View Full Version : PAUSE record mode?


David Ho
March 7th, 2004, 07:25 PM
Ok. I guess I didn't read the manual right, but my question now is that is the GL2 programmed to be on the PAUSE record mode all times? Wouldn't this hurt the head ware? I mean.... before I got the GL2, my old Hi8 camera just had STOP & RECORD. Now I also notice that the GL2 has a 5-minute auto-shut off in the PAUSE record mode. Is there anyway to make the GL2 just "stop and record" rather than "record pause, then record?" What is your guys approach to this? I got a GL2 a few weeks ago and now just started messing around with it and noticed the PAUSE record mode and auto-shut off.

Andrew Hogan
March 7th, 2004, 08:00 PM
In Pause mode you can start recording quicker then if the mechanism is stoped. If you are paused for too long it'll go to sleep or VCR stop mode and therefore preserving the tape and needless wear. If you need to setup your shot for a while then use the custom keys to go to VCR stop mode and that'll save wear and tear but just takes a little bit longer between you shouting: "Rolling" and "Action!"

David Ho
March 7th, 2004, 08:10 PM
I think pausing = more wear than anything? How do you make it so it just has VCR stop mode and record instead of the pause record + record?

Ken Tanaka
March 7th, 2004, 10:01 PM
You can only set the GL2 to go into full power-down or VCR shutdown. You cannot control the timing of either event.

But, honestly, I would not become anxious about this. I believe there are actually 2 stages to "Rec Pause". In the first seconds the tape remains threaded and in contact with the record drum. In the second the tape is actually unthreaded and relieved. This explains why restarting RECORD after only a few seconds on PAUSE is an immediate action. Conversely, pressing RECORD after a minute or two requires a couple of seconds while the tape is rethreaded.

Bottom line: fuggettaboutit. Just shoot and have fun with the darn thing!

David Ho
March 8th, 2004, 12:04 AM
Here's the thing. I'm new to this whole filmmaking aspect, so basically I have the camera rolling.

1. And when I shoot a scene, and someone messes up, I will just stop the record... Now should I just continue to record allowing continous recording or just press record button again making it stop? Which one would be the better of the two in terms of less head ware and such?

2. When I am in between a scene, I will just press the record button so it pauses, but when I am actually filming a scene, I will tend to wait and talk over with the actors and get things right until it's done....so the pause will be there, but now the PAUSE, if after 5 mins, will just either VCR shutdown or auto power off. And if I decide to actually manually put it on VCR stop (with the custom preset key), the tape rewinds like 2 seconds backwards...

Now I think this means I would have to plan my shoots 2-3+ seconds before AND after each scene or each take, right?

Ken Tanaka
March 8th, 2004, 12:19 AM
David,
Geez, you're greatly over-thinking this whole matter. Just press the red Record button to start and stop recording. Stop between takes. No, you don't have to plan the timing of takes. Just forget about it! Really.

Robin Davies-Rollinson
March 8th, 2004, 01:30 AM
<<<Now I think this means I would have to plan my shoots 2-3+ seconds before AND after each scene or each take, right?-->>>

Of course you should. Always allow more at beginning and end of shots. You'll be glad of the extra material in editing some day.
The same with pans. Allow about six seconds before and after pan. Then, if you don't want tbe pan later, you've got the two shots either side anyway!

Robin.

David Ho
March 8th, 2004, 03:52 AM
I mean... the thing is was when I was shooting, I was ultra confused. Usually, on my old camcorders the mechanism would be STOP and RECORD rather than pause or anything. And I noticed from recent threads that pausing is not good for the tape and the wear of the camera. Now, my GL2 is brand new (got it a few weeks ago) and I'm still figuring out things and trying to see it works. I've using the DVM63MQs for the best in quality and efficiency. It's just that when the tape is at the "VCR Stop" ... the clip tends to rewind or possibly foward itself a few seconds (noticable 2 or 3 seconds) which I then question because then I would really never know if I should just have it on continous recording at all times or not...

I guess it's just that I was use to the old ways of recording, but this pause record works -- I am just confused when I shoot because sometimes I just have to press my preset key to stop it so it won't auto shut-off.... Now would you say for *LONG* periods of time, have it on pause record or just VCR stop, and if so....how should I approach the 2-3 second rewind/foward that the VCR stops actually does?

Also, its neat that the GL2 remembers the timecode of the tape in how many it has been fowarded or rewinded up to a point. This helps tremendously so incase I am done recording and put the tape away, and come back to it, I know if the tape has been re-aligned so possibly causing a one or two second rewind/foward too..... :/

Frank Granovski
March 8th, 2004, 04:01 AM
I noticed from recent threads that pausing is not good for the tape and the wear of the camera.This is true. That's why cams shut down after 2 minutes or so, and that's why one should learn to operate the cam more quickly (get familar with it), and develop the ability or skill to know when to press pause and when to shut it off. One just learns to live with this shut-down saftey feature. Cams work just like VCRs: if there is no such safety feature, well, could you imagine how busy cam and VCR repair shops would be? :-))

David Ho
March 8th, 2004, 04:18 AM
When would it best to VCR stop instead of the pause record?

