Sam Lee
1
COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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Yes simply import all folders and it’lll automatcially join it into a large clip. Unfortunately if you have more than 2 P2 cards spanned, you either have to copy all P2 cards to a hdd or have a 3 or 5 P2 card reader for it to see it all.
During import, you’ll have to compound select all of the P2 folders (:\CONTENTS) and all spanned footage will appear. I believe recall when the clip is spanned, a “!” will appear in their free P2 CMS for Mac or Windows. The best way to determine if the clip is spanned or not is to simply use FCP 7.0.3’s Log & Xfer. It’ll tell you if it’s partially spanned or completely spanned. The nice thing about it is that if you forget a P2 folder, you can add it and it’s smart to join it automatically right before you perform the rewrapping. FCP 10.2.1 is not as acute in this. So you have to prep it ahead of time for spanning otherwise each clip is 5 min vs hours long.
I actually got a bit lazy of having to constantly open the P2 media door to insert the 2nd card and keep it spanned on all P2 originated footage shot several years ago. The P2 spanning process has been flawless for me since 2006 with the paltry 4 & 8 Gb P2 cards. Back in those days I have to really keep up with the folder naming convention. With 64 Gb, that’s not a big problem anymore. Still don’t know why they don’t have 128 Gb P2. Sony already have it on their SxS cards.
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Were these clips possibility part of a spanned volume? The 5 min per clip looks very similar when not all of the spanned volume sets are imported. When you have all of the spanned volume, it will magically join. I shot a 3.5 hours continuous spanning clip and I had to select all 4 raw P2 folders and it combined to a single 3.5 hours vs every 5 min clip.
typically use FCP 7.0.3 Log & XFer and import all spanned clips. It does take longer but so is importing it natively into FCP 10.2.1 and the library is large.
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Yes. Making multicam clips are tedious also. These days I tend to batch group them based on the SMPTC TC. They’re usually about an hour long for non continuous recording. There are times where they’re 2-3 hours long (live events) spanning over 4 days. That’s the biggest so far and X handle it without crash but at the cost of taking about a day to generate proxies (needed when there are more than 4 cams). Those takes a lot of processing time and I typically have to setup in the morning and come back in the evening for it to be done. The library size increases as well. The advantage I see in multicam is the multicamera window where you can see all angles at once. And you can easily tweak the angle after the fact. To me it’s worth the extra long processing time, especially when there are more than 4 cams.
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For some odd reasons I couldn’t perform audio components on my MBP 2014 earlier. But after trying it on the Mac Pro, it worked! The photo helped a lot to show that it’s possible to expand audio component. This saves me a lot of time and headaches. Thanks.
I’ve only begun to edit the 4 cams shoot with 6 lavs. So far doing this is far faster overall than exporting audio to Logic Pro and then recombine.
For cam 1, it appears that I can manually turn only 1 of the 4 tracks (which is the lav mic) and mute all other tracks to reduce excessive ambient noise. It’s quite tedious do to all 4 cams via the expand audio component. But it’s more comforting to do this than going to Logic Pro via .xml. From limited hands on experience with this method, I think this has to be done at the near completion stage of the edit where the scene will not likely to be changed. If there are content editorial changes, it’ll take many hours to re apply all of the extra fade in/out handles to sweeten the audio.
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The HPX-2000 was and is an excellent low-light camera. I used it for a year and a half. It has similar characteristics of the legacy SDX900, HDX900. Gaining up to 6 dB is quite clean – similar to the SDX900. To make it simple: It’s a broadcast grade cam. The 5-slot P2 is a classic. I can literally put all 64 Gb and be done for the day.
The only problem with this cam is that it’s a 720p native camera. It can shoot 1080i/p, but at a cost of upsampling. Ultimately, it will not be sharp or crisp as in 720p. In today’s world, 1080p is pretty much the norm minimum. Due to market demands, I had to go with the 3000 series for 1080p native CCDs over 720p. But the cost of the 1080p CCDs is loosing about 2 stops total in overall sensitivity with the 1080p native CCDs vs 720p on the HPX2000. AVC-I 100 is an option. Going from 8 to 10 bits helps a lot for scenics. It simply capture the sky or other high color scenes much better than 8-bit. And definitely can maintain the integrity of the footage in post prod – particularly color grading.
The progressive advanced processing is indeed a digital noise reduction circuit in Panasonic’s entry level broadcast 1/3″ cams.
Even though large sensor Super 35 mm cams are taking a huge portion of the 2/3″ cams market share, for some odd reasons 2/3″ cams are still in demand. I recall just last year where majority of the production community neglected the 2/3″ HPX 3000 series and you can get quite a few of them for 1/3 of the cost. All of the sudden last 3-4 months they’re in hot demand again. This is good news because it will not be obsolete for a long while. Super 35mm cams can supplement other shooting needs, but still can’t completely replace 2/3″ cams.
