Tim

The IO HD will certainly hog the entire FW bus, just as its predecessor the (SD) IO did. I believe AJA acknowledge this also.
However you won't likely be using the IO HD and your XDCAM device simultaneously so you'd not have any problem with a basic setup ... that said, getting a third party firewire card so you have a second FW bus is really your best solution. its a pretty damn cheap add on that would guarantee you a trouble free life. I'd get one.

Andy

a bit OT (Playing back clips or EDL)
 

Is there a way to *repeat* a clip or EDL playback continuosly?

I´d like to set up the f330 on an exhibition and (while its standing there) use it as my HQ VCR output to a HD-Display...

I didnt find anything like that (in worst case I´d press PLAY every hour...)

ULi

XDCAM HD Wireless Connector
 

I found that there is a dedicated Sony wireless set that can be used with the existing multipin connector. Is there a way to use it with (lets say) Audio Technica 1800 to avoid additional cables (to rear inputs)?

Thanks

ULI

the fastest HD workflow I´ve met
 

Sony Vegas 8 brings 2 features that pushes the speed of HD Editing to Warp factor, I just had some tries today with F330 -> Vegas8:

- Partial FAM import of edited regions only
- Render uncompressed long GOP

If you need a fast "same day edit" or if you want to pre-edit some cuts to show to your customer, this is a fantastic and FAST way of working - even with older PC notebooks:

- Shoot your video (HD, 18/25/35) , but dont change the Quality (BR) setting !
- import Proxies via FAM to Vegas
- when the very first proxies show up, you can already start editing them in the timeline
- when finished, consolidate with "PARTIAL FAM Mode" (transfers only data that is being used in your edit - even if its just a few seconds out of a 10Gig file)
- when done, export the final edit back to XDCAM HD by "Render UNCOMPRESSED long GOP" (renders only parts where the integrity of the frame has been changed - filters, CC, transitions, , be sure to set the same BR like your clips) - since Vegas does not render all other portions, this is INCREDIBLY fast!

If you dont need CC or other filters, Vegas only recalculates uncomplete long GOPS (cut/trim at the beginning / end of a region). Using that technique its so easy to make a rough edit on the fly.

If you dont care about some seconds "recompressed" you can also use that feature to clean up some discs by writing back only good scenes out of long recordings.

ULI

Hi Uli,

Sounds like a great workflow, probably the best there is today with XDCAM HD.

Thierry

XDCAM HD to 4:3 in FCP 6
 

Hello,

I am going to edit some footage that was shot with XDCAM HD. in HD .. And I am trying to figure out the best way to import it into Final Cut 6.. And edit it in its native HD format.. Yet , I will need to provide a 4:3 Standard Def version (No Letterboxing) in the end to the client along with my rough cuts also need to be 4:3.. So any advice on how to accomplish this.. ??Maybe just edit native in FCP 6, and then export it using Quicktime (self contained movie, current settings) and to then drop it into compressor to create an mpeg2 for DVD Studio Pro.., (and this is where I get lost and do not know exactly what to do to get it to the best quality and 4:3 standard, not letterboxing or streching etc..

Any help would be appreciated..

Thanks!!!

What kind of video card do you have?
 

Our Kona 3 will down convert with no problems. Will your card down-convert?

Since you are editing in Final Cut, another option is to edit your program in HD. Open another sequence, and make sure it is a SD 4x3 sequence. Bring your HD sequence into this SD sequence, resize the HD into something that will work, and that should do it. This will even give you some "pan and scan" capabilities is you want.

Blurring with 60i
 

On my last couple of shoots with my PDW-350 the clients have asked to shoot 60i. I have noticed a couple of times when viewing the camera fed into an Apple Cinema Display (thru a BlackMagic HD-link box) that if someone crosses a static frame at medium to fast speed their image blurrs considerably. Any ideas if this is a monitor artifact, 60i artifact or something else?

