xl1s user/ avid express dv

[Dan O'Bannon]

I'm a xl1s owner and I just purchased a avid express dv turnkey system with windows 2000, does anyone know if I made a mistake or was this a good idea, I understand I won't be able to do batch capture with the camera but should be able to do manual capture, is this true?

[Tom Reid]

Dan-

You're on the right track and I suspect you're working through everything since I haven't seen any other messages.

I've shot with the XL1 and worked with Express DV since day one. If you have any questions or want to share anything, email me directly.

Have Fun!

Tom Reid
LAUNCH
tom@getlaunch.com

[Guy Pringle]

Tom and Dan,

As Chris has mentioned in other posts, please keep the post alive in this forum. Guys like me are interested to hear more. As an XL1S owner, I'm also looking at NLE's and the Avid Xpress DV 3, so any info is much appreciated.

[Tom Reid]

Hey guys (and gals) as the case may be...

I've been involved in commercial film production for over 15 years. I'm also a DGA (Directors Guild of America) director and Unit Production Manager.

The Canon and Avid have been intricate tools to my continued growth and success the last few years. I can only imagine how many productions would have been done with this combo if I had had them a few years ago.

If I can help or answer any specific questions let me know. I'd open by saying that most of my 16mm if not all has been replaced by DV and the Canon Avid combo. The look, the range and control we have over the product are unprecidented.

Chris, thanks for you interjection. I don't mean to keep everyone out, but I wrestle through codec conflicts and plug-in issues like everyone else. The funny thing is, we never even got there a few years ago with the standard film package.

Film has it's place, but with my photography and motion imaging background growing, why would anyone shoot any other way for affordable messages.

Staying tuned to help out!!!!!

Tom Reid
LAUNCH
tom@getlaunch.com

[Dan O'Bannon]

Tom,

thanks for your reply and generous offer to help out, it is very appreciated, I have worked through many issues and have learned much since working with avid 3.0. Along with the cannon XL1s it is a very powerful system. I bought a GL1 for 1750 instead of a sony deck for 2000, works pretty good and also gives me a back up camera.
Do you use apple or a PC? I'll be emailing you soon with a question or two, thanks again!

Dan

[Tom Reid]

Dan-

I actually use both. Avid 3.0 is still on Win 2000 Pro. We will seriously be looking at what Avid does on the Mac. I don't have a problem necessarily with Win 2000 Pro, it's been very stable. I just think the Mac will afford some awesome color correction work that's a little tough do to a few avx issues.

I hope you like the GL1. Was looking at that for a water housing, but am probably putting the money in a 16X lens instead.

Keep me posted. Just don't hit me a book of questions all at once.

All the best,

Tom Reid
LAUNCH

[Jean-Claude Nouchy]

Hi,
i'm new in this board even if i read it since some time..... I come out now cause finally a new Xl1s/XpressDV thread has been opened.
I own both (camera/XpressDv) and use a PC.
I had problems with Digital Cut, with XM1(GL1) and XL1s. When i start the digital cut the camera just roll back the tape to the begin... then it stop and do nothing, after few minutes Xpress comes out with a Error and the little timecode windoe in the Record tool (or D.Cut in this case) goes in "Unknown state"...

i just cleaned my machine last night (a really clean format :) and didnt tried yet to repeat the Digital Cut but the system seams now to be really reliable and working well. I also dont have another problem i had before cleaning. When rendering FX... Xpress lost the DV connection (with glitches and artifacts on the camera videoout, Tv) so after rendering my DV out was cutted off. the only way to get DV working again was to turn off and turn on again the camera... now all is working.

I hope tonight i'll have time to test Digital cut on my clean system, i'll let you know.

Just a question... i'm using the default configuration got from "auto configure" of the camera (genericDVdevice),.. is better or same to use instead a manual configuration and choosing Canon/XL1 even if my camera is the XL1s?.