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For 1/3″, the Panasonic HPX-250 & PX270 are good choices. Some sort of DNR & PAP settings are applied. I have to say it’s pretty good. Unfortunately the lens are not at all good so you’ll see slight-moderate blurriness due to lackluster stock lens over 2/3″ with a real HD broadcast lens costing 4-6x more than the 1/3″ cam itself.
2/3″: They’re all fairly noisy (HPX3000, 3100, 3700, PX5000) once the gain is set to 3 dB and beyond. I don’t know any PAP modes are applied. I guess they designed for pro use and pros generally always have some kind of light. But thanks to high quality lens, it’s sharp. I mean sharp in low light. Colors are popping out. It’s remarkable to look at. It’s like a super clear diamond glass or something like that from super wide to closeup. Something 1/3″ w/ stock lens can’t achieve. It’s subdued and looks flat. To workaround this, simply shoot closer and tighter shots.
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My theory between the uncompressed HD-SDI and P2 card is the codec it uses. Even though AVC-I 100 is mildly compressed, there’s still compression. AVC Ultra 200 (found on newer 2013-present models) may be closer to uncompressed. You may want to try the HD-SDI signal to a uncompressed Mac/PC capture card to compare. Typically the easiest workaround for me is to blast the scene with near sunlight brightness (including green screen) and the black noise diminishes dramatically.
The noise issue has been found on earlier Panasonic 2/3″ cams, including their popular SDX-900 DVCPRO 50 ten years ago. You only see it surface when color grading is applied. There the grains are magnified and is discernible. Overall it’s an excellent low-light camera during its SD days. I was able to use up to 9 dB and it’s virtually noise free. That 9 dB of gain is similar to 3 dB in today’s 2/3″ HPX3100-PX5000 models. I found anything beyond 3 dB with today’s 2/3″ cams are way too grainy. The only way to tackle this is to brighten the scene.
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I also see the noise in the green screen area as well. I have similar problems with higher end 2/3″ Panasonic cam when the scene doesn’t have enough lux. I mean you really have to blast the scene with lots of light and the noise diminishes until you can shoot at f/8-11 at -6 dB gain. But it won’t go away 100%.
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Got your responses. With limited funding, I can only start out with 2 Zaxcom products: TRXLA2 and IFB200 and/or the ERX2TCD
I definitely need a huge upgrade from the prosumer Sennheiser G3 evolution. It has been great but the audio quality to my ear is just flat. No depth or nuances. Straight to 2/3″ camera with analog XLR is OK but not exceptional. With about $3K in additional spending, I hope audio will improve.
I have three 2/3″ cams. The A cam will always be the master TC clock. It’ll take the TC out (via BNC) of the 2/3″ A cam and feed it to the IFB200’s BNC TC in. There it will take that TC and send it to the TRXLA2. There are times where audio recording will not be needed from the TRXLA2 and/or it will be shut off due to the talent going out of range or not utilized. That’s why I can’t use the TRXLA2 as a master clock to the camera. With the B & C cams, I can use the much cheaper ERX2TCD and with its somewhat fragile 1/8″ TRS output to ch1: scratch audio, ch2: TC in. In many ways I’m using the as a substitute for Time Code Buddy where I’m getting TC from other cams. But the added benefit is getting scratch audio for confident monitoring. But will not use it as the final mix.
When budget is available, I’ll buy the Nomad 12 along with the QRX235 to be used in a sound bag setup. But when not in a sound bag setup, will use the TRXLA2 as a transmitter and recorder. What I’m confused is there’s a cheaper product, which is the ZFR300. It appears that this is designed more like a ISO recorder to micro SD media vs the TRXLA2 where I can use both as a ISO recorder to micro SD media and transmit full fidelity audio at the same time for recording on the Nomad. Can the IFB200 or ERD2TCD gets full fidelity wireless audio, TC & IFB from the ZFR300 for scratch audio/confident monitoring purpose?
The long-term intention of my workflow is able to be flexible and easily integrate into a stand-alone cam mounted setup (no sound person) or a sound bag setup with a dedicated sound person. I’m getting the feeling that the ZFR300 will not be able to do that but not certain yet.
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I’m in the planning stage of upgrading my current 2-track Sound Devices 702T to at least 8-12 tracks. It’s an affordable TC recorder but limited to only 2 tracks. SD’s new 688 is pretty attractive but so is the Nomad 12. They’re roughly similar in prices. The biggest selling point for Zaxcom TX is their ability to record to SDHC. I frequently do many EFP shoots in remote area where extended range and 100% error free RF signal are needed. Originally planned to use the cheap Zoom but no TC and too big to mount as a lab mic. Zaxcom TX looks like an attractive solution to add more ISO tracks with the SDHC recording. But in the long term, the AES digital recording is more efficient to save time in post syncing.
Originally I bought the SD 702T because of their famed pre-amp to handle the Schoeps CMIT5U & CMC641. Are Zaxcom Nomad recorders’ pre-amps up to or better than SD 7xxx series?