[Wolf Austad]

No, it never worked.

I ended up using an AJA HDP2 + Atlona DVI to Mini Displayport converter.

I also noticed at NAB this year that Black Magic used the same 24″ LED Apple display in their exhibit, so I asked their rep how they wired it. HDLink Pro DVI via DVI to Mini Displayport converter, can’t recollect which brand DVI to Displayport converter they used.

So a bit finicky set-up, but once it works the image looks pretty good.

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based

[Wolf Austad]

>I would like to avoid the $345 range price of the Panasonic usb2 card reader if it’s a possibility. >Couldn’t find anything else compatible with Lion. Is there anything else less expensive…and reliable?

To my knowledge no, not for Mac.

Panasonic’s P2 driver for generic CardBus slots only works in 32bit mode on Mac. Lion defaults to 64bit. (On Windows P2 drivers work in both 32 & 64bit mode.) I have been told that Panasonic uses custom chips for their higher end P2 readers (PCD-35, PCD-30) and not generic CardBus chips, hence the higher speeds those readers can achieve. Panasonic has written 64bit drivers for Lion for these proprietary higher end Panasonic P2 readers.

Point being that even if there was another adapter like the Duel on the market that worked with 64bit Lion it still wouldn’t work for P2 cards.

So short of complicated tricks like booting into 32bit Lion or installing Windows on your Mac, a USB 2.0 reader is your cheapest bet.

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based

[Wolf Austad]

The Duel Adapter hasn’t worked since OSX 10.4 Tiger, and even then it was notoriously unreliable. You obviously had a solid piece of luck with yours. Good for you. I only used the Duel a little bit, but enough to permanently ban it from my set. Drivers for the Duel adapter will not be updated to work with newer operating systems.

Best advice is to buy the Panasonic USB 2.0 reader.

Or you could install the older operating system on a partition of your computer and boot into that when you need to use the Duel adapter. (Not recommended by me.)

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based

[Wolf Austad]

1080 mode on the HDX900 (and 2700 and 2000/2100) use 720 imager with a pixel shift to uprez to 1080. For certain situations this works just fine, for other situations, particularly certain directions of movements, the pixel shift uprez can create ugly artifacts. I don’t get these artifacts when shooting in 720 with these cameras.

I’ve been in a 2K Film DI where (to my horror) they wanted to add a few shots with the HDX900 and also Varicam. The Varicam won hands down. Softer yes, but a lot less funny stuff going on.

The other situation is when detail enhancement becomes an issue, like f.ex. shooting greenscreen or you want to be extra careful with some skintones. Shooting 720P in those situations has for me rendered a more pleasing image with these cameras.

All of course depending on deliverables and what it’s possible to explain to producers… 😉

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based

[Wolf Austad]

Yes, I’ve had the fuse blow a few times on 3700s. Even without any camera light or other accessories that use more power than would be expected for a camera like this. From what I understand it’s a known issue. Hope that Panasonic has a fix for it…. But haven’t checked on it for a while.

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based

[Wolf Austad]

There’s no way of copying reliably with either Windows folder copy or Mac Finder copy.

If you have a problem with copy speeds, switch to UHS-1 SD-HC cards (Panasonic, Sandisk and Delkin make them). If you have a decent USB 2 bus you’ll download at half the time you used to, if you have USB 3 and appropriate reader you’ll get around 70MBytes/s real life download speed, maybe more depending on system, etc. You might have to get some new SD to SxS adapters to use the new UHS-1 speed class SD cards. Or, if price is really no object, just get some 64GB SxS cards… 😉 They ARE more reliable for copy. And much faster!

In my experience 90% of copy errors, when using SD or CF cards, originate in the card reader (mostly overheating). So, if you are using Shot Put Pro don’t use ‘File Size Comparison’, use ‘MD5 checksum’ or ‘Byte Size Comparison’. There are card readers that are solid enough to be able to use ‘File Size Comparison’ verification method and be reasonably safe. F.ex. SxS or P2 in Panasonic USB Reader. SD or CF readers that you buy for $50 are not that safe. In my experience, that is…

Hope that helps.

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based

[Wolf Austad]

Thank you, Tom!

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based

[Wolf Austad]

Thanks for taking your time to answer my question.

[Tom Wolsky]
Not so. In fact it has more sophisticated color correction than older versions.”

Yes, you are right. Sorry, I wasn’t clear. I was thinking about all the sessions I’ve supervised with a colorist using Color that came with the old version. Compared to that the color tools in the FCP X manual looked rather simplified. For the kind of dailies work I’m looking to do it seems the new FCP X color correction tools should be sufficient, though. 🙂

[Tom Wolsky]
There is no batch export function in FCP.”

I presume you mean FCP X? And since I got the attention of an expert: Is there is no other straight forward way of rendering out all clips with color correction and maintain clip names, camera TC and audio in FCP X?

Thanks,

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based

[Wolf Austad]

Current P2 drivers for OS X are 32 bit. I think Panasonic needs to write new 64bit P2 drivers since Lion is 64bit. Maybe it’s possible to boot Lion in 32bit mode? If you try this, please let us know if it works!

Thanks, Wolf

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based

[Wolf Austad]

Thanks Robin,

Yes, I was referring to the older B/W viewfinder, probably same thing you have on your HDX900. Good to know there’s a better one out there now. Still sort of puzzles me that in 2011 the VF on my old Arriflex 16SR from the 1970s feels better than the new electronic stuff. Amazing what 35 years of progress can do… 😉

Aasulv Wolf Austad, fnf
Director of Photography
Los Angeles based