Filming in Finland Advice (FAO: Alister?)

[Robin Probyn]

ah ok .. sorry didnt see that you are on windows.. I guess you could use the camera USB2 port to down load until the Sony USB3 one is available.. got an email from B&H they are still waiting for supply..

[Alister Chapman]

A possible option might be to hire something like a Nexto DI NVS2500.

[David Dwyer]

Originally Posted by Robin Probyn

ah ok .. sorry didnt see that you are on windows.. I guess you could use the camera USB2 port to down load until the Sony USB3 one is available.. got an email from B&H they are still waiting for supply..

No can do with that as the camera will be sealed in a bag like Alister suggested to prevent condensation

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

A possible option might be to hire something like a Nexto DI NVS2500.

Yeah I thought about that but would I need the UDF version because I'm recording at the higher rate? Also read that the UDF won't work with Windows

[Robin Probyn]

Sounds like you need to buy a mac :)

[David Dwyer]

Not a Apple user, never will be. Have a total dislike for the Apple products. Also seeing a lot of FC users are changing to PP on either Mac or a PC.

Also I have ordered the MXM Express USB2 reader for £20. Hoping it just works although a little slow at 40MB/s Max.

[Alister Chapman]

Yes you would need the UDF version for the 50Mb/s material.

UDF works on a PC. If it didn't you wouldn't be able to read the SxS cards, XDCAM discs, BluRay's or DVD's. UDF is the format used for most optical discs including DVD and BluRay. Nothing special about UDF. It was originally designed for sequential writing and as a result isn't as fast for random access writing and reading as FAT, NTFS etc so isn't normally used for hard drives, but you can format hard drives using UDF.

[David Dwyer]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

Yes you would need the UDF version for the 50Mb/s material.

UDF works on a PC. If it didn't you wouldn't be able to read the SxS cards, XDCAM discs, BluRay's or DVD's. UDF is the format used for most optical discs including DVD and BluRay. Nothing special about UDF. It was originally designed for sequential writing and as a result isn't as fast for random access writing and reading as FAT, NTFS etc so isn't normally used for hard drives, but you can format hard drives using UDF.

Ah just read from the NVS2525 UDF:

Limitation
OS compatibility
- Both internal and external hard drives are formatted in UDF format
- External hard drive that is formatted in UDF does not work with Windows OS but works fine with MAC OS. (Earlier firmware version of V1.51)


Nexto DI - Next Generation Storage with Digital Interface

Does the 2501 support reading the UDF cards but writes the data onto the Internal FAT HDD?

[Alister Chapman]

I'm not sure whether you can use the 2501 with 50Mb/s cards. In theory, if the file sizes are less than 4GB then you should be able to write the data to a FAT drive, it would only be with longer takes and shots that create files bigger than 4GB that you would have a problem. The new firmware versions allow you to format the drive using ExFAT which does not have a file size limit. The PMW-500 is listed as being supported by the non UDF 2500 and 2501, but I've never actually tried a UDF card with my 2500. After all you can copy from a UDF SxS card to an NTFS or Mac OS formatted drive, so the destination doesn't have to be UDF. I'll have an F5 in the week so I'll create some UDF files and see what happens.

If you upgrade the NVS2525 Firmware beyond version 1.51 then the UDF drives can be read by Windows without issue. The windows problem only exists with drives formatted with firmware version 1.5 or earlier.

[Dave Sperling]

My Nexto2500 (currently on firmware v1.52) gives an error message if I try to copy a UDF format SxS card.
The UDF cards read just fine with the Sony USB2 reader (SBAC-US10) connected to a pc, and also read properly in the expresscard slots of both my pc laptops.
One of my big complaints is the way computer manufacturers (even Sony) seem to have abandoned the expresscard slot. If you can still find one, I'd highly recommend picking up a closeout laptop that still has the slot. (I ended up with an Asus B53S with Expresscard, USB3 and eSATA -- for under 1K -- that transfers a full 32GB SxS1a card to an inexpensive external USB3 drive in under 5 minutes.) When travelling I really don't like having to carry the extra card reader and worry about power and all the extra cables to worry about.

[David Dwyer]

Dave funny you should say that about buying a laptop with a EC slot as I've just purchased a Dell Precision M6700! So I'm hoping it will handle 50Mbps footage and read my SXS cards without any problems.

Purchased it from the Dell Outlet store for £1200.

Spec:

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-3720QM (2.60GHz Turbo, 6MB, Upgradable to Intel® vPro™ technology)
Display : 17.3 Inch UltraSharp FHD(1920x1080) Wide View Anti-Glare LED-backlit Premium Panel Guarantee
16 GB Dual Channel DDR3 1866MHz Memory (2 DIMMs)
Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro K3000M with 2 GB GDDR5

Also have a Samsung 120GB SSD and 512GB SSD to put into the machine.

[Dave Sperling]

Yes, you should be able to scream through your transfers with that one!
(Make sure to check the Sony docs for the proper order in which you need to install the SxS/UDF drivers.)

[David Dwyer]

Well the PMW-200 and Laptop went very well. Needed another day to get used to the PMW-200 as that was my first event filming with it.

If anyone is interested the show goes out on Motors TV UK/France tonight at 22:00