Offloading clips to MacBook

[Darren Ruddock]

Hi there,

I know there are other ways of emptying cards whilst on a shoot but all I have (in the meantime) at my disposal is a MacBook. After a shoot I'd then ingest the footage from the Macbook into my Mac Pro, and any other footage from the cards, then edit.

Do I have to install Final Cut on said laptop or can I just install Log and Transfer or Sony Xdcam Transfer? From memory I thought both were Final Cut plugins. I do not wish to edit on the laptop, just use it to offload clips. Plus, the MacBook is my girlfriends and she does not want Final Cut permanently on her Mac, silly girl ha ha!!

Any help much appreciated!

Thanks

[Duncan Craig]

Personally I just copy the BPAVs to the hard drive and use 'compare' in Toast to check the is the same.
Or you can use one of the Sony programs to copy the files, but I don't know about that.

[Craig Seeman]

I wish the MacBooks had the SD card slot. You'd be able to shoot with the SDHC adaptor, add ClipBrowser to the computer and you'd be able to import as well as screen clips

If you're just using for import all you'd need is ClipBrowser and a means to import the cards. As noted, ClipBrowser will copy and do CRC check (why take the extra step of using Toast although it can certainly check too) and you'd be able to screen clips as well.

[Darren Ruddock]

Hi,

So in theory I could just grab plug the camera into the MacBook, grab the files off and when I put them onto the Mac Pro later all should be ok??

[Craig Seeman]

Originally Posted by Darren Ruddock

Hi,

So in theory I could just grab plug the camera into the MacBook, grab the files off and when I put them onto the Mac Pro later all should be ok??

If all you do is "grab" and not do CRC check (or even in Toast as Duncan suggests) you may not be OK. If there's a bad copy and you erase your cards, your corrupted shots are gone. BTW this is why I think offloading during a shoot is generally a bad idea. It's opening the door to a fatal mistake. I'd much prefer to have enough cards and given the price of SxS, SDHC adaptor and GOOD quality cards are a viable alternative.

I'd rather spend $800 US on 4 32GB Sandisk Extreme Class 10 for nearly 8 hours of video than risk an offload during a shoot.

[Darren Ruddock]

Thanks Craig,

Wonderful.......if you have the funds!!

[Craig Seeman]

Originally Posted by Darren Ruddock

Thanks Craig,

Wonderful.......if you have the funds!!

For SDHC cards? Make sure you bill enough to afford. They're a major bargain compared to SxS and are getting safer to use as the adaptors and Sony firmware have improved.

[Darren Ruddock]

I suppose I have always been wary of them. Always preferred to stick by sxs. Worth investigating.

Thanks

[Alister Chapman]

Get a NextoDI NVS2500 and you won't have to worry about offloads. Fast, simple, reliable and very easy. Not cheap, but you don't need to have so many cards when you can offload 16Gb in 3 mins.