Matthew Romanis
Forum Replies Created
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That’s a bit of a “How long is a piece of tape?” type question.
The variables are…
1- How has the tape being kept? Temperature variables ? Direct sun? Too cold? If the tape has been kept in the car, for example, then it goes through many different temperature changes in a short period of time making the tape more brittle each time it goes from hot to cold.
2- What is the condition of the record heads in your camera? If you have kept up a good service regime, then the head path will be clean and the head to tape RF values will be nominal. Have you noticed drop outs recently, or had a head clog you only cleared with a cleaning cassette?If you can satisfy yourself that you are happy with those variables (there are more) then you should have no problem in reusing a tape at least once.
Some people will argue that it is actually the second pass of a tape where the best recording can be had. That was particularly true of old analogue recordings, there used to be available “Rece Checked” professional tapes that had been pre blacked by the factory, very costly though. If you pre black all your record tapes then it makes the log and capture process easier if you come across a time code break, not so important with HDV. -
Ahh, Mildura. Nice spot. I’ve had a couple of nice jobs up that way over the years, and some great meals at The Grand Hotel. Still warm there?
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Hi Tom,
I don’t doubt for a second what you are saying about the kext files, X-86 project work groups say the same thing.
I would imagine the market place for the Sonnet eSata card would be very similar to the Duel, yet they can put to market a device that works every time. Just because something is cheap doesn’t mean it’s OK if it doesn’t work.
I have a PDC 20, and in the next work station purchase I have to work out if I can afford the extra space on the pCle bus for the eSata board to enable the PDC 35.
I just wish that at the portable field use level there was something that was reliable. It doesn’t need to be cheap, $129.00 AUD for a single slot Duel does seem like a bargain compared to the rough $3300.00 AUD for a PDC 35 5 card reader, so I’d be prepared to pay up to $1000.00 AUD for something I could rely upon in the field, and it would be nice if it had a Panasonic badge on it, be bus powered, and at least one slot (2 would be nice).
BTW, are you based in Victoria? -
We all must remember that attaching the Duel adapter and then slotting in the P2 card when the Mac Book Pro is running is like attaching a drive to the Mac pro tower via SCSI or eSata and expecting it to work with out re booting.
The Express port is like an extension of the main bus of the lap top, it must go through a reboot for it to be recognised. We are all too used to firewire and USB hot swap connections.
Once the Duel adapter’s host control chip is recognised then it becomes a matter of ejecting and inserting P2 cards.
The odd thing is how unreliable the Duel adapter seems to be after this. I use a Sonnet eSata express card with my portable 2.5TB Taurus drive (the speed is unbelievable) and it never has a problem.
The Duel adapter however will create a kernal panic at odd intervals meaning a hard restart and all the problems that go with that.
I control the updates on all my computers, nothing happens without it being tested in isolation first, so I feel that software is not the root of all the issues. My feeling is that the Duel adapter is a flakey bit of hardware. The current one I have is the second one in as many years, and reading about the other failures in this thread confirms to me my gut feeling.
Can’t another supplier make something more reliable, preferably 1394b bus powered? One slot is needed, two would be nice. -
Totally agree, still it would be good to have the option of a reliable cost effective 2 slot P2 reader for use in the field via 1394a/b or even eSata via the express slot. The PDC 20/35 is a good studio solution, but FW bus power is needed in most of the field situations I have found myself in.
I always felt that a dumbed down version of the P2 store should have been in the early product release too. Something that didn’t have an internal HDD or the recording functions (even screen), and could work in isolation with Laptops and external HDD’s. -
Next to a 1st generation DVR, my Duel Adapter is the most unreliable piece of hardware it’s ever been my frustration to use.
I have found that when it becomes unreliable, a quick to and fro of the Mac/PC switch on the underside gets it going again. -
As stated, no problem for the sensors.
If you have a matte box you should get some ND grad filters. Use a combination of soft edge and hard edge grads, mixed from 0.6 to 1.2. ND filters are “Neutral Density” filters that don’t change the colour of light that enters the lens.
This allows you to expose for foreground objects and to knock the exposure of the sky back to something usable.
As a starters kit get a soft edge 0.6 ND, and a Hard edge 0.6 ND, followed by both versions of 0.9 nd is as good start. I have always avoided using coloured ND’s as I feel this can be added in post with much more creativity and control. Once the overall exposure of the scene is even then adding tones by the use of soft edge mattes can be done. You can’t even the exposure in post, once information is blown out it is irretrievable.
If you don’t have a matte box yet but are looking for one, get one that can take 5.65 x 5.65 size glass x 2 with at least 1 rotate slot.
I have used Chrosziel Mate boxes for over 15 years, they are a good light weight compromise, however I replaced one of them last year with a Vocas MB 450 and find it very satisfactory. It has a large circular 138mm rear slot for polarisers, 2 rotating slots 5.65 slots, a flipper 4 x 6 front slot, and internal eyebrows. -
Not really, just be prepared to think laterally on the day.
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You’ll have to be careful about how intense the arc is. You don’t want to be exposing for the ambient light in the room and be fully exposed to the arc when it gets going. Use some foreground or something to break up the intense light.
I have seen some older CCD’s suffer form pixel burn out when exposed to high intensity lasers, a welding arc is just as intense so some care is always warranted. -
Another thing to consider is if you have “Perian” installed on your MAC. Check the system preferences custom panes at the bottom to see if it is installed, then click un-install to take it off-line.