[Ryan Holmes]

[Steve Keating] “I don’t know of any replacements for the Atlona DVI convertor – I guess after a couple of years Macs become hopelessly redundant so support for peripherals fades along with them. :(“

If you’re monitor works on other computers, I’d guess your Atlona went bad. I have used some of their stuff in the past and have come to affectionately refer to them as Craplona…the products are cheap and don’t hold up terribly well in my experience.

You can buy any number of dual-link DVI to mini-display connectors:
https://www.amazon.com/Apple-MB571Z-DisplayPort-Dual-Link-Adapter/dp/B001IF252C
https://www.amazon.com/Kanex-DisplayPort-Thunderbolt-2560×1600-resolution/dp/B0045I85GY/
https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters®-DisplayPort-Thunderbolt-Compatible/dp/B00C7RJQPY/
https://www.amazon.com/BuyCheapCables®-Plated-DisplayPort-Thunderbolt-Compatible/dp/B00M26QIBA

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

I’m assuming your C300 shoot has come and gone by now, but for the sake of others who may stumble across this thread:

From Canon’s website:
[Canon Website] “The difference between using CP CINEMA Locked mode versus setting the Custom Picture to C8 (CINEMA) is that once the camera is in the CP CINEMA Locked mode, you won’t be able to modify custom picture items such as gamma, knee, color matrix adjustment, etc. All of those settings are effectively “locked out.”

While it might seem like you are losing control of how your images are captured when using the CP CINEMA Locked mode, in actual fact you are both simplifying the production process and optimizing the final footage for post.

CINEMA locked is also ideal in multi-camera rental situations. By enabling this mode, the only settings that will need to be matched in camera are the ISO, aperture, shutter angle, bit rate/resolution and frame rate. With these matched, each camera will be capturing the same image and will be much easier to work with in post.

CP CINEMA Locked essentially treats your C300 like a traditional CINEMA film camera where you will meter, set ISO and other capture settings and then let the camera produce the most malleable images possible that can then be “color timed” or graded in post.”

So I think what it boils down to is whether or not you want to noodle with the control and color settings additionally for the Log format you’re shooting. If yes, use C8 Cinema and tweak away. If no, use CP CINEMA Locked and get to shooting. For all my work with the C300, we use CP CINEMA Locked. The footage has a perfectly cinematic look and feel, in my opinion. It’s not an overly video feel like a Sony, Panasonic, or JVC.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

[Matt Campbell] “Capturing sloMo in camera using the Special Recording function and shooting 60p/24p or just shooting 60p and conforming the footage in post. Are their any benefits to one or the other? Conforming in post is just adding another step, but are there any quality concerns shooting this in camera. Is one way better than the other?”

Shooting 60p and slowing down to 24p gives you a true 2.5X slow motion. This means that you shot more frames knowing you would be conforming to slow-mo (also known as overcranking the camera). Slowing 24p down 2.5X forces the software to try to interpolate the action in between the frames which results in hold frames, where the software will hold a frame and extra frame or two in order to create the slow-mo effect. Shooting 60p provides you all the frames needed for clean, smooth slow-mo. The difference is that 60p is displaying all the frames you shot, just at a slower speed than you shot. 24p is slowing down those 24 frames you shot to something much longer. 60p = more frames and more data for smooth slow-mo. 24p is less frames resulting in software interpolation to make your footage “slow-mo.”

If you need smooth and clean slow mo, 60p is always the way to go. And the extra step to conform in PPro is literally only 2-3 extra clicks (right click on footage and choose Modify–>Interpret footage).

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

Try a different computer – different Mac or a Windows box. A last ditch effort would be to purchase some recovery software and try to recover the files off the CF card. Since you were shooting the C300 did you use simultaneous slot record? That way you’re creating an immediate clone live on set? That’s one of my workflow always setups. If the camera can do dual-slot record, it’s always enabled. Do you need more cards…yes. But you always have a backup as soon as your done shooting.

I’ve always wished CF cards had a lock mechanism on them (like SD cards, or SxS cards) because sometimes when you pop one into your computer the OS will attempt to write a temp file to the disk in order to read it and that temp file can sometimes get messed up or mess up your card. Locking the card prevents the OS from writing to the card, and thereby protects your data. I haven’t experienced data corruption on a CF card myself, but I’m, admittedly, paranoid!