Thanks in advance,
Warren Gentry

XDCAM proxy viewer download corrupt
 

Can anyone else successfully download the XDCAM proxy viewer software from the sonybiz web site? I've tried several PC's/methods and get a corrupt file every time.

IDX Batteries and F350/355 -VF display?
 

I have a number of IDX Endura batteries E80/E10's and was looking at the battery remaining display - it doesn't correctly map to the battery remaining, so needs the M08 setting page changing (Battery 2) to correctly reflect the voltages.

Has anyone mapped this for an accurate display?

On the guideance from IDX, I also set the Before End to 12.0V and End to 11.5V which should help prolong the battery life a little more.

I guess that difference capacity batteries will be different though...

XD ghost files?
 

Hi, does anyone know of the following bug? When i switch from HD to DVcam mode, or vice versa, do a shoot and try to load the footage with XDcam transfer trough FCP, somethime some very old clips (from weeks ago) show up in the proxybrowser. only use new disks.

Anyone?

Same with Swit.

I just charged the 8110A Battery and made a testrun , the battery interrupts the current at ~ 12V, I keep this in mind and put the voltage in the VF.

ULI

F355 Lens Question
 

We have decided to go with Sony 355's at our station. (After testing XD and P2's) We are thinking of going with the Canon KH16x5.7IRSE w. 2x for our daily ENG lenses.

Would you guys recommend this lens for the daily ENG grind? I was thinking the length is fairly common for news, and the 5.7 should be plenty wide. We are also thinking of getting 2 of the KH21x5.7's for sports.

Thanks,

Mike

Mike,

We have had two of those Canon lenses (16x5.7IRSE) in use for ENG work on F350s and have found them to be very good. I just wish the Digital Drive was an option. It sure is a nice addition but I rather have bare bone lenses wo/ too much electronics for ENG gear. Not to mention that the Digital Drive has its own 20-pages manual to operate its various menus and functions...

Thierry.

"Film Look" with F350: my experience in post
 

After trying a lot of the camera setting suggested on this forum, my personal conclusion is that by far the best results (in my subjective opinion) are actually achieved in Post Production.

I originally found this work flow in a FCP 6 tutorial at www.lynda.com entitled "creating beauty shots" involving composite modes and found it to work remarkably well with footage from the F350. The results turned out to be a silky HD image that rivals film stock even on a 40" Full HD LCD television.

For starters I shot my original material in XDCam HD 1080/25p VBR (shutter 1/50) and otherwise default settings.

I ingested my material via firewire into FCP 6 using Sony's XDCam Transfer software which has worked flawlessly both with our 8 Core and on location with my Mac Book Pro 2.4 GHz Intel.

I also edit natively in my timeline using the XDCam HD 1080p25 VBR easy set-up.

This work flow is Final Cut Pro based, but perhaps someone can suggest an equivalent method using other software.

The process basically involves superimposing the image on the timeline so that you have two identical video clips, one on top of the other. On the top clip you then apply Gaussian Blur (15 to 20) and then the "soft light" composite mode (Modify - Composite Mode). Lastly you apply the 3-way color Corrector to adjust your black and white levels. The tutorial also suggests trying the "screen" composite mode which in some instances worked better. In layman's terms, one method darkens your image which you then have to lighten, while the other lightens your image which you subsequently darken.

I found that the advantage of achieving a "film look" in post is that I know that I have a good image to fall back on. I also found the F350 extremely forgiving with default settings, while you can quickly paint yourself into a corner when you don't know exactly what you are doing when you begin to play with the camera settings.

best of luck

Hi Kalunga. That is an old photo editor trick for portraiture photography. Use an identical layer and apply a gaussian blur then make the lower layer about 50 percent transparent.

-gb-

Odd thing while Importing XDCam files
 

Hi,
I am having trouble with XDCam Transfer 2.1 importing some clips FCP 6.02 in large numbers of segments in stead of a single clip. Each bit plays a small portion of the original clip, but the numbers can exceed 60. The only way to stop it is to quit the program and reboot. Doesn't seem to do it all the time or with all files.
Is there something I'm overlooking? I am running Tiger 10.4.11 on a MBP.
Thanks, Peter

XDCAM HD tidbit for Aussies
 

Just a bit of XDCAM geekiness for the Australians reading...

