Cost effective miniDV camcorder based firewire FCP library capture/migration.

Dear LAFCPUG Members:

Hopefully THIS time the question AND posting location are both correct.

First our gracious host already kindly answered my query.

As I understand his response: any mini DV (4mm tape) digital camcorder (bits & bytes), including low-cost/low-end digital camcorders, is capable of transferring via firewire to FCP (it's must be a "physically" compatible camera), bit for bit, any program material shot on a similar: in this case a Panasonic DVX100, rotating head mini DV camcorder.

The whole idea is to use a "clean", cheap, camcorder as the transport for FCP capture to HDD and ultimately archive to optical media of my miniDV library.!

Thanks in advance for other strategies, ideas!

In theory, this is true.

This has been discussed on this board many times, and I never really get to a place where I believe that someone who really knows the answer drops by.

Personally, I think too much is made of the "ZOMG SAVE THE VIDEO HEADZZ" argument... How much work do you really get with this camera? If I shoot a 30 second TV commercial, I roll less than an hour of tape. A corporate video might run 4 or 5 tapes, but only if I plan to re-use the interviews for another project. If I do both of those in the same week (which would be a BUSY week) that's ten hours of head wear in a week. (Once to shoot it, once to ingest it.)

In the span of a year I get less than 100 hours wear on my heads. While I have no idea what the real life of DV heads are, Beta heads would last 1000 - 1500 hours easy. That's ten years out of these heads, by which time... I'll be in the market for a new camera. Long before that, actually.

> Personally, I think too much is made of the "ZOMG SAVE THE VIDEO HEADZZ" argument...

Actually, I disagree. What you're forgetting is that when you shoot with a camera, you roll the tape once -- one hour of wear per hour of footage. When you log and capture with it, it's more like three hours of tape going through the head -- searching, logging, and the actual capture. That's not counting other issues like failed captures, offline/online capturing (though, of course, capturing at offline quality when working with DV is a dubious choice to begin with), and bad tapes that may in fact jumble up your playback device. Capture Now results in less wear, but is a lot less reliable.

Using a camera as a deck is never the best thing. However, if DV is your format, there's also an argument to be made for getting a cheap DV camera and using it solely as a deck. I wouldn't use a good camera you'd shoot with as a playback/capture device.


www.derekmok.com

I learned to shoot as a TV News shooter, and it's pretty basic -- shoot what you want to use. You don't have time to go through fifteen takes of a reporter standup, I need you to nail it on the first try, and if not, we need to stop once we get a keeper, so we don't have to take the first sentence off take 3 and the second sentence off take 6 with a cutaway in between.

The moral of the story is, I don't shoot a lot of excess. If I like what I see in the viewfinder, I roll tape. I stop rolling when it goes away, or when I have enough. (5 seconds is almost always enough.)

Also, I use Capture Now almost exclusively, and I'm in the minority there also.

I'd like to point out that this (shooting lean and Capture Now) is what works best for me, and would not lend itself well to editing 26 half hour episodes of a reality show, in which one has hundreds of hours of tape.

It does work well, for me, a guy who shoots 30 second commercials, 5 minute corporate presentations, auditions, demo tapes, and direct-to-DVD workout videos.

To each his own.

Thanks for the great replies!

The essence of my question is: if a camcorder is: A) digital, B) plays and records on 4mm/mini DV, SD/SP (720x480) tapes, then by definition if it complies w/the mini DV specification, has firewire and nominally is FCP compatible, then the (120) +- mini DV tapes shot on a Panasonic DVX100 when transferred via FW to FCP/HDD the result should be a perfect (digital) replicas of the original mini DV tapes, or so are fearless moderator kindly informed me when educating in the ways of posting on the LAFCPUG fora.

So I'll purchase an inexpensive mini DV camcorder w/the hope that it'll will have enough "life" remaining to transfer my library. It's never been my intent to shoot w/this camcorder, just reproduce mini DV tapes for FCP capture. If the camcorder "dies" after the last tape has successfully been transfered to HDD via FW/FCP capture and the total camcorder investment is $300. or less I'll be quite satisfied.

Now the last remaining question is:

Of the camcorder population priced @ $300. or less:

A) Which Brand/Model camcorder is FW/capture compatible w//FCS 5.1, and

B) How to make "certain" that the purchased camcorder has (120+20+-) "up-to-spec" "passes" left.

E.g.: what basic questions would be most appropriate when purchasing said camcorder to have some assurance it will successfully accomplish my mission.

Thanks again for past and any future advice/suggestions.

Hey riff, were you offended by my post? I was just trying to help you get the best possible response to your question.

I am grateful for all input and information.

I am very pleased w/ALL the responses I've received and and have high regard for the responders to my post as well as all members of the forum.

Thanks!

This may not be pertinent to your needs but, in my experience, regular DV cameras, including my panasonic one, don't read the timecode from tapes recorded on a DVX100. It's happened to me on three occasions with three different DVX100s. I was able to get the original camera on one occasion and on another just use capture now and wing it.

You seem to want to just dump your footage in so this may not have any effect on your process but if you will ever need to go back to the original tapes you would need to figure this out.

Have you considered the rental costs on a DSR-11?

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!

Hi All

the station I work for we have 20 DV cams that are run perty much
24x7 for 5 years and we had Very little problem with head ware-
The hand straps are frayed and the control markings are worn off
and the cams just keep chugging along-

The main problem we have had is from the use of mixed brands
of tape clogging the heads but this is not such a issue now -

If I shot the tape I almost always us Capture now --
and have had no problem -its faster for me --

I have not used the DVX100 but I have heard reports
of tape play back problems when played back on different cams --Jay--