import Canon C300 files from hard drive?

[Mike Calla]

Hi all,

Does anybody have a workflow for getting Canon C300 files into Vegas via CF cards dumped on a hard drive?

This weekend I'm shooting lots of footage for a doc...in a village...in China. So i can't be reading files from the CF card. I'll basically be shooting, and dumping CF cards on to my laptop hard drive while i continue shooting.

When i get home i need to get these files into Vegas - somehow??

the few tutorials i've read/seen have people reading DIRECTLY from the CF cards using Canons files XF File Utility!

Thanks
mike

[Nicholas de Kock]

Usually you just drag & drop the files onto your timeline? Doesn't get more complicated than that. You can also go File > Import > Media & select the footage. No special instructions necessary.

[Mike Calla]

Hi Nicholas.
Unfortunately it does get more complicated! You are correct in that you can drag and drop to your bins or timeline however the C300 puts each video into its own folder, and that folder resides in another folder. So if I'm shooting a 30sec spot, it's easy enough to dig into a few folders, but if I'm shooting a doc with a few hundred gigs of data its A MASSIVE pita!!

[Leslie Wand]

don't own a canon, but can't you simply point the xf utility to the drive?

[Juris Lielpeteris]

C300 clips by Alister Chapman from Canon C300 and Sony F3 footage to download. | XDCAM-USER.COM opens with Vegas Pro 12

[Mike Calla]

Originally Posted by Leslie Wand

don't own a canon, but can't you simply point the xf utility to the drive?

Hi Leslie, Unfortunately no, silly as it is, it must be pointed to a CF card, but thanks.

Originally Posted by Juris Lielpeteris

C300 clips by Alister Chapman from Canon C300 and Sony F3 footage to download. | XDCAM-USER.COM opens with Vegas Pro 12

Hi Juris, I've actually already downloaded these clips a few days ago & they play quite well in Vegas at best/full even with CC and curves applied (on quad core 3ghz) and they KILL DSLR footage!

Unfortunately the Canon XF Utility doesn't even see directory. I appreciate the link though.

Anybody else have any experience with the C300 and Vegas.

I dread coming back with a thousand clips, going into each one folder by folder

doh:(

[Juris Lielpeteris]

I dread coming back with a thousand clips, going into each one folder by folder

You can search for *.mxf and drag all its from the search window.

[Mike Calla]

Hehe I could yes...I got about 5TB of mxf files on my raid though...

I guess I could sort by date created.

but that's a work around at best.

I'm heading on over to the c300 forum to see if any c300 shooters can help. But I'll post back next week after my shoot with the results of How-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-learned-to-import-c300-footage

[Nicholas de Kock]

My EX1 did the same thing, different folders for every clip. All you do is search *.mxf in the search bar in Explorer once you're in the folder containing all the different folders. This will bring up the video clips which you then drag into Vegas. Vegas doesn't really have bins your timeline is your bin, having three monitors help for sorting footage on the timeline ;)

[Mike Calla]

Originally Posted by Nicholas de Kock

My EX1 did the same thing, different folders for every clip. All you do is search *.mxf in the search bar in Explorer once you're in the folder containing all the different folders. This will bring up the video clips which you then drag into Vegas. Vegas doesn't really have bins your timeline is your bin, having three monitors help for sorting footage on the timeline ;)

Thanks Nicholas,
BTW project media folders and media "BINS" really help for sorting footage too:P how do you identify/query different properties of clips if they are all on your timeline? Some of my projects have 2 or 300GB of footage I can't imagine Vegas can cope with that much footage on the timeline - it can hardly cope with that much footage in the bins, hehe!


Ok back to the main topic:
you and Juris both advocated the search and copy method, & that seems to be good for now

- I keep my copied C300 CF card data on an external HD (or separate from all my other mxf footage just for the sake of organising the search)
- i search that drive/directory by file format
- copy mxfs to their new home directory
- each lunch

That seems to be the most simple workflow!

[Nicholas de Kock]

Thanks. True you're begging Vegas to crash with that much footage. Mind you I easily load 250Gb of footage onto a timeline. I then sort it from there & split (Save As) the project into smaller project sections eg. Day 1, Day 2 and once I'm done with the edit combined all the section together.

Originally Posted by Mike Calla

- copy mxfs to their new home directory

Quick note: It's not necessary to copy them into a new directory if you want you can just drag them onto the timeline from the search.

[Roy Feldman]

In the canon utility, under 'edit' is a selection to export just the MXF files, it can be set to join any clips that were spanned. Quickest way I've found.

[Mike Calla]

Originally Posted by Nicholas de Kock

Quick note: It's not necessary to copy them into a new directory if you want you can just drag them onto the timeline from the search.

I know, it's just part of my work flow since Vegas was a DAW. I'll rename and renumber them etc before I load them into Vegas

Thanks Nicholas

[Mike Calla]

Originally Posted by Roy Feldman

In the canon utility, under 'edit' is a selection to export just the MXF files, it can be set to join any clips that were spanned. Quickest way I've found.

Hi Roy, sorry, on my mobile and missed your post.
Does the XF utility need to read from the CF card? Or can it read from a directory the CF card contents have been copied to?

[Roy Feldman]

I can't say, I forgot to mention it is also possible to re-name with sequence thru the Canon XF