I got to shoot/direct a documentary piece over week-long road trip with Australian singer Missy Higgins in October. I had pretty much unrestricted access for the entire time, and was shooting pretty much all day every day.

I used my 350 anytime the situation would allow it, and a V1 anytime space wouldn't. I wish I could show how well the 350 fared, but unfortunately I can't post anything for quite some time.

Below is a picture of us on our way to boulder climbing in Boulder, Colorado, near the beginning of the trip.

Axio / XDCAM editors?
 

Appologies if this is the wrong place to post but I'm trying to build a small list of XDCAM users who also edit on the Matrox Axio platform - for overrun jobs when I get busy - most of the time this year!!! (UK preferably).

I have an F350/U1 and an Axio LE.

I currently sub out work to other Avid/FCP editors but really want to be able to easily get a complete project back for archiving and re-purposing when complete.

So, anyone out there - or know of anyone? I potentially have some work to sub out imminently.

Thanks,

Paul.

Need Cable Help
 

Trying to connect XDCam to a Ikan monitor (3 bnc composite). What kind of and where do I find it cable.

Thanks

Jim

New version of PC Proxy Browsing Software
 

The most important thing to know is that this version 2.22, includes a ProDisc driver that is VISTA COMPATIBLE.

This is a nice surprise since Sony originally indicated it would be Q1 08 before a Vista driver would be available.

Now all we need is the Leopard compatible version of the ProDisc driver.

Version 2.22 is available on both the US and UK sites.

-gb-

XDCAM HD, 720p60 & Flash XDR
 

Hello,

I am researching HD upgrade options and the XDCAM HD line seems to be the best option at this point, but I am looking for some user information.

The only area I am wondering about is sports shooting where I would like to shoot in 60p.

I have read the 350/355 can overcrank to 60p, but at the cost of lines of resolution.

Is this true or noticeable?

Also, does anybody know if one can use the Convergent Designs Flash XDR SDI recorder to pull 720p60 out of these cameras?

That would solve this issue.

Thanks!

afaik 60p is also with no audio recording - aimed at slow motion purposes , not for general work..

ULI

canon lens
 

Please can someone tell me what the 35mm equivalent of a 20x8.6 2/3 lens fitted to a 2/3 inch camera.

thanks Richard

Very likely a silly question but here goes.
 

I understand, possiblly incorrectly that the Sony F950 and others have a facility for correcting brightness anomalies of individual lens types and saving the adjustments to a "lens file". An old JVC KY-F50 camera head I have, features a similar facility but I have not messed with it.

If one wanted to have a very subtle in-camera neutral grad effect, would there be any practicality in fitting a ND grad filter in front of the lens in an inverse orientation, then saving a lens file, then shooting with this lens file called in but without the original ND grad filter fitted.

Just an idle thought and probably not a good one.

panny lens with XDHDCam??
 

Does anyone have any info or history with this lens? (Panasonic S20x6.4BEMD 1/2" Motor Drive Telephoto Video Conferencing Lens with 2x Extender) in conjuction with any of the XDHD cams. Just wondering, THX

335 Demo??
 

Question, I am fairly sure the overwhelming answer will be "no!!" but here it goes. Does anyone know for sure any dealer that will send out a XDHD 335 with a lens and deck to Demo before buying? We have 13 Z1's and are very interested in upgrading but living in Mississippi getting your hands on a deck and XDHD 335 Camera to check out its fuctionality before buying is impossible. Makes no sense to buy even one of these before trying one out. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. THX

PDZ-1 and naming of clips
 

I'm starting to get into a workflow where I send customers a data DVD of the proxy clips, along with the PDZ-VX10 viewer software.

