Rennie Klymyk
Forum Replies Created
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Was this an EWA Marine bag? I’ve used a lot of their bags with good results for what they are. There’s nothing like a proper dedicated housing for underwater though.
“everything is broken” ……Bob Dylan
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The 2010 I believe is the old style (15 years old) In North America they were the 1910.
Sony monitors with smpte phosphors have a U on the end and for ebu phorphors they have the E on the end BVM-20G1U or BVM-20G1E
There seem to be a few of these on the market with the move to HD. With no cards I would estimate the street price at $1000.00. These units require a remote to control them but I see you have one already so your controller can control something like 20 different monitors. The old BVM-1910/2010 has the controller built on the bottom of each unit.
I would definitely go for the newer monitor as the previous generation is just too old now. My BVM-1915 just fried itself over night here stinking up the place for weeks, fortunately no fires were started.
“everything is broken” ……Bob Dylan
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Beachtek DXA-4 fits on the camera.
“everything is broken” ……Bob Dylan
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[Riccardo Vitale] “And, most important: Is there any loss of quality when going from MiniDV to DVD and back to MiniDV via firewire !? “
Get the tapes. DVD is a final delivery format. You take a 20 GB project and encode it to a 4.7 GB file to squeeze it on to the dvd disc. This is intelligently done but the process is lossy, meaning data is lost in the process. Upon play back dvd decoders intelligently fill in the lost data with good enough accuracy to fool our eyes but if you plan to rework this video you will get some artifacts. DV isn’t the greatest but at least it is frame by frame resolution. You should always use original footage to edit or digital copies of original footage which it sounds like the mini dv tapes are.
“everything is broken” ……Bob Dylan
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[Steve Brame] “a load of tapes that we need to archive to Quicktime files”
Not sure how many tapes you have but aja lo converters are showing up on ebay pretty cheap these days. You could probably buy one and sell it afterward and pretty well get your money back. The aja would solve your balanced audio problems too. Your current converter converts everything to DV while the aja would allow you to use a 4:2:2 format via component.
Not sure why you get no signal and what a distribution amp would do for you. Is the terminator switch on? Does the composite feed a picture to a monitor?
“everything is broken” ……Bob Dylan
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Cool, I’ve had similar experiences and it’s surprising what some electronics can take. One of the worst dangers is getting water into the lens elements and leaving a film. I wouldn’t want to try to fix that. Good luck with it.
“everything is broken” ……Bob Dylan
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For web video , quality of video is not an important factor but audio will be.
Given that good audio will use balanced lines you should look for a camcorder that can input XLR audio inputs and can be white balanced. A used Sony PD-150 or 170; Canon GL or XL1; Panasonic DVX100 are all good choices. It’s a shame to buy SD cameras in these times but for your budget and needs these dv cams will be simple and effective.
Wired lavs like sony ecm-77 are good. Wireless mics are nice but cost money and since you may need to mic 2 people at the same time the wired lavs are cost effective. If you have to mic more than 2 people at once you will need an audio mixer and more mics or some boom mics.
The next thing is some lighting gear. The cams I mentioned allow manual white balance so get some cc gels and c-stands and light heads. You can get by with one light for starters making it only slightly brighter than the existing light and gelling it to match the existing light for color temp. These cams are very good in low light but you need to get light into the eye sockets. Eyes are set back in a person’s face and you need to get light in there. Just one light at a 45′ angle a few feet higher than the person’s head and catching the eyes is good. You can use a white wall or styrofoam panel or reflector disc to act as a second light by letting it bounce your main light back at the subject from a more frontal angle. Eventually you can build your light kit and light more elaborate sets. Search lighting for more details on lighting, there are lots of guides out there.
Experiment with friends and family to get good at mic placement and lighting so you can be fast with these people’s valuable time.
“everything is broken” ……Bob Dylan
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Ebay.
…just kidding here! that would be too mean. I’m not sure the value of the cam but either send it in to a service center or if you do it yourself clean the heads and tape path with alcohol and q-tips. DO NOT drag a q-tip up and down over the heads, you must only wipe in the direction as the tape travels and very gently. Use only 99% isopropanol alcohol and not the 75% junk. Clean any other deposits with cotton soaked in the alcohol as well.
“everything is broken” ……Bob Dylan
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[Greg Ball] “Again Rennie…it’s a very low volume of clients that request credit card payment. Large corporations don’t typically use credit cards for video services. They use P.O.’s and checks paid by invoice. Raising my prices penalizes just other clients who pay by check. What do you do?
“The PO/invoice is mainly how it works for me. 3 years ago I went from a large limited company to a “just me proprietorship” and in the process closed my bank accounts and have spent 3 years with no credit cards. This has been a problem for me many times so I likely will re-link with visa again at least. (I used to use AMEX, Master Card, Visa and Diner’s Club.)
I get a lot of small bits and pieces of government and corporate projects in the $300.00 to $1500.00 range especially now with internet video and dvd. This is typically where the credit cards are great and expected.
I do a number of annual events where I set up a booth and take orders for DVD’s on site. If I have a wireless Bank Card/ Visa device there, I can increase sales by 20% and most others will use that form of payment rather than cash or check.
I realize this is a different market segment than you may work in so the credit card thing may not work for you. I know I myself need to re-set up for bank/credit cards sooner than later.
On my accountant’s invoices he has a 1st total for payments received within 1 week with a 3% reduction (all pre-calculated). Below that is the normal total in bold print if you don’t take advantage of the early payment discount. Perhaps you could accept credit cards but offer a similar discount on the invoice for payments by check or cash. You would still be raising your prices to off set the credit account fees but you would not penalize those clients who pay by check or cash. The negative side of this is your price quotes look higher this way. I guess there is no easy solution.
“everything is broken” ……Bob Dylan
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Most major credit cards also charge a percentage similar to paypal so you get hit either way. With credit cards if you do a large volume their percentage is lower.
Credit cards are almost a “must have” as many expense accounts are set up on credit cards. The company officials you deal with can be quite put off if they can’t use their card with you.
It’s worth adjusting your prices to accommodate the credit card and/or paypal fees.
“everything is broken” ……Bob Dylan