I just am wondering how should I approach the tape with the timecode cause everytime I eject the tape and put back the tape back in for .... the tape will never be in the EXACT same position, so that means I will have maybe (?) a 1 or 2 second either rewinded or fowarded position...right?

Frank Granovski
March 8th, 2004, 05:53 AM
I don't use the time code, but maybe you need to, I don't know. I've never had problems with turning off the cam and then turning it back on to continue where I left off. I've shot videos like this and have never seen any gaps between segments. Sometimes I even rewind a bit, before shooting the next segment. It's not difficult, nor should it be troublesome.

David Ho
March 8th, 2004, 06:06 AM
Well, what I did was .... it was PAUSE record on say... 0:00:08 (8 seconds)...

then I click the VCR stop on the preset key, and I believe it rewinded itself to 0:00:06 or 7 seconds... I'm not sure, but when you click stop, you can hear the tape mechanism doing something ...

David Ho
March 8th, 2004, 10:36 PM
I just rechecked and I noticed that whenever I clicked VCR stop, the tape mechanism sound begins and then the timecode counter rewinds one second backwards.... is this normal?

Jeff Donald
March 9th, 2004, 07:02 AM
Yes, it's normal, it's called back spacing.

Chris Hurd
March 9th, 2004, 07:38 AM
Try not to sweat these things too much, David. The main thing is that you should shoot with the camera. That's really the best way, to learn by doing. All of the expert advice you'll find on our boards is completely secondary to just going out and using the GL2. If you're doing a carefully scripted project, always allow yourself some extra seconds at the beginning and end of each shot so that you can trim them down to just the right length when you're editing. The act of "editing in the camera" by making the shot length just right while shooting, can be an excellent excersize but I don't think you're quite ready for that. My advice is to follow the leads you've been given here, get away from the computer and go out and have fun with the camcorder. Forget about the how's and why's and just go roll tape and have fun while learning the GL2. Hope this helps,

Alan McCormick
March 9th, 2004, 10:23 AM
Cannot agree more with Chris's comments, I have had the XM2 since Oct 03 and have never had so much fun learning. Yes it is my 1st real Cam and what a learning curve, but an enjoyable one. I can now safely go out and shoot a reasonable video but have fallen over many times (not literally) and will continue to learn over the years to come.

Get out and enjoy!

David Ho
March 10th, 2004, 05:14 PM
The thing I don't really understand is what, then, is the really the best method? It seems like there is are pros and cons to the REC PAUSE and VCR STOP. The rec pause being it's not good to pause long periods of time, but if you want to use VCR stop, there is backspacing involve which will erase 1-2 seconds off of the tape! Aghhhhhh!

Andrew Hogan
March 10th, 2004, 05:46 PM
David,

Just use pause all the time when you are shooting. But if you are going to do a major changes to the scene that are going to take a long while (but you still want to be able to view the compostion while you are setting up the shot) then hit VCR stop and give the moving parts of the camera a rest.

And as for your worry about 2 second rewind, thats easy, just shoot a few seconds of footage hit pause again and then VCR stop.

Jeff Donald
March 10th, 2004, 09:50 PM
David, there is no one best method. Different people have different shooting styles and methods. Try one and see if it works for you. If it does great, if not, then try another method. Eventually you'll find what works best for you.

David Ho
March 11th, 2004, 01:07 AM
Well... I think I'm not into the more which one is "best" or not... I am actually into which one is safer to the camera. I mean, if there is a 1-2 second backspacing.... that would mean, hypothetically speaking, that you're rewinding back ONE or TWO seconds EACH time you use the VCR stop, thus resulting in ... overwriting footage, which would be bad, would it not -- and I am unsure whether this affects timecode or not.

Ken Tanaka
March 11th, 2004, 01:18 AM
It's a DESIGNED feature on all good camera to help prevent interrupted time code, something that could cause trouble during capture. There is NO CAMERA SAFETY ISSUE involved.

David Ho
March 11th, 2004, 03:57 AM
I understand that the PAUSE REC. is there to help prevent, like you said, interrupted time orsomething that cause could trouble during capture, BUT, my question was ... if there was a backspacing of 1-2 seconds each time of VCR stop (in which I frequently use, unfortunately) There would mean an excess of overwriting previous footage, even if its one or two seconds, right? When you stop it, it rewinds, so cutting off a second or two ...now would this be, in this case, bad for the tape or even the heads of the camcorder if its consistent?