This has worked fine for a couple of jobs but I'm worried about running into problems down the line with the way clips are named. Each disc seems to name clips C5000S01.MXF, C5001S01.MXF (for sub clips) etc.

I know that the user defined names are stored in an XML file and that software such as PDZ-1 will read the XML file and show names as the user defined type. But - the physical name is still the original camera recorded name. I'm thinking that problems could arise in the future with the similarly named clips being overwritten etc.

Anyone else do this?

any thoughts?

Problems with U1 and DVCAM disc
 

I've just had an odd problem with my U1 where HD discs would load and view/play fine but a disc recorded on an SD XDCAM camera (not sure which model) just wouldn't load in the U1.

In the end, a reboot of the PC it was attached to solved the problem.

I wonder if the drivers got messed up?

Paul.

OK, so I'm answering my own question after a bit of experimentation.

I was copying the proxy files from the PDZ-1 folders. It appears that these clips are named after the original filenames and don't reflect the user generated names that you see on the Disc itself.

So - if I want to keep the user naming and prevent running into problems, I need to copy the clips from the disc rather than the PDZ-1 database.

That's a shame really as it's a lot quicker to copy from the database already held on HDD.

I hope that helps someone in the future.

Training
 

Has anyone here gone to the training that Sony provides (like $2,000 USD) for the XDCAM or any other sony product. Would you recommend this?

skindetail
 

Hello HD shooters,

Does anyone have experience with using the skindetail settings on Sony camcorders? I never took the time to do some thorough testing and never met anyone who used it.

Recently we started shooting progressive and it seems that the image looks a little softer than interlaced. That got me thinking on maybe compensating with detail settings.

What is your opinion?

gamma and exposure
 

If i use the standard gamma setting with auto-exposure, i can see the zebra 70% on the white skin and the picture is correctly exposed. If then i apply, for example, the cinegamma 2, the picture get darker and the zebra disappear from the skin. The autoexposure does not compensate it: should i manually open the iris til i get again the 70% zebra on the skin to get the correct picture?

Firmware for F355
 

Hi all,

This may well be a dumb question but I keep reading about Firmware updates for the F350 and I wondered if anyone knows of any firmware updates for the F355 yet?

Cheers

Jon Essex
DSR570 - PDW F355 - FCP Studio 2

the F350 firmware brought in many features that the F355 has. Am sure there will be something in the near future.

Need some details on XDCAM system for university paper
 

Hello,

I'm looking for some technical details and descriptions for the XDCAM system (regarded as a carrier for storing the data, but the cameras themself as well) for an extensive university paper I have to prepare. There are not so many materials on the internet that I've found.

Any help, guys?

Exactly what kind of info do you need?

Have you looked at the Sony Biz web site? A number of links that may be useful:

http://www.sony.co.uk/biz/view/ShowC...37;20PRO%20HUB

http://www.sony.co.uk/res/attachment...7924780833.pdf

http://www.sony.co.uk/biz/view/ShowP...DCAMCamcorders

Also look at the links at the top of this forum - lots of info there:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=62598


Paul.

350 & Hvx200
 

Saw some concert footage recently of 2 350's intercut with HVX-200. Interesting. HVX made decent pictures but couldn't handle the saturated highlights AT ALL while the 350's had no problem with them. Not a very scientific comparison I realize (no info yet on exposure and other settings between the cameras- BJ, if you're lurking out there be sure to chime in) but it made me want to see the EX-1 in the same situation replacing the 200 and see what the results would be.

I would chalk most of that up to the 1/3 vs. 1/2 sensor. More dynamic range for the F350 (and for the price difference, there darn well better be).

The EX-1 will also exhibit a wider dynamic range than the HVX200 based on sensor size alone. It's just the nature of the beast.

-gb-

Signal Drop Out via Firewire
 

I seem to be having a signal drop out every now and again when playing from the camera via firewire. It looses the signal for a second and then finds it again. PDW-F355 and a DSR11 DVCAM.

Any ideas?

Cheers

Jon Essex
DSR570, PDW F355, FCP