Nicholas Jenkins

Thanks Phil. I'll check into that.

So we're trying to shoot several vlogs per day that can go directly from shooting to editing with no intermediate steps. We're trying for 24 hour turnaround times because they're topical news vlogs. The whole process of transcoding is the biggest slowdown so that is what we're trying to avoid.

Ok, bizarre question here but I'm hoping for some input. I'm working with a group of folks (really great folks I might add) who want a specific workflow for their studio and I'm having a really tough time figuring out the best way to help them. Is there ANY prosumer camera that can shoot immediately editable (in Final Cut Pro 7) formats directly to an external hard drive? My clients are interested in speed of post production and would like to avoid both transferring from cards to hard drive and (more importantly) transcoding. They also don't want to switch to Premiere so I'm kind of stuck here. Anyone with any suggestions for me? Even if the camera is perhaps toward the $9k mark. I just want to know. So, to recap, It MUST be 1080 @ 24p, shoot to an external hard drive, shoot to a format that is immediately editable in FCP7 (this is probably the most important to them) and audio inputs would be a major plus (XLR even better). I know this is the perfect storm of features but I've sort of run out of ideas. Perhaps the reason I haven't found it is that it doesn't exist, but there's so much out there that I have missed fairly obvious things in the past. Many thanks, Nick J.

Thanks. That's helpful. When I first got into this ('98) the XL2 was just coming out and I was told to never ever point it at the sun for fear of burning the chip out (much like a monitor can get burned out from sitting on one image for too long). But that may not be the case anymore. From everything I'm seeing online, it seems like everyone is just pointing and shooting for this type of thing. Just trying to be safe :)

Hello all, Rather stupid technical question here but I don't want to end my injuring my camera OR my eye. I need to shoot a timelapse of a sunset, pretty simple I know. But I want to make sure and NOT burn out my chip. I'm shooting on the Sony PMW-EX1. I have a Hoya Polarizing Filter but not much beyond that. Are there any special tips tricks I need to know before I go out there and shoot? I want to make sure and protect the camera as I'm not sure my insurance covers stupidity on my part :) Any help would be appreciated. P.S. I did a search and didn't find anything though I'm just about useless when using forum searches. Thanks guys, Nick J.

Hey all, About ready to do some daylight shooting and I'm curious what everyone's opinion is about Polarizers for the EX1. I'm looking for something robust, that really helps with blue skies and reflections. And lets say for the sake of argument that money is no object... even though it is :) Thanks all, Nick

Michael, Thanks for the reply. It looks like that's the way I'm going to go. Nick

Hello all, I'm considering buying the Letus35 Extreme lens mount with the Minolta fitting for my EX1. The reason being I have three VERY good Minolta MD lenses (one is an MC and I think it's the exact same mount with a different coating... someone inform me if I'm wrong here). But it seems like the best bang for my buck considering I'll have a 50mm, 52mm Fisheye, and an 80-200mm. But my main question here is this: Does anyone have a "MY GOD DON'T DO THAT" story with Minolta lenses? I seem to see everyone just using Nikkons or (in a perfect world) Zeiss lenses. Is that just because Nikons are better? Cheaper? More user friendly? Any input would be appreciated. And any experiences that you've had with Minolta lenses in general would be nice to hear about. Thanks, Nick J.

I wish I could be of some help but I'm in the same boat. I'm almost ready to purchase the HPX-170 but I keep looking at the price of P2 cards and keep crapping my pants. The laundry bills are starting to eat at my camera budget!!! :blink:

There is something to be said, especially at this stage, of "Future Proofing". I know that something will come along in ten years (or so) superior to HD, but the projects I'm working on now (for Ad Agencies) are REQUIRED that I shoot in HD even for web content because eventually they'll need to upgrade things here or there.

Ug... thanks for the input guys. That's what I was afraid of. :( You'd think they would have come up with some type of system. Grrrrrr...

Hey all, I'm working with an XL-2 with the Canon EF Lens Adapter. I'm going to have a 50mm, 70-200mm, and a 17mm but I suppose that doesn't really matter. What REALLY matters is I'm not quite sure how to measure focus on this camera. Am I measuring to the chip? Or to the end of the lens? Is there a mark on the camera and I'm just blind? I searched and didn't find anything specific for THIS camera, but to be honest... I'm not the best search user on the planet. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Nick J.

I have to agree with the Judith Weston suggestion. Directing Actors was a great read and very informative.

Hey all, This is an odd question. I searched but didn't find anything on it so maybe I'm just silly. I have a miniDV project. My sequence is set up for DV/DVCPRO - NTSC. I want to make the highest quality back-up I can in a Quicktime movie so I select DV/DVCPRO - NTSC in Quicktime Conversion and chosen "Best" quality. When I look at this QT on my monitor it looks TERRIBLE. Very pixelated. Is this normal? Is there something I'm missing? Thanks

Walter, Thanks a bunch. I'll also check it out. That looks like a good idea. :)