Capturing while shooting

Is there a way in Final Cut Pro to capture in real time from a camera while shooting - AND - have FCP slave off of the camera's record/stop controls?

Or... is there a third party software that can do this and create .mov files?

I have a Mac laptop and would really like to avoid having to buy a Focus or AJA to capture while shooting.

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Is there a way in Final Cut Pro to capture in real time from a camera while shooting

Sure. "Capture now." Final Cut will record whatever's going into the in spigot.

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AND - have FCP slave off of the camera's record/stop controls?

No, because there's no in spigot for automation: no RS-422 or GPI input. There's no signal path by which the camera can send a start-stop signal to the computer.

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Or... is there a third party software that can do this and create .mov files?

It's possible, of course, but I highly doubt it. Again, there's no automation input on your Mac. It might be possible to hack something up using a USB widget that emulates a GPI, but I'm not aware that this has ever been done.

Thanks Jeff...

If I hit the "capture now" command in FCP and then go into record on my camera, will the timecode match what's recording on the camera's tape?

Maybe, maybe not. Depends on a lot of things, like whether your camera outputs synchronous LTC while it's in record. I wouldn't count on it.

A much better option would be to use an external timecode generator. Jam-sync your camera to it, then pipe the LTC to your Kona board or whatever.

Thanks Jeff.

No...it won't match what is on your tape. Not unless your camera has timecode out, and you use a box like the AJA IOHD which has TC in and you capture as ProRes. THEN you can do that. Firewire...no way. Sorry.


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Of course if you have something like a firestore, you are already capturing while recording. It's just drag and drop from then on, which is way faster than capturing over firewire. I was able to do three cams doing three hour shoots in about an hour at lunchtime every day a while ago.

You can record straight to a Mac and monitor with Scopes, Audio, Zebra, etc with V Scope Live from DVDxDV.com

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Dean

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