[Scott Rachal]

Maybe not completely full of crap…

We do prefer applicants with a degree, but for this reason: It shows that you can make a huge commitment, and finish something.

We are perfectly aware that any fresh college graduate will have to be re-taught from day one. The buttons change so fast, no 2 or 4 year program can keep up. It is easy to start a project, but the ability to start a project, and finish the project, is something that not everyone has. A degree of any kind shows an employer that you have that finish inside you.

That’s why we like to see something like that on a resume.

Good luck job hunting.

[Scott Rachal]

Try this…

In the MAIN MENU:SYSTEM SETTINGS:SYSTEM MODE menu:

SYSTEM MODE: 720-59.94p
REC FORMAT: AVCI 100/24p
VFR: ON
FRAME RATE: 24 (or 30)
USER SW F. RATE: 60

In the MAIN MENU:CAM OPERATION:USER SW menu:

User1 SW: FRATE

Now… when you press user switch 1, the camera will toggle from the FRAME RATE to the USER SW F. RATE; in this case from 24 frames per second to 60 frames per second. You can set these two numbers to any combination, the User switch will toggle from one speed to the other.

NOTE– the camera will not ‘Ramp’ from 60 to 24 or back again, it is a hard speed change. If you want a ramp, shoot everything at 60p and do the speed change in post.

NOTE– you need to set a shutter speed as a absolute fraction of a second, ie. 1/60, 1/100, 1/120 etc… NO DEGREES. If you set the shutter to a speed defined as degrees, the exposure will change when you execute the speed change.

NOTE– The 2700 will not record audio when VFR mode is set to ‘On’

-Scott

[Scott Rachal]

Ahhh, the SDX900. I used one from 2004-2008, what a sweet camera that was….

The SDX900 records everything in 29.97 NTSC, either at 25 or 50 megabit DVCPRO. There is no electronic indicator after the fact to determine how it was shot. You need to bring the footage into your FCP workstation, and look at it. You can tell how it was shot by looking at single frames.

When you record at 60i, you are recording 29.97 interlaced frames to tape, but field 1 and 2 are sampled from 2 different frames. Every frame you look at will have interlace artifacts (sawtooth edges on things that move in the frame)

When you record at 30p, you are recording 29.97 interlaced frames to tape, but field 1 and 2 are sampled from 1 progressive frame. Every frame you look at will not show any interlace artifacts.

When you record at 24p standard pulldown, you are recording 29.97 interlaced frames to tape, but there is a 5 frame cadence you can see in still frames: W-W-W-S-S. W being a ‘Whole’ frame with no interlace artifacts, S being a ‘Split’ frame WITH interlace artifacts.

When you record at 24p advanced pulldown, you are recording 29.97 interlaced frames to tape, but there is a different 5 frame cadence you can see in still frames: W-W-W-W-S.

Load the footage, and press the right arrow to page through the frames…

Hope this helps…

Whole Frame:

Split Frame:

[Scott Rachal]

Try redrock micro’s gear on Amazon. We got ours sent overnight. Solid stuff.

[Scott Rachal]

This is a problem when you get more that 100-200 clips recorded…

My workaraound is to record 1 second of colorbars when I power on. Then, when I go to thumbnail view, it goes to the bars clip (now the last clip in the window)

Its easy enough to delete the color bar clip if you have time, or ignore the colorbar clips when transferring the footage

[Scott Rachal]

We found these guys a while back, and have been using their lithium ion batteries for a couple of years. They perform well, and the B4B guy really knows his stuff, battery/chemistry wise.
We’ve used the batteries on large Panasonic cameras, and get great operation time.

-Scott

[Scott Rachal]

There are 2 memory positions on the white balance switch, A & B, in addition to the ‘Preset’ position.

In the scene file menu, you can adjust the color temperature from 0 (No change) to -7 (7 arbitrary steps warmer) or to +7 ( (7 arbitrary steps cooler) in increments of 1. This can be adjusted and stored for each of the A & B switch positions.

You do have to use the white balance momentary switch to change the baseline balance for each of the A & B settings.

When you do a white balance, the color temperature is displayed in the viewfinder in degrees kelvin.

Unlike any camera I have used in the past, there is no filter wheel for 3200, 5600 etc. only an ND wheel with 4 positions (1-None, 2, 3, 4) (I don’t recall the exact densities, probably equivalent to .3 .6 .9 on the 2, 3, and 4 positions respectively)

You cannot dial in a Kelvin temperature.

The preset switch can be set to either 3200 or 5600 K.

Once your white balance is set, it is very easy to pop into the scene file menu, and warm or cool the image on the fly.

-scott

[Scott Rachal]

After 3 days of twiddling with the cards, I isolated the ATTO LVD card as the bad apple that took the whole PCI bus down. I removed it, and can now run Media Composer. I am going to have to open hundreds of projects, and export the sequences that have any chance of needing to be re-visited into OMFI. Then I’ll break the system apart and try to sell the pieces.

So if anyone is looking for parts… let me know…

-scott

[Scott Rachal]

I had an extra minute, so I’ll add a little more info…

We are currently recording VO’s with a Rode NT-1 plugged directly into a MOTU 828 with a firewire link to a mac for hard disk recording. The tracks we make have a very audible siblance level, not quite bad enough to kill a track, but enough to make us look around for a better solution. How much of that is the lack of a dedicated pre-amp, and how much is the mic itself?

Should we be looking to add a dedicted pre-amp in-line before the MOTU? Will getting a better mic solve most of this problem?

I’d appreciate some comments from ears that have experience with these mics if you have the time to comment.

Thanks

-scott

[Scott Rachal]

The issues you are dealing with are complicated, and the limited space here is not adequate to cover them all.

Here is a primer on printing terms:

https://www.sketchpad.net/basics6.htm

I wish I had time to give you the detailed response you need, but I have too much going on to explain it all.

Do some web searches on spot vs process color, or go to howthingswork.com for answers…

-crow