Frank Granovski
March 11th, 2004, 04:06 AM
It wouldn't be bad, unless you stop and start every few seconds throughout the whole tape, especially with using cheap VHS tape.

Jeff Donald
March 11th, 2004, 06:35 AM
If the backspacing works correctly you won't loose any frames. The recording doesn't start at the point it backspaces to. Rather, it uses the one or two seconds to roll forward when you start recording again. Most times it will start recording at exactly the point at you left off. Rarely it will record over a frame or two or perhaps start a frame late and leave a TC break. But this is a very rare occurrence. If you are worried about recording over your last scene, record an extra four or five seconds at the end of the take, just like the pros.

David Ho
March 11th, 2004, 11:42 AM
Frank, I meant I was referring to the DV tape on the camcorder through GL2's "VCR Stop" function.

Jeff, what you have mentioned is fowarding, but whenever I see the backspacing, it is usually 1-2 seconds rewinded.

Chris Hurd
March 11th, 2004, 11:56 AM
That's perfectly normal, David, and it is not over-writing any video. When you press "stop," the tape disengages from the recording heads. The big loop of tape that the transport pulls out of the cassette in order to engage the heads, now has to go somewhere while the transport is fully stopped. So, it's rewound back onto the tape inside the cassette. Press "record" again and the tape is threaded back onto the heads, almost always precisely where you left off. If you're worried about that precision, use the "rec search -" button to back up a frame or two into your previous shot, preserving your timecode. And, always let your shots roll a few seconds longer than they need to. Hope this helps,

David Ho
March 11th, 2004, 01:34 PM
Ah.... I see. I forgot that when you press RECORD again, the tape is repositioned therefore if you pressed the VCR stop button, it'll rewind to one second, but it will go back as soon as you press record again?.... That's what you're saying, correct?

What happens if you record, then VCR stop, then eject the tape and put it back in..... it wouldn't get "repositioned" or realigned, would it? Because this is what I normally do. After I am done filming, I would just press VCR stop and then eject it.

Chris Hurd
March 11th, 2004, 06:18 PM
Ejecting the tape throws everything off. When you re-insert the cassette, while in rec-pause mode simply press the "rec search -" button to pick up the last frames from the previous shot and you're good to go.

David Ho
March 12th, 2004, 11:04 AM
Can you ever foward too much a frame while using the "rec search minus/plus" button therefore, breaking the timecode or making the casette realigned/messed up even further?

Chris Hurd
March 12th, 2004, 12:11 PM
Try it and see what happens. The "rec search" keys do not alter cassette alignment. They merely move the tape forward or back frame by frame. You have a GL2; experiment with the "rec search" buttons yourself. The best way to learn is by doing. Pretty soon you'll become an expert at it and we'll come to you with questions!

David Ho
March 12th, 2004, 04:19 PM
In a way, I should try it, but I am also afraid of what could happen as a result. Thus, I go to this forum and asks the questions as a preventative measure so I know I am not doing anything I will regret. I'm sure over the course of time, I will learn more as I go, but this problem is very confusing to me!

Frank Granovski
March 12th, 2004, 05:15 PM
Sometimes, after spending many hours with the manual, you have to take a chance and experiment. Just don't force anything.

David Ho
March 13th, 2004, 02:01 PM
Ok.... so the REC search/minus during the rec pause mode replaces rewind and foward without having to stop, right? Which one would be better? To just VCR stop, and then rewind/foward or use the rec search minus/plus? Like which one would be better for the camcorder? Because y'know, sometimes I shoot recreational stuff for my friends and family, and I always want to rewind the footage to see where I left off and stuff.

It seems like with the VCR stop/rec pause now, I have to carefully plan everything for short movies, but when I just want to record some general purposes, not really movies footage, I would ultimately break up the timecode and little minor instances like that if I try to do it the old "fashion way" when I had my old Sony camera.

Graham Bernard
March 13th, 2004, 02:25 PM
David . .Please go and shoot stuff!

I've had my XM2 now for 15 months [ ? ] . . .and I've got probably about 120 minDV tapes . .some full,some partially empty .. some 3/4 used . . some are away with "clients" all have been my body of work and experiential and learning . .please go and shoot .. give youreself a break and learn . learn .. learn . . . really it's gonna be the only way . . David, I lay any odds that YOU know the manual better than I do . . . Maybe I should be askinbg you a few quastions . . seriously . . go shoot some footage .. . from your very impressive wishes to keep your cammie in "perfect" condition, you may be lossiong out on the "fun" side of it all . .do you need permission? Well, David, you got mine . . ;-)

Grazie

Robin Davies-Rollinson
March 13th, 2004, 04:13 PM
Seconded!


Robin.