[Tom Klein]

Hello Jan,

“Yes it is a buyer beware,”

This we both agree on.

Cheers
Tom K
olinevideo.com.au

[Tom Klein]

Hello Jan,

Your examples of “greys” maybe a tad extreem, Manufacturers/Dealers tell prospective buyers this all the time to instill fear if they buy products from Grey Importers or the like.
I purchased a New SONY DSR570 a few years ago as a “Grey Import” and to this day it has given, and still gives great pictures, it has had NO issues whatsoever.
At That time I could not afford the “dealers selling price” the grey import purchase saved me spending from a Sony dealer $27,000 compared to the “Grey” at $18.500. I worked out that the savings would buy me a good New Lens which I Purchased from a local Fujinon dealer.

My previous camera prior to the DSR570, was a Sony DSR300 (Purchased New from Sony dealer)it failed just two weeks after the 12 month warranty ran out, I had to scream very loud and long for a warranty repair, it took them nearly three months to affect the repairs and when i got it back it had more problematic issues.

There are no doubt shonky “grey” sellers are out there , its up to a buyer to do their homework on products.
Also, There is no doubt Shonky Authorised dealers exist too, also the buyer has to do their homework on them too.

I believe that Product Warranties today leave a lot to be desired. lets face it , we live in a throw away society, todays cameras are only good for just a few years, then they are out dated.

My current main workhorse is a Panasonic SPX800 , it’s a brilliant piece of technology, I also bought it secondhand (ex Olympics) from a authorised dealer, the savings on this camera have provided spare dollars to buy P2 cards.

Today when I buy gear I assess if it can pay for itself in 12 months, If it cannot then it’s not considered.

Cheers
Tom K
olinevideo.com.au

[Tom Klein]

Hi Philip,
I would use Premier 3.1.1 and import from the P2 card the whole file into the timeline Mark your In and out pitnts then simply export a P2 MXF file, I have done this many times, it works a treat and is very fast. just export the section to another location/drive/P2 card, your choice.
Cheers
Tom K

[Tom Klein]

PPS,
Noah’s first reply was a shortened accurate description of what to do…..

Drop all into a sequence and then drag the sequence into the viewer.

Cheers
Tom K

[Tom Klein]

Hi David,
I wondered if it is possible to make all the clips I want from a P2 card become “spanning clips”. Then FCP would see all the individual elements as one.

—- Do you ingest them into your FCP as Quicktime files, or keep them as MXF files. ? FCP only uses Quicktime, at this stage who knows if that will change over time.

The reason for this is the tight turn around times I mentioned above. As a work practice it is much easier/quicker to scrub a single long clip (or search via TC) ratjher than scroll up and down through a bin or even a number of categorised bins.

—-(Tight Turnaround-Aunty ? try freelancing) If you ingest as Quicktimes from the P2 cards I would Keep all card folders in their seperate bins in the Browser, and then drag all clips from every card into a sequence consecutively, that should give you a full length of all vision you have, in their seperate clips.
Time code can be seen by turning it “on” in the Canvas window, ( Show Timecode Overlays).
It’s ever so important to do “good house” keeping with your card files, after a while it’s a reflex.
ther’e more experienced people than I on these forums, no doubt they will chime in.

Hope this helps
Cheers From the bush
Tom K

[Tom Klein]

Hi Michael,
I have a SPX800, it transfers into my Early 2008 Macpro at about 4 times realtime using camera’s USB slot, usually to a raided pair of 750 gig HDD, via Log and transfer in FCP 6.0.3.
I don’t transfer the P2 files very often, so can’t advise of that.
Cheers
Tom K
olinevideo.com.au

[Tom Klein]

Hi David,

FCP I don’t think is your platform that can do this, I have two FCP’s set-ups and shoot P2 (sometimes for Auntie down south).
I set up a windows lappy with Premier 3.1 and it works well with the raw P2 files, (something as yet FCP won’t do, and I suspect will never do). Apple are sticking to Quicktime and that’s their choice.
Give Premier a try you may like it out in the News field, assemling, cutting and laying back to a P2 card is pretty cool, and cheap.
Cheers
Tom K
olinevideo.com.au

[Tom Klein]

Hi Dave,
I think OS Leopard (10.5)may be your problem, I bet your original system that worked with P2 cards (PCMCIA) was Tiger (10.4).
My experience is that Leopard won’t work with PCMCIA , it is designed to work with the newer Express card Macpro lappies.
May I suggest you do a complete re-install of Tiger 10.4.8, or how about Put a larger OS drive into your lappy and partition two OS’s ??. For ingesting P2 use Tiger partition and for other things you need to, use the Leopard partition.
Cheers
Tom K

[Tom Klein]

Hi Guys,

I’ve been using Dubsat since it became “nearly mandatory” delivery method for TVC playout to networks across Australia & NZ. they supply a great service be it a tad expensive when you have multiple up loads & CAD delivery per month, but other than that they’re a great mob of people to deal with, whenever there’s an issue at my end, whoever answers there phone can execute the solution with-in minutes, that’s great service in an industry when most suppliers will say, We’ll get around to it later”.
Cheers
Tom K
olinevideo.com.au

[Tom Klein]

Hi Helmut,
one of my gripes is that because the P2 cards are so dammed expensive, when I shoot with out of town producers who want/need to take the cards immediately back to their base for editing,sometimes hundreds of k’s away, I shudder and think, am i going to get them back at all, and if so, what condition will they be in ?.
there are times when cheap tape acquisition may have been better option.
I know there are some HDD options out there , but not everyone’s non-linear is geared up to ingest from those sources, ther’e work flow is from P2 cards that’s it.
I recently shot a piece using my four 8 gig cards, and shot a total of 8mins approx on each card, (at DV50 SD ) then did a quick burn to a DVD-R disc from each card for the client. (was about 4gig file size) they ingested direct from the DVD-R.
Cheers
Tom K