Adding FS700/100 Clip Metadata

D

DW Att

Member
Our production house is now shooting a large portion of our work on the FS700 and FS100. As the projects get larger we are getting requests from the Editors to add Tape/Reel metadata to our footage so that things never get confusing when there are 10+ files named '00001.mts'.

As far as I can tell there is no way to add tape name data to our footage/cards in-camera. It's a feature we have had for years in other cameras such as the Sony PMW-700 and EX3 where prior to a shoot we could name our XD discs/SXS cards and that name would appear in the footage metadata when it came to edit.

I understand there's a chance of a new broadcast codec being released for the FS700 in the near future.. Does anyone think this might give us the tape info option?

Alternatively, if you have a post workflow where you can add this metadata, I'd love to hear about it.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Daniel
 
Avid Media Composer allows addition of a Reel/Tape name when the file is imported. I usually add a tape name at that time.
 
cuervo said:
Avid Media Composer allows addition of a Reel/Tape name when the file is imported. I usually add a tape name at that time.
Click to expand...

Does that change the clip's metadata or simply add the tag in Avid? Need to stick with Premiere.
 
I'm also interested in this metadata, because when you play back a clip on the camera, you can see the Shutter speed, ISO, zoom and focus settings. Right now I see no way of reading this metadata in Premiere.
 
paulcurtis said:
Isn't that what's Adobe Prelude is for? And i think it adds to the metadata in the file...

cheers
Paul
Click to expand...

In Prelude you can add lots of things in and out points, editor notes etc - but there is no way to batch add metadata to a whole card. It would be great if this could be done during the ingest process.

Demistate said:
I'm also interested in this metadata, because when you play back a clip on the camera, you can see the Shutter speed, ISO, zoom and focus settings. Right now I see no way of reading this metadata in Premiere.
Click to expand...

True, where does this info go..?
 
Bumping this thread again to see if there is a solution to see clip ISO after it has been shot.

You can read this information on the camera, so it is being recorded in the metadata somewhere.
 
EXIFtool can read some of the AVCHD metadata from many brands of video cameras, including the FS700 / FS100:
http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/

Unlike with still images, it can NOT write metadata to the clip.

Also, I think that if the frame rate is 60fps, the shutter speed is recorded as half of what it actually is - or at least this is what I see with my FS700, firmware 3 & 3.1.
Less metadata is recorded by the camera about any clip recorded when using the internal super slow motion feature.

Finally, the paid version of Sony Content Browser (**not** the free one that comes on the CD with the camera) claims that it reads the full camera metadata. The free version was so horrifically bad I was never willing to pay to see if this was true or not, I just made due with EXIFtool. Sony Content Browser is now replaced by Catalyst Browse, which I have not tried... maybe you can give it a spin & report back???
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/catalystbrowse (requires login to download)
 
JuanDiaz said:
EXIFtool can read some of the AVCHD metadata from many brands of video cameras, including the FS700 / FS100:
http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/
Click to expand...

Thank you this EXIFtool executable found the Gain on the camera.

MV/STREAM
File Size : 87 MB
File Modification Date/Time : 2014:07:05 18:54:08-05:00
File Access Date/Time : 2014:12:10 08:37:18-06:00
File Creation Date/Time : 2014:12:10 08:37:18-06:00
File Permissions : rw-rw-rw-
File Type : M2TS
MIME Type : video/m2ts
Video Stream Type : DigiCipher II Video
Image Width : 1920
Image Height : 1080
Time Code : 03:10:37:16
Date/Time Original : 2014:07:05 20:53:36-05:00
Aperture Setting : Auto
Gain : 30 dB
Exposure Program : Manual
White Balance : Daylight
Focus : Manual (1.5)
Image Stabilization : On (0x3f)
Exposure Time : 1/50
F Number : 2.8
Make : Sony
Camera Model Name : NEX-FS700U
Duration : 0.09 s
Aperture : 2.8
Image Size : 1920x1080
Megapixels : 2.1
Shutter Speed : 1/50

All you have to do is take a video clip, and drag it onto the executable in windows. A mac client was available too.

I tried the same tool on A7s clips, and there is no ISO/Gain metadata in them, so make sure to mark your A7s shots!
 
BTW, I tried quickly the Catalyst Browse program...

It DOES show EXIF info for the clips (more or less the same info as EXIFtool does)

!!!!! HOWEVER !!!!!

It does NOT always find all the AVCHD clips in a directory!!!

In quick testing, sometimes it would find all the clips, but more frequently, it would find a reduced number, once even as low as 3 out of 31 clips. Apparently Sony doesn't care if Catalyst Browse works with AVCHD cameras or not, since even the most basic of testing would have showed them that it is not working properly.

The issue is *not* related to spanned clips (clips split by the camera at the 2GB boundary) because I almost never shoot them, and there were none in the directories I tested Catalyst Browse on. The AVCHD directories were saved to hard drive exactly as Adobe and many others recommend (by copying the root of the SD card to the archive directory on the hard drive, so that all clip info and time code is preserved), and these same directories are already being properly handled by Premiere Pro. In other words, there is no excusable reason for Catalyst Browse not to have seen all the clips in the directories, other than total garbage programming, and complete lack of testing.

Perhaps it works better with XAVC files, but definitely AVOID Catalyst Browse if you use an AVCHD camera !!!
 
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