Last question... ne1 here have a 3x wide angle for sell? :) a 1.6x extender too is needed here.

oh, sorry for my english.. :] hope its clear enought

[Adrian Douglas]

Jean Claude,

about your question on anyone with a 3x lens for sale. Check out Peter Krollers post that reads 'you'll have to pry this lens out of my dead hands'. That should give you an idea about your chances of getting one second hand.

If you do come across one, grab it quick before someone else does. Remember the saying 'you snooze, you lose!'.

[Jean-Claude Nouchy]

ehehe

thanks for the point of the situation... i found one some time ago on ebay btw... then no more.. i know it's hard to find one used....

can someone shows me a example of what a 3x lens+fisheye (C.Optics)+1.6 Extender can do?... I'll have to do some shooting of Skateboarders.. that shooted with Fisheye give out great images with wider lens... Any others solutions are welcome..

I have to say that i'm not a real Video professional, 3D is my job and all what is around it is my passion, as Video editing, so i'll surely do some crazy request... :]

[Tom Reid]

JC-

I'm assuming you have Avid Xpress DV 2.0 or lower. We are now using 3.0 and really enjoy the realtime effects. Are you talking about heads being cleaned or system drives. As drives get full, every system begins to have problems. I'm not sure why your render was having problems because of a camera head, but again, I think you were referring to drives. We use O&O free defrag program regularly on the drives in between jobs and it really helps.

Hope that can help you too! I shoot wakeboarding/wakeskating quite a bit. depending on what you're going for close and wide is great. I use the Century Optics .6x with good luck. I'm going to be shooting more with the 16X manual and a wide adapter when available. A PL adapter with a wide angle 16mm film lens like an 6mm could be really cool too!

Keep shooting and cutting!

Tom Reid
LAUNCH

[Adrian Douglas]

Jean Claude,

For shooting skateboarding, I'd just use a wide angle, or even the 16x. The fisheye look in skateboarding has been done so many times it's become cliche, just like the low camera angle in hip hop videos. Try to find some different angles, every kid with a video camera is following his friends around with a fisheye thesedays. Use some of your Italian flair and show us something new.

Good luck

[Jean-Claude Nouchy]

how can i tell Xpress to capture in fields or frame mode?... is that needed or the proggy automatically handles media files recognizing the source format?


For Tom Reid
my OS knowloedge tells me that Raid disks wont need to be defragmented since a raid 0 is obviously defragmented cause of his data storing..... are you of the same advice?... and what you think about the following FAQ about it?

-- from http://www.abcdv.com/editing/avidxpressdv/faq_operational.html --

3.11 Q. Should I defragment my media drives?

A. It is not recommended to defragment your media drives. The Xpress DV application can handle fragmented drives.


I use 4x40Gb ATA drives in Raid (Promise) and never defragmented them...
now that i'm working with the 'clean' system (but not the video disks that still have all mediafiles on it) the system is fast and working,, i never had a drop or anything similar...


last question.... is there a tools, even 3th party, for Good titling with roll and crowl?...in Premiere i know Titlemotion that's is really cool...

[Dan O'Bannon]

Hi Tom, Here is my first question, hope you can help. I'm trying to do a digital cut and message comes up "Not all audio segments are at the project sample rate please convert before performing a digital cut. My project rate is set at 3200 khz and I did bring in some sound effects at 1600 could that be the problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks dan

Tom, one of my sound effects was 44.100 and everything else was 3200 I got rid of the effect with 44.1 and the digital cut worked fine, still dont know how that effect became 44.1 unless my settings for the project were defaulted to 44 when I imported the effect, anyway it worked, thanks dan

[Gary Almquist]

Dan,
I don't know if this helps, but I ended up manually recording to xpress dv from my xl-1 to avoid the audio sample rate problem. In other words, I don't know of a simple solution, and the avid staff people I talked to couldn't help. Canon told me to buy an xl-1s, which I haven't been able to do yet. Maybe Tom or another xdv user has a better solution.

Gary