XDCam Fantasy?

PeterWright wrote on 5/15/2006, 1:30 AM

Concept - a module which clips neatly on to a Z1 or its tripod, and connects by firewire (I would imagine) and adds the ability to record HDV directly to disc, which can then be read by Vegas etc in the same way that XDCam will.

1. Possible? - or are there technical barriers ...
2, Likely?
3. There is no Point 3.

Comments welcome.

Comments

rs170a wrote on 5/15/2006, 4:08 AM

Bella is claiming that their Catapult will meet your needs and be cheap too :-)
From the site:
The Catapult is designed to work with DV and HDV format cameras that include a FireWire connection, such as those from Sony, Canon, JVC, and Panasonic.
The Catapult will be available in the second half of 2006 and will be priced under $300.

Mike

farss wrote on 5/15/2006, 4:40 AM

Fantasy.

Sure you can write m2t files to a HDD, can do this with DV Rack already.
What you don't get is the mpeg-4 proxies, the XML wrapper, and the 35Mb/sec speed that some XDCAM formats use.

A good solution to avoid tape, yes. Poor mans XDCAM, not quite.

Also you miss out on the superior glass and CCDs in the XDCAMs.

Bob.

PeterWright wrote on 5/15/2006, 7:09 AM

Ah well - I just wondered ...

The Catapult does look very promising Mike - I'll be interested to hear what range of recording media will work with it.
I know DV Rack is good but I rarely work where I can have a laptop alongside the camera, so it needs to be fully portable and small.

In fact, even if I have to go on using Mini DV tapes life will be ok - just always looking for improvements.

SimonW wrote on 5/15/2006, 8:11 AM

You would also be missing out on the essence marks, proxy file editing, live logging, instant thumbnail playback and indexing, edit list clip grouping, partial clip transfer, and archiving abilities.

XDCAM is far more than simple file based recording that many people seem to think that it is.