either the SDI/hdmi port?

If it is coming off the XQD, have a look at it with Catalyst Browse. What format does Browse claim it to be? Even Premiere Pro clip properties can be useful.

Also, are you on Mac or Win (rather whoever is pulling the footage off).

mark

[Mark Thompson]

Hi,
a bit more information needed, e.g. what are you recording on? What mode are you recording?
I assume XVAC is a typo for XAVC?

It depends on exactly what format you intend to shoot in.
Off the top of my head your figure seems a too low, i.e. I would expect about 60 minutes of XAVC-L on a 64 Gig card.

Sony publish the numbers here:

https://www.sony.co.uk/pro/product/broadcast-products-camcorders-digital-motion-picture-camera/pxw-fs5/specifications/

[Mark Thompson]

Things have changed a little bit in the past couple years. Sony have listened to customer feedback and they now have a new kit lens. The FS7 kit lens was the SELP28135G and the new kit lens is the SELP18110G. It is a little wider than the original, but there is a good review on Alister Chapman’s “xdcam user” blog. This lens is sort of linked to the new FS7 Mark II, which has an improved lens mounting mechanism. I did ask a vendor if the SELP18110G will go on an FS7 and they said yes! But caveat emptor, it would be better to have someone make you that promise that would take it back ☺ You could just wait for reviews, this is all very current.

Is the lens (SELP28135G ) hard to focus? I would say somewhat. I like to measure it out. The Peaking works well on the camera but I get a small difference when looking at the distance measured from Peaking and the tape measure. Remember the camera has a focus mag (button 4 on the FS7, not sure about the FS7 Mark II as it has more buttons and may have renamed them). So you have the tools to get a good focus.

Before I bought the FS7 people said the kit lens “is great value for money”. I think that statement is a little bit disingenuous. I wouldn’t disagree with it but would add “but you still need to be sure that it will do the job you need it to do”. I was sort of expecting the FS7 to be better than my old pmw 200 but that camera has better zoom and is F1.9 vs F4. Now I’m not too disappointed about that, as one of the reasons I got the camera was to be able to put lenses on it.

One of the things I understand now is that it is very expensive to put a good zoom lens on a large sensor camera. This was well known within the community but there was an expectation that Sony would improve the kit lens. They have done so but budget sensitive users (like me) would have preferred even bigger improvements.

You Canon lenses should work well with the SpeedBooster and FS7, possibly most users do this. There are a couple of caveats though, firstly there was early software compatibility problems so get the latest software from both vendors. There is also a lingering suggestion that the SpeedBooster pins can jam. So read widely on that.

[Mark Thompson]

thanks Jim,

greyscalegorilla reports no Python or C++ .

well at least I know now 🙁