[Matthew Romanis]

Hi Emil,
It should be possible for you to capture via the HDSI out put on the camera, but bear in mind that FCP needs to use an RS 422 port to read time code, all captures you make will have no original time code information, which may be a problem if you have to reconnect any material. Also from the camera you will only get a 720p signal, in some PAL regions this is a difficult size to deal with. The 1200 or 1400 deck (which should be cheaply priced in relation to most decks) allow you to scale the output up to 1080 50i which can be easier to deal with in your post flow in PAL. Don’t worry about the 50i attribute as it will be 2 fields of the same scan so effectively progressive.
The current settings for the Blackmagic device are a little odd. You will need to set the encoder device to 59.94hz, but the compressor to 720p @25fps and the frame rate to 25fps in the capture settings in FCP.
I don’t know why, but this is the first time in a while that BM have released drivers that are not PAL rates all the way.

[Matthew Romanis]

Hi Nate,
The card has checked out fine, in fact it has had another dozen cycles since then. I can’t comment about the rest of the cards as only that particular card was written to at the time, but it has performed flawlessly since. I used an application to check it’s validity at the time and it reported no faults.
Has anyone else used the cards in such hot condition, the 40 or so degrees was in the shade, in the sun it was significantly warmer.
I have spoken to photographers since that and they report a slow down in the transfer speed when the card is hot, but no corruption.
I also used the software in the camera to determine if there was a fault in the recording but everything was OK.
I believe that the high temperature of the card had an effect on it’s ability to write off at speed. We all know that high temperatures effect CPU’s and drive speeds in our computers, I’m not surprised the same thing can happen to solid state.

[Matthew Romanis]

This can be done, you just have to use some different methodology.
I run a 6 to 8 camera ENG/EFP style coverage with Digital Betacams for shows such as Australian Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, plus other sports events in Australia. Admittedly we sync all cameras with Time code generated from a master source, but as a backup we use a visual flash to sync all cameras and a pulse over the PA when all cameras are rolling. I have used this method on small shoots with 3 x Z1 HDV cameras, and HVX.
In post you line up all cameras with either the pulse across audio or the luminance shift from the flash, or both. Works perfectly. As long as all cameras roll at the same time it is pretty straight forward.
On the smaller shoots it was important that the two close cameras were free of cables and could move around (creative thing) and the wide shot, which was still hand held but not moving around as much, recorded the two mics. It was suggested that we go wireless to the other 2 cameras, but I pointed out how this methodology (flash only) worked and all shoots have been done this way since with no issues in post.

[Matthew Romanis]

The “frame rate” will need to be set to 30 for NTSC TV standard. The System Frequency will need to be changed from 60hz to 59.94hz and turn the camera off then back on to re boot in the new clock speed.

[Matthew Romanis]

Hi Jan,
I was quoting the Panasonic P2 promo DVD that is handed out at P2 instructional events, the VO clearly states that “at the end of the edit, just archive what you have used”.
Of course this is a ridiculous approach, especially when you consider that more documenting (corporate and commercial) footage will be shot than any performance based material.
And what if the actor you refer to in the example becomes a Star down the track, then all those clumsy out takes will get lost to all those FOX and E network style shows that love to humiliate actors (not really a loss mind you, but you get the point).
With an IT approach to aquisition, it is now more important than ever to consider the way in wich we archive projects.
In Australia Panasonic have been very helpful and knowledgable about the P2 cameras and support devices, but little information about archive solutions.
We had to resource this ourselves. The LTO 3a solution seems to be the best way for us to go forwards at the moment, but we will always be reviewing this.

[Matthew Romanis]

“That is a huge library of 3000 tapes for 1 client! Dam…”

Yeah, there is a lot of historical reference. We have tried out a few library programs but have found that File Maker Pro with the media reference files to be the best for us. A lot of cross reference with heaps of B roll and Sub master tapes from the good ol’ days before non linear.

We have to be careful with the P2 approach, especially with this client. The methodology that Panasonic push is to archive only what you use, but all footage is important to keep, we are after all the historical documenters of these times, and self censorship has served no one terribly well in the past. Something that we may think is pointless may eventually give a great insight at a later time, case in point, the old shots of Bill Clinton hugging Monica Lewinsky. They apparently came from some one still shooting film who was able to go through some old proof sheets, the other clickers at that event had apparently deleted the shots because they thought she was not important.
Now this may be an urban myth of a story, but I have heard it a few times now, and there may be a grain of truth. The point is though that not all of us have the luxury of dropping shots we did not use in the 1st cut. A good, reliable back up system for all footage shot is important, and it is great to see more of these systems becoming more and more useful to our side of the I.T world.

[Matthew Romanis]

Hi Lars,
It means that the drive has the ability to store information on ram about what is on LTO and where. Partial recapture and prompt locating of file segments is possible, and information that may have been used to identify clips in MXF fields can read and located without looking at the entire file.
Supposed to save time, and make re-capture easier. We rely upon a large archive library for some clients, about 3000 tapes in size for one client. All jobs now will get archived in this manner, plus we will start to retroactively archive the most used tapes from the library.

[Matthew Romanis]

Hi Richard,
Was it the drives or the hosts that failed? Same fault each time, or unexplained?

I had 3 Hitachi Deskstars fail within 5 months of each other, corrupted lead sectors was the verdict. Whereas the Travelstars are doing well.

Do you know anything, even here say, about the network drives?

[Matthew Romanis]

There is no in camera slow motion with a HPX 3000. That is more of a 720p tool, the 3000 has a 1080 imager where as the 2100 and HVX 200/202 use a 720 imager and scale up to deal with 1080. What you loose in 3000 with slow motion you gain with resolution and a damn fine looking camera out of the box.
Re creating slow motion from that footage, FCP does not come equipped to do this well. There are some good plug ins that re create frames in between the ones that were shot. I have found this actually works well on interlaced footage, a bit less so with progressive, but still good. Render heavy though.

[Matthew Romanis]

Hi Lars,
I’m still waiting for our LTO 3a drive to arrive. Seeing how close we are to Christmas I won’t be expecting it till sometime in the new year now (This is our big Holiday in Australia, nothing happens now for about 2 weeks!!!)
I have heard the same thing abut our expected drive, that it is MXF aware across the LAN.
Looking forward to trying it out.
Merry Christams to all who are, Happy Holidays to the rest.