[Will Salley]

Go for this one:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/600761-REG/Zoom_H4N_H4n_Handy_Mobile_4_Track.html

It’s got balanced XLR inputs that provide phantom power and the preamps are very good for the price.

Mac Pro 2×2.8 Quadcore – 10.6.2 – QT 7.6.3 – 22 GB RAM – nvidia8800GT – SATA internal & external storage – Blackmagic Multibridge Pro – Open GL 1.5.10 – Wacom Intous2 tablet – AJA io
SONY XDCAM EX3 – Letus Elite

[Will Salley]

Speaking strictly from personal experience, I can say that I’ve never had a Firewire bus or interface go bad on the any of the 8 or so Macs here in my office. I have had several Firewire bridge boards go bad on the drives themselves and one in particular was because of static ( I know because I was the “ground”). We’ve got two G5s still in operation here and they both have had no problems with Firewire or really, any other issue other than the PRAM battery you mentioned. One is still chugging along with PT version 7.3 and making money. The other is a backup machine, but still working.

I can sympathize with the four year phenomenon with many other devices, but the Macs, fortunately, have not had any problems. We run them real hard too! But we also have learned from much experience, how to avoid problems and keep them cool. I replace the primary Macs (Final Cut Pro systems) every two years so they don’t have much of a chance to cause problems, but they go on to be used for other uses.

Mac Pro 2×2.8 Quadcore – 10.6.2 – QT 7.6.3 – 22 GB RAM – nvidia8800GT – SATA internal & external storage – Blackmagic Multibridge Pro – Open GL 1.5.10 – Wacom Intous2 tablet – AJA io
SONY XDCAM EX3 – Letus Elite

[Will Salley]

Try this. It’s got a 15 day trial period but you’ll probably want to buy it after you find out how useful it is.

https://www.digitalrebellion.com/fcs_maintenance.htm

Mac Pro 2×2.8 Quadcore – 10.6.2 – QT 7.6.3 – 22 GB RAM – nvidia8800GT – SATA internal & external storage – Blackmagic Multibridge Pro – Open GL 1.5.10 – Wacom Intous2 tablet – AJA io
SONY XDCAM EX3 – Letus Elite

[Will Salley]

Monitors are like politics -everyone has an opinion.

My opinion is the best value is the KRK line. Even the budget series sound accurate, and the VXT are really sweet (for the money). I’ve got a pair right beside my Genelec 8050s and they hold up well.

Mac Pro 2×2.8 Quadcore – 10.6.2 – QT 7.6.3 – 22 GB RAM – nvidia8800GT – SATA internal & external storage – Blackmagic Multibridge Pro – Open GL 1.5.10 – Wacom Intous2 tablet – AJA io
SONY XDCAM EX3 – Letus Elite

[Will Salley]

It could be:

-high humidity fogging the front or rear element (most likely)
-dirt or film on the lens (you’ve already addressed this)
-overexposure
-ND filter not completely engaged or disengaged (rare)

Mac Pro 2×2.8 Quadcore – 10.6.2 – QT 7.6.3 – 22 GB RAM – nvidia8800GT – SATA internal & external storage – Blackmagic Multibridge Pro – Open GL 1.5.10 – Wacom Intous2 tablet – AJA io
SONY XDCAM EX3 – Letus Elite

[Will Salley]

I have had no issues with the zoom on the stock lens. I rarely use the zoom anyhow.

Mac Pro 2×2.8 Quadcore – 10.6.2 – QT 7.6.3 – 22 GB RAM – nvidia8800GT – SATA internal & external storage – Blackmagic Multibridge Pro – Open GL 1.5.10 – Wacom Intous2 tablet – AJA io
SONY XDCAM EX3 – Letus Elite

[Will Salley]

I’ve had this happen with generic card readers, but it wouldn’t explain why the adapter shows an error in the camera. I have always been able to view the data with the Hoodman SDHC card reader (it comes free with the purchase of their cards). It might be worth a try.

Mac Pro 2×2.8 Quadcore – 10.6.2 – QT 7.6.3 – 22 GB RAM – nvidia8800GT – SATA internal & external storage – Blackmagic Multibridge Pro – Open GL 1.5.10 – Wacom Intous2 tablet – AJA io
SONY XDCAM EX3 – Letus Elite

[Will Salley]

[Noah Kadner] “Also I suspect Sony was tired of the third party SDHC adapters dipping into their business and realized if you can’t beat ’em join em.
“

Noah, You hit it on the head here!

I utilize the SDHC cards in a number of ways, mainly as a backup when going to the KiPro and triggering it with TC.

I’ve even used, with success, the Adata cards (class10), that are not yet “verified” to work in the adapters. I can reliably get about 50FPS from that card, about 42FPS on the Hoodmans (class6) and no overcrank at all on the Sandisk (class6). I have not tried the Pansaonic Class10.

My view is to use the SDHC cards in situations where I know I can re-acquire should data loss occur on-set AND in situations where I have the ability to verify and backup the data on-set. For me, that rules out about a quarter of my acquisition production. I also limit the card size to 16GB so that if data loss occurs, I haven’t lost more than one hour of footage.

To date, after about eight months of using the adapters (Hoodman, don’t have any MXR just because of availability at the time), I have not had any loss of data and only one “rebuild media” error.

Mac Pro 2×2.8 Quadcore – 10.6.2 – QT 7.6.3 – 22 GB RAM – nvidia8800GT – SATA internal & external storage – Blackmagic Multibridge Pro – Open GL 1.5.10 – Wacom Intous2 tablet – AJA io
SONY XDCAM EX3 – Letus Elite

[Will Salley]

You need a master clock source, usually a blackburst or sync generator.
This device provides a sync pulse to the genlock input of the camera. The video output timing of the camera(s) will then sync to each other (and every other device using the same sync pulse). This is critical for live switching but does nothing to help sync two recorded video files from different cameras. For this you simply need to use timecode. Send the timecode out of one camera to the timecode input of another camera. The setting on the “slaved” camera should be set to FREE RUN.
Using a remote to start and stop the cameras will also help.

Mac Pro 2×2.8 Quadcore – 10.6.2 – QT 7.6.3 – 22 GB RAM – nvidia8800GT – SATA internal & external storage – Blackmagic Multibridge Pro – Open GL 1.5.10 – Wacom Intous2 tablet – AJA io
SONY XDCAM EX3 – Letus Elite

[Will Salley]

You also have to consider post workflow, which for AVCHD requires a lot more processing to decompress. And the imager is still 1/3″ as opposed to 1/2″…but it is true 1920×1080.

Mac Pro 2×2.8 Quadcore – 10.6.2 – QT 7.6.3 – 22 GB RAM – nvidia8800GT – SATA internal & external storage – Blackmagic Multibridge Pro – Open GL 1.5.10 – Wacom Intous2 tablet – AJA io
SONY XDCAM EX3 – Letus Elite