Capturing footage via black magic with A1.
 

(Edit, Yes, I know this is not possible) Greetings! I'm about pick up the glorious A1 here in about a week or so. I sold my jvc 110 (kind of a weird switch) and I'm super pumped about getting the a1, and returning to using a canon cam. My Xl2 rocked. I can't wait to start contributing on this forum as well!

Anywho! Right now, I'm using a macbook pro and fcp to edit... I eventually plan on getting a sweet desktop before too long. I know it's not possible to capture with the A1 through a black magic card period, or on my macbook, because that's not possible. (I'm planning ahead here) Wow, that was kind of confusing. But you guys are smart. But I got to thinking! Use a different cam to caputre. So... what consumer camera out there would let me capture, and convert through black magic. It'd be slick to not have to capture with my A1. I think JVC has one, but I can't recall... The main reason for all of this is, I keep hearing the hdv codec causes nothing but headaches, and the dvcpro codec is the route to roll, that's where the black magic card comes into play. Or... should I not even waste my time converting to dvcpro? Help me out here, brothas. Take it easy. Thanks in advance. I'm looking forward from hearing from ya.

Editing HDV is pretty painless these days. Part of it depends on which NLE you're using. It really hasn't caused me any issues.

As for the black magic card, it is possible to capture live video with the Black Magic Intensity Pro using the A1's Component output. But, of course, that would mean that you're tethered to a PC during your shoots.

I'm using fcp, 6.0.2. But I'm not playing it live, I'm shooting on tape and capturing to a computer...

If you're shooting tape, editing in FCP, just use one of the HDV easy setups and you're there. No hassle, it's just like editing DV. I shoot everything 24F and use the HDV1080P24 setup, make sure the sequence setting matches, and no problems at all. I'm on FCP 6.0.4, with a 17" Macbook Pro, 23" Cinema Display monitor, separate keyboard and trackball, and M-Audio BX5a speakers, WD firewire media drives.

Sweet, Bill. Thanks a lot, dude. If I were to shoot something in 60i, what easy set-up should I use?

HDV1080i60