HM100 used for long shows? performances?

[Dave Barnes]

Hello all;
I have had my HM100 for a month or so now.. love its output and I am thinking of trying it out on a 2.5 hour local theatre performance this coming weekend... This will give me a chance to get used to the manual zoom ring... with a little practice I seem to be able to do decent slow zooms...

Anyone else out there with any tips on the HM100 for a long show? The first act non stop is about 90 mins... (I am loading up with 2 32gb cards) ...

thanks in advance

[Gerald Webb]

Hey Dave, not much to offer except, IMO plug in power is a must, and dont bump the ND filter on and not know it. lol. (footage was still usable, just a bit darker. )
I'd rather use the zoom toggle than the ring, but thats just me, if you put your finger right in the valley and just roll your finger you can get some nice slow zooms happening.
good luck.

[Dave Barnes]

cool thanks... thats kinda what I was thinking of attempting...(slow zooms with the rocker) its going to be a test... if the footage turns out nicely then I will keep the show...

With a little practice I have found I am able to get a decent zoom with the ring... it DOES take a little practice though..... I am still being impressed by this little guy....

[Christian Brown]

I've actually had a problem dealing with a 1.5 hour long 1920x1080 clip from the JVC GY-HM100u in Adobe Premiere CS5. It freezes up the whole system and won't play the footage and won't export the footage more than once.

I'm running an i7, Windows 7, 8GB Ram. So problems on anything else.

What is curious to me as that it this is happening even though the footage is written to separate files that are approximately 3.7GB large. But since they were filmed as one "clip", the CS4 tries to deal with them as one clip and something happen. Eventually it spreads to other clips (not from the JVC) -- it's like it crashes the whole video playback system. Wish I knew what exactly caused it. I've dealt with 1hr long clips no problem.

My solution for the project at hand: restart the computer, open CS4, export a 40m long clip as an new .mp4. Restart the computer, open CS4, export the next 40m long clip as a new .mp4. And then do it again. Then I work with the new footage instead of the original files.

For future shows, I'm just going to stop the camera for a second at a convenient spot close to an hour and then start a new clip.

Here's a clip of the project. The JVC is the manned camera: YouTube - Choirs of Jesus College Cambridge - Londonderry Air (arr. Bob Chilcott)

[Dave Barnes]

Hmmm thats a strange one... I use FCP myself and have not had any (knock on wood) problems, and I have shot about 3 shows since I posted this....

The HM100 works great... and I have not had any problems putting a long show together in Final Cut. (2+ hours)

[Kevin Mooney]

Christian what graphics card are you using ? this is very important in CS5

[Christian Brown]

Oops, my apologies. You'll notice later in the message I used CS4. First one was a typo... I guess their agressive advertising on DVinfo is paying off. (doh!)

Dave, in FCP, do the different files get treated as one clip? Or are they treated separately? In Premiere, I only have to drag one "clip", despite it being several files long.

[Dave Barnes]

Christian ;

My workflow is to copy the files off the sdhc cards into a working directory on my disk array...then I import each file (clip) into FCP, so yes I have to put multiple clips on the timeline to make up my footage... I was concerned about this before gong 'tapeless' with the HM100 but its no problems....

[Christian Brown]

Hi David,

From what I've seen, FCP deals with the HM-110u "clips" differently than Premiere. In FCP, each file of a loooong clip is separate, so you have to drop each separately into the timeline. In Premiere, the files show up separately in the Asset list/bin, but when you drag one into the timeline, it automatically includes all the footage in the clip (which may be several files long, of course).

I've found the reverse to be true when dealing with Canon Vixias -- FCP sews all the files together, whereas Premiere deals with the separately.

You have to be careful when using "clip" and "file". A clip can be composed of several files which are linked together via the XML/file properties. What happens with those instructions depends on the editing software.

Cheers.

[Charles Wannop]

I shoot conferences... Sessions can last over an hour and quickly flow between sessions (especially when the first is running overtime). I use FCP and shoot in MOV format, so I have not encountered the clip/shot problems you are describing BUT swapping cards (and having sufficient cards to hand) is an issue.

I just discovered this:
Atomos Ninja portable 10-bit ProRes video field recorder for Video Cameras (Enter The Ninja)
It looks perfect for what I do and should help anyone shooting long performances.
Has anyone seen one in the flesh?

Charles

[John Mitchell]

Originally Posted by Christian Brown

Hi David,

From what I've seen, FCP deals with the HM-110u "clips" differently than Premiere. In FCP, each file of a loooong clip is separate, so you have to drop each separately into the timeline. In Premiere, the files show up separately in the Asset list/bin, but when you drag one into the timeline, it automatically includes all the footage in the clip (which may be several files long, of course).

I've found the reverse to be true when dealing with Canon Vixias -- FCP sews all the files together, whereas Premiere deals with the separately.

You have to be careful when using "clip" and "file". A clip can be composed of several files which are linked together via the XML/file properties. What happens with those instructions depends on the editing software.

Cheers.

Christian - I use Avid and have had clips well over 1.5 hours long as a single clip via AMA with no problem.

It should be noted that the files still exist in 2GB chunks but the software supplies a metalink to the whole clip. There is no lag or freezing except when redrawing audio waveforms. Once they ar drawn for th whole timeline it is very fluid.

You may be running out of RAM - if you are using a 32 bit operating system the this is common. Installign more RAM into your machine won't necessarily help as the max the OS can address at any one time is 2G per application.