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

You’d just need a video switcher with live key capability that can accept a HDMI input from the DSLR. The other problem, though, is that a Canon 60D doesn’t output a clean HDMI feed. The 60D HDMI output still includes the menu settings and record light in the feed. If you’re willing to hack the firmware of the 60D you can look at something like Magic Lantern to get you around that problem, but be aware that this is a completely an at your own risk solution. Magic Lantern is not supported by Canon and if your camera suffers any problems as a result of the firmware it will not be covered by your warranty.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

[Walter Soyka] “In the meantime, I keep hoping that Autodesk unleashes Flare as a standalone product.”

ha ha….I think if AD does that they’ll anger both the Flame community and the dwindling Smoke community!

[Walter Soyka] “Of course, even with Flame, there’s some lingering questions about the future: will the leadership change impact development? Is the pricing model sustainable? Will Autodesk open Flame up more, or will it largely remain an island in production? Should I pack it in and learn NUKE STUDIO? Or (the horror) Resolve/Fusion? Can I stick with Adobe CC and hope they add the kind of creative functionality unique in the market to Flame right now?”

I think these are good questions. Particularly, the pricing question. With BMD now pushing software for free provided you buy their hardware it creates a race to the bottom effect for nearly all post-production software developers, in a sense. I’m not sure in 5-7 years (sooner?) that there will be many people wanting to lay down $50K+ on a Flame. I know you’ve discussed this publicly sum, as have I (see here). It creates a tough situation for the M&E division of Autodesk (who’s big revenue is in the CAD space anyway).

I’m starting to think that at some point, as the bottom falls out for profit margins with software, that there will be a convergence and consolidation of companies buying each other out. Much like BMD has done with Resolve, Fusion, Cintel, etc…where you buy up a competitor and integrate either parts or resigned wholes of that software as your own product offering. I think BMD has accelerated this trend and it wouldn’t surprise me to see the trend speed up (I thought The Foundry would get bought up by someone as well, but that didn’t happen this go round).

And to some extend, this idea isn’t new – Apple bought FCP, Adobe bought Macromedia, Autodesk bought Discreet, etc. So I recognize it’s not new, but it seems like 6 NLE’s on the market isn’t viable business wise (MC, PPro, FCPX, Smoke, Resolve, Vegas, etc)…but maybe I’m underestimating the other parts of the video editing marketplace? Such as, people who just cut one video here and there for their company or for real estate needs….maybe that’s a much bigger place where you can carve out some business? Or the general home user (kid videos, family parties, etc)?

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

[Jacob McKee] “If you have to have the entire card on the local drive, then what do you do about a naming convention? I don’t want to end up with hundreds of 000000.MTS files as that would be impossible to find later on.”

After you’ve copied the whole card you can use Prelude as your ingesting station. That’s what it’s designed for. That’ll show you the video files and you can queue those up to encode. In the settings (in Prelude before your queue or in AME after you’ve queued them) you can change the name that you want the encoded file to have. so it can follow a strict sequence or you can customize everything to your needs.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

Where are the AVCHD file stored when you’re transcoding them – on the card? copied to a hard drive? If you copied the card, did you copy the whole card with all its various folders? Adobe needs to see the XML file inside of that folder tree in order to properly read the files.

Most fails happen because people only copy the video file out (which is wrong) or they leave the data directly on their card and something goes wrong (like the card reader loses connection with the computer momentarily).

I shoot with a C300 and C100 MK1 and Adobe rewraps fine provided I’ve pulled the card off in its entirety to a local (or networked) volume.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

It posted online in various places. Here’s one where Marc uploaded it, but you’ll need to create an account:
https://www.liftgammagain.com/forum/index.php?threads/avid-artist-color-with-davinci-resolve-11.4753/#post-41512

Guide for version 10, but nothing changed between version 10 and 11 as far as mapping for Artist Color panel.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost

[Ryan Holmes]

[Nancy L. Sutton Smith] “Will an MOV – Apple ProRes 422 HD 1080p 25 work for the South African TV channel?”

The best thing to do is contact the channel where your footage will air and get their specific requirements. Each channel differs and if you submit something that isn’t to spec they’ll typically kick it back to you to try again. So double check with them and then deliver.

To your original question 720p25, 720p50, 1080p25 are all PAL based frame rates.

Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost