I have found that FW 800 drives work well.

I was able to get a 250 gig drive for $220 from Other World Computing.

I have 2 of them and make a backup copy of the footage on the second drive.

it has worked well so far.

I wouldn't use USB drives as they are to slow if you are shooting 35 mbs.

The other thing I would get is an upgrade to 4 gigs of ram in the macbook pro.

USB drives are plenty fast enough for editing XDCAM at 35Mb/s, unless you want multiple realtime streams. If your using a non pro macbook you can ingest from the camera via USB or using the SBAC10 USB SxS reader. I use a regular Macbook because I need a portable setup and find the extra weight and bulk of the Pro a pain.

Just out of curiousity Alan, dosen´t the SxS reader need a power supply?
What do you do if you are on location without electricity?
And isn´t that another thing to drag around?
One last thing, do you do any editing on your MB?

I´m asking as I´m about to get either a MB or MBP
PS Sorry for hijacking thread

its not hijacking if it has to do with the subject.
EX-1 and Macbook Pro, questions, workflow, whatever
if you have questions ask them here
you will probably be asking the question i will have tomorrow
i am afraid i know to little to ask the right questions
thanks
tito

----------------------------------------------------------
"If your using a non pro macbook you can ingest from the camera via USB or using the SBAC10 USB SxS reader."
----------------------------------------------------------
Last night I connect the ex1 direct USB to my new 8 core, in my slots was 1 16gig card and a 8 gig card, and one big clip spanned across both cards. It took me almost REALTIME to get the data loaded into my $$$ Mac pro system!!!
If this is THE performers the direct sub provides, then this is defiantly a bad idea to do on the job!

------------------------------------------------------------
I use a regular Macbook because I need a portable setup and find the extra weight and bulk of the Pro a pain.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Is the regular Mac book so much easer on the job?
What about an SxS reader?

I ask because I must have more cards, but for the same price, a Mac book will give me much more storage for my money, and for under $100 I can add a passport usb powered drive. For more storage the "only" down side about the Mac book, is the lack of the SxS card reader....I only need it for storage. Editing i will do on my big system.

Any ideas?

The SxS reader is 12V, you can either run it from the supplied adapter or make a cable to run it from any 12V supply including the EX batteries. I use the camera as a source and achieve at least 4x realtime transfer.

I do edit on the Macbook. Basic editing only, mainly just cuts, some grading and dissolves. It works just fine. I've been using it with XDCAM HD for 2 years and EX since September last year. Ive taken it to the Arctic, Deserts, up mountains, all over the world. I have a Macbook Pro as well and the performance difference is minimal. I find the Macbook battery last longer,plus it's a lot less bulky. I put a 160Gb drive and 2Gb of ram in mine, you can get 250Gb drives so no need to take an external drive for many jobs.

If your looking for your primary edit machine I probably would get a Pro, I use a MacPro as my main edit system. But if it's just for managing footage, news type edits and occasional location edits then the added portability of the vanilla macbook is nice.

thanks for your info!

i could not hold my self back and i bought last night a macbook pro from apple.com, used bill me later. 2.4 2gig ram 250HD 5400rpm comes with express card reader. so while the ex1 is shooting i can empty my second sxs card.

as i will have a macbook pro on a job, is there any way I can use the macbook pro as a live monitor? will be much more e z to foucos, i'm NOT looking to record the footage, just as a moniter, any ideas?

Thanks!

Macbook as a monitor: use HD Monitor Pro
 

HD Monitor Pro or its little DV Monitor Pro brother will do that very well, they're actually meant for HD recording but allow perfect monitor calibration, 400% zoom in for focus check etc. http://redlightningsoftware.com
I own the DV software but am about to upgrade as I start using a HVX200. Fairly cheap but event videographers rave about it.

any way to use the macbook pro itself as a monitor?

any way to conect a capture card to a macbookpro?

I'm also interested in hearing about capture cards for the macbook pro. I need a portable system, and can't afford to get a mac pro and a mac book pro, so since i can hopefully edit multiple streams on the new Pro (2.6ghz duo core, 4 gigs ram) i'm looking at the new macbook pro.
I would like to be able to feed into the macbook pro at 4:2:2 out of the SDI for green screen at some point. Is this feasible?

I had something like that happen the first time I used the Sony card reader. Plugging into a different USB port resolved the problem.

thanks! i will try

Thanks for the input Alister. Looks like I don´t need a MBP after all. I really like the size of my 12" ibook, so a MB is tempting and cheaper

martin v-

i clicked your link and the software hd monitor pro seems like it does only the hvx200 version of hi def.

does anyone know if hd monitor pro will work with the sony ex1?

thanks in advance to those who care to share

be well

rob

<<HD Monitor Pro or its little DV Monitor Pro brother will do that very well, they're actually meant for HD recording but allow perfect monitor calibration, 400% zoom in for focus check etc. http://redlightningsoftware.com I own the DV software but am about to upgrade as I start using a HVX200. Fairly cheap but event videographers rave about it.>>

I have emailed the powers that be at Red Lightning Software and inquired about using the EX1 on the HD Monitor Pro. They are working on a solution to RED right now, but plan to put out an EX1 specific version soon. I was advised to keep checking back for that new version on the website. I was also advised I could download the demo and do a test for how the EX1 and the HD Monitor Pro got along together. I think the EX1 will work, but I am waiting for my camera to arrive and then I will know for sure whether EX1 will work on it.

As soon as I have confirmation either way I will post a notice on this thread. Otherwise I will be with everyone else searching for a solution.