[Michael Griggs]

Having never used Canon’s pro-line video cameras, I can’t really give you an informed opinion…I will say that it looks like it’s their equivalent to the hmc-40.

Notice, however, on both the XA10 and HMC-40 that neither come with an internal microphone. You’ll have to buy a shotgun (or something) mic in addition to the camera just to have on-site audio. You have to adjust for little caveats like that in your considerations of the total cost of a camera.

I guess it really comes down to what you’re trying to do with your camera? Are you starting a business as an event videographer? Trying to shoot indie movies? Or just really like playing HD video and want to get something a bit more “pro”…. Personally, I would put both the HMC-40 and the XA10 squarely in the “prosumer” category. I you want something that can handle any situation you want to throw at it, I would suggest making the jump to invest a bit more money and get a camera that will do A LOT more than these two can.

On a related note, it would be a VERY good idea to try and demo any camera before you buy it. See if there’s a company in your city that rents/sells them and try one out. Or check with your local event videographers and see what they’re using. They might even let you demo one of theirs.

[Michael Griggs]

Ah….dropping frames….the answer to my question. I knew there had to be something.

Thanks!

[Michael Griggs]

What about just putting 60p footage on a 24p timeline? It runs like 24p and you can slow down whatever clips you want…. Is there some sort of advantage to using cinema tools to conform it first?

this is really a question more than a statement…I’m very interested in what is considered the “proper” way to utilize 60p-24p slo-mo footage..

[Michael Griggs]

I would highly recommend Panasonic’s AG-HMC 150. it’s running around $2500-$3000ish. And it blows the 40 out of the water. I’ve got 2 of the 150’s for event videography and they are fantastic. I had to rent a 40 once though, and felt like I was banging my head against the wall trying to get it to do “simple” things I took for granted on the 150.

And the 150 is pretty much the EXACT same camera as the 170 (lens, gen. features, etc), but it uses SD cards.

And the “reputedly low light performance” on the 40 is definitely TRUE. It uses a CMOS sensor, rather than a 3CCD sensor. I had to max out the gain on it in order to get things even close to nominal.

[Michael Griggs]

I would also recommend downloading Carbon Copy Cloner to backup your system BEFORE you wipe it clean. According to some of the COW leaders, Time Machine doesn’t work very well when it comes to using the Pro Apps (I’m honestly not sure why). But CCC will allow you to have a bootable backup that is an exact copy (hence the name) of your system drive. That way, if something goes wrong, or takes too long, or whatever, you have a usable copy of your system before you reformatted. And you will also have access to any application settings/customizations/prefs that you forgot to backup somewhere else.

[Michael Griggs]

You can do a lot more than a screen shot to save your effects….. you can actually drag them into a bin in a project and they’ll save along with it. Create a new project specifically for it, or save them within any project you’re working on, and you’ll be able to keep all the settings.

[Michael Griggs]

so, for 24p, which is better to shoot in then? 720 or 1080?

[Michael Griggs]

Go for Panasonic’s AG-HMC150. We’ve got 2 of them, and shoot around 30 weddings a year with them! It’s basically the exact same thing (lens, CCD sensors) as the previously recommended 170, but it’s $800 cheaper and shoots onto SD cards rather than P2. You’ll save a lot of money with the easier/cheaper recording medium and still get the same quality image.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/575992-REG/Panasonic_AG_HMC150PJU_AG_HMC150_AVCCAM_Camcorder.html

[Michael Griggs]

[walter biscardi] “You have your Project files on the RAID? The .fcp files? If so, always keep those on your internal Mac HD. I have a “Projects” folder on my main Startup Drive where we keep all our projects.”

Walter, This is an interesting thought. What is it about keeping the project file on the RAID that makes it more corruptible?

I would love to hear your thoughts on the file/data structure that you guys typically use. As in, do you keep all your captured media on one scratch disk, separate from other graphics, audio/music, etc? Or do you perhaps have one “master project” folder for each project, and everything is hierarchal and contained within that folder?

Maybe you could do a blog about it sometime?? 🙂 I’m sure I’m not the only one who would be interested in learning from your Standard Operating approaches.

[Michael Griggs]

“PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE make disk images of your Canon media cards”

That is what Canon says on their website “how to” for ingesting to FCP via their plug-in…..but what if you DON’T have the disk image version??

I recently received footage shot on a 7D, but the files were copied off the card onto a hdd, instead of the recommended creation of a disk image. While I am still able to access all the movies (and subsequently used Compressor to convert to ProRes), FCP’s Log & Transfer refuses to recognize the file structure of the folder with the Canon footage.

I get the wonderful error message: “”Canon 7D Footage” contains unsupported media or has an invalid directory structure. Please choose a folder whose directory structure matches supported media.”

Am I missing something?? I’ve installed Canon’s E1 plugin, and I’m using FCP 7.

I can still use the footage via Compressor conversion, but, as I understand it, the E1 plugin and FCP ingest via L&R uses the camera’s timestamp to convert to timecode. This would be REALLY helpful!

To boil it down…..

Am I screwed because the Canon footage is NOT in the recommended disk image format?