Workflow possible with the Panasonic HMC150?

[JohnKleban]

Does anyone know if it is possible to have a fairly easy workflow if one wants to use a Panasonic HMC HD camcorder with a second generation Casablanca?

This unit has great specs, but does record to SD cards only. The camera does NOT have a firewire output; so, my hope to simply dump out to tape or to my Prestige is gone. Not sure if I can easily dump this into my notebook via Sony Vegas 4 (which is older) or something else; (then, would it have to transcode the AVCHD codec?) before I could even dump that out to tape or firewire from my notebook to my Prestige?

My second choice of camera I may consider, is the Sony FX1000. It is a cmos camera though, so not sure if the whole rolling shutter thing with photographer's flashes would get to me. Has anyone had experience perhaps with this camera? The benefits of this camera, is it records to tape, its great in low light and of course, it has a firewire output.

I wonder if that Western Digital box for $85 could be used inbetween somehow??? Although, come to think of it, I don't think it has a firewire output.

Thanks.

[CasablancaExpert]

Hello John!

It was good to see you this past week at the MGT! And the answer is YES.
The Bogart SE OS products do provide compatibility with AVCHD, and I can personally verify it with the HMC-150. A colleague, Ron Marcroft has the Panasonic HMC-150... he graciously let me play with it for an hour one day when I came up to his studio. Nice camera!

And yes, it is compatible with the Bogart SE OS.... Ron has an Ultra Card Upgraded Reno Plus - he performed substantial tests with the camera with success. Ron indicated to me that the camera (capable of recording in a number of settings is compatible with all but one of the settings).

And I shot some video onto an SD card while I played with his camera and the high-speed SD card reader imports cleanly into my S4000 PRO. It imports via the USB icon in the Record window of an HD project in the Bogart OS. I demonstrated this on Monday evening last week at the MGT.

And get this, it is my understanding (from a couple of resellers who sell not only Casablanca but other competing editors) that the Casablanca may right now enjoying the greatest level of success with the AVCHD signal!

Regards,
Chet

[TimKennelly]

Chet,

You missed that John was asking about the cam interacting with second generation units, aka: his current Prestige and the answer would be no, not digitally in one pass.

I also do not think it would be compatible with the old version 4 of Vegas.

Probably is with the current version 8, but it would need to be converted from AHCDV to DV (as I know you are currently looking to stay with SD editing, but move to 16:9) in Vegas on the PC to be firewire compatible to the Prestige.

An awkward workflow.

[CasablancaExpert]

Oops Chris, I mean Tim... thanks for catching that (not that it was that hard to catch)... I should maybe READ a post carefully before replying

A little research I have done on AVCHD (sounds like Yoda, no?) indicates that it takes a lot of system resources! There was one software editing application I was reading about - required X amount of RAM for SD, double-X for HDV and X-3 for AVCHD!

Regards,
Chet

[LouBruno]

John.....a pleasure to speak to you at the MGT. I will only address the WDTV question.

The WD TV "box" is a small unit which allows a USB device to be utilized as an IMPORT device into the USB port of the WD TV. I use a flash drive for import into the WDTV and the unit will now take a 500G HD with the new firmware upgrade.

I just upgraded my WD TV via free firmware on the Western Digitasl site and can now read MTS/AVCHD files.

The unit is attached to a HD TV via HDMI for a pure and pristine picture with both video and audio HD capability. Further, there is an audio-out which is OPTICAL. I have no problems playing my saved SB in either HDV (MPEG-2) or MTS as well as other formats.

The unit also plays Audio files and Jpegs in a "cool' slideshow format....all in HD. For 85 bucks, I would purchase the unit.

[TimKennelly]

Lou, for the lazy (me, in this instance ), could you supply a direct link to the current firmware patch you mentioned for the WD?

Thanks.

[JohnKleban]

Thanks Chet, Tim and Lou.

Back to my thoughts about using that Panasonic camera, can one think of a workflow in which I could use that camera and get that footage into my Prestige? If I were to upload that footage to my notebook first (that's fine, I guess I could do that), would I need some special decoding software? I could then output to tape; although I heard from someone else, you will get 3-4 segments of stuff, and you CAN'T just put them on a timeline or storyboard and have them play in sync and perfectly in a row - one must go through some other process first.

I guess the Sony FX1000 is looking better to me; although I like to make sure I've explored all options with regards to this Panasonic unit (which I have equal interest in, if I could make it work).

Thanks.

[LouBruno]

Here we go:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/wdtv/

Lou, for the lazy (me, in this instance ), could you supply a direct link to the current firmware patch you mentioned for the WD?

Thanks.

[TimKennelly]

Thanks Lou, firmware successfully upgraded.

[ShadowVision]

Very good post! This Panasonic camera is excellent, I'm told, like the DVX but with HD, progressive modes, and SD card storage. But no tape to archive.

Well, I agonized over the choice when I bought my FX1000. Now it appears that the AVCHD is totally compatable (probably always was) with the S4KP.

The FX1000 is a great camera, but the sound issues are always going to give you pause. I have a phantom Beachtek and it works, but I don't think it is as good as having the XLR on the camera originally. Lately, I've been using my wireless NADY lavs with no problems (they're cheap and bulky, but they work). The Beachtek adds weight to the camera, by the way.

I promise that I'm not gettig viruses from my site these days and you can watch my latest show that features footage shot with the FX1000 and my cheap lavs. Here's the link: http://www.einsiders.com/features/colum ... rticle=453

When I bought the FX1000, it was about a grand less than the Panasonic. Now the HMC Panasonic has dropped in price to $3200 and that it is just too freakin' hard to resist. I would probably buy the Panasonic if I had it to do over. Now, Sony has a interesting camera called the Z7U. They also have the Z5U, but it does not come with the compact flash unit and does not have interchangeable lenses.

Chris Stone has the Z7U, and I shot an interview with him. It is a great camera. And that compact flash recorder is included with the camera. And you can always record to tape if you want. Chris let me record our interview to tape, but tells me that he shoots commercials to compact flash. This compact flash recorder is really neat and Chris says works well.

So, maybe you look at the Sony line and go with the Z5U (for $4100) or the Z7U (for $5100).

The FX1000 is nice (I own it) but if you were going to choose between it and the HMC-150, I'd buy the Panasonic. Remember it has the same chips as the HVX!

Also, if you have good credit, Sony will give you the camera for 18 months no interest and no payments.

JVC has a new small camera that shoots on SD card too. Anyone seen that one?

Hope my thoughts help!