I wish they made...

D

David W. Richardson

Chapelgrove Films
Okay, there's a new year coming. I thought it would be a good time to start a 'dream gear' thread -- things that don't exist now, but we wish they would make.

I'll start...

I wish they made a drive -- either internal or external -- for the PC that was similar to a tape backup drive, but it would accept MiniDV tapes and would allow capturing from and exporting back to the tapes. No camera needed! That would be an awesome thing to have!

(Now watch.....somebody will point out that such a thing already exists.)

What do YOU wish they made?
 
I was under the impression a MiniDV deck was similar to a VCR -- it connects to a camera or VCR or TV and allows copying MiniDV tapes to VHS, or allows viewing of MiniDV tapes on a TV or monitor. Is that essentially right?

What I'm looking for is a drive for a PC that's specifically for capturing MiniDV tapes into your NLE application. It could also be used to export your project back to MiniDV tape. Is that the same thing?
 
chapelgrovefilms said:
I was under the impression a MiniDV deck was similar to a VCR -- it connects to a camera or VCR or TV and allows copying MiniDV tapes to VHS, or allows viewing of MiniDV tapes on a TV or monitor. Is that essentially right?

What I'm looking for is a drive for a PC that's specifically for capturing MiniDV tapes into your NLE application. It could also be used to export your project back to MiniDV tape. Is that the same thing?
Click to expand...

Most of the time, decks are connected to monitors AND NLE's which will import from the deck.

Very rarely will decks not go to an NLE, and that would be in a dubbing tower or for strictly viewing/ watching purposes.
 
i've got a deck in my office that's connected to both a TV and my mac, i put my tapes in and capture directly to the mac. only turn on the tv if i want to, but rarely do.

first dream granted!
 
Yeah, they have one of those lying around at my high school.

I want a camera that dispenses free bacon.
 
I'd like...

some sort of camera (or accessory) that would use infra-red beams of light to record depth in a frame. You could then take that data (the z-axis depth data) and use it in something like After Effects for all kinds of compositing.

You could...

create 3-dimensional lighting ( that'd be incredible)
create fake shallow depth of field
eliminate all distances but one and use that for green screen



It doesn't seem incredibly out of reach either.
 
Drew Ott said:
I'd like...

some sort of camera (or accessory) that would use infra-red beams of light to record depth in a frame. You could then take that data (the z-axis depth data) and use it in something like After Effects for all kinds of compositing.

You could...

create 3-dimensional lighting ( that'd be incredible)
create fake shallow depth of field
eliminate all distances but one and use that for green screen



It doesn't seem incredibly out of reach either.
Click to expand...

Very interesting idea!
 
Drew Ott said:
I'd like...

some sort of camera (or accessory) that would use infra-red beams of light to record depth in a frame. You could then take that data (the z-axis depth data) and use it in something like After Effects for all kinds of compositing.

You could...

create 3-dimensional lighting ( that'd be incredible)
create fake shallow depth of field
eliminate all distances but one and use that for green screen



It doesn't seem incredibly out of reach either.
Click to expand...

Wow... somebody else had the same idea as me..... I am working on my own camera project, with similar (if not more) resolution to RED......:thumbsup:..... Might be included.... Also multiple RFID recievers, so you can tag objects or actors in the scene (lens to actor measurement.)
 
Drew Ott said:
I'd like...

some sort of camera (or accessory) that would use infra-red beams of light to record depth in a frame. You could then take that data (the z-axis depth data) and use it in something like After Effects for all kinds of compositing.

You could...

create 3-dimensional lighting ( that'd be incredible)
create fake shallow depth of field
eliminate all distances but one and use that for green screen



It doesn't seem incredibly out of reach either.
Click to expand...


Oh hell yeah.
 
chapelgrovefilms said:
I wish they made a drive -- either internal or external -- for the PC that was similar to a tape backup drive, but it would accept MiniDV tapes and would allow capturing from and exporting back to the tapes. No camera needed! That would be an awesome thing to have!
Click to expand...
Last I saw of one of those it was about ten years ago. I'm guessing it didn't survive because it's so much cheaper to use the camera for play back and a lot of people change their computers as often as they change their socks - this would require moving the DV drive from machine to machine.

Having a deck relieves much of the wear and tear on the heads in the camera. And it gives you additional bandwidth, you can go out and shoot while the NLE is batch digitizing. Extend the life of the camera and have the ability to multitask, what's that worth?

Drew Ott said:
I'd like...some sort of camera (or accessory) that would use infra-red beams of light to record depth in a frame. You could then take that data (the z-axis depth data) and use it in something like After Effects for all kinds of compositing.
Click to expand...
like this for example
http://tinyurl.com/yqezc6
 
If you value your sanity and your ears... watch that clip with the volume down.

Next your going to tell us that the Bacon-Cam has also been invented?

Hey I've never understood the decks either... not at the price. I agree with the cam logic... just buy a second cam for $200 or so... and call that the deck. Then there's no "bandwidth gain" or whatever... and you still don't put unnecessary wear on your other cam... and oh yeah... if you ever really WANT to... you can actually shoot with a second cam! Seems like a no-brainer to me... especially if you're on any kind of budget! (*obviously you can't mix DVX footage with some crap-cam footage, but turn the crap cam footage black and white or something and just use it for random cut-aways... or "explore-o-cam" for twiddling fingers or other details happening during the shoot)
 
I wish that they made flash drives that were big enough and cheap enough and fast enough to replace hard drives.
 
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