Ambient ACL 204 and Panasonic AG-AF101E

[Sergio Fucchi]

This camcorder supports TC but not continuously.

I thought that adding an external controler type Ambient ACL 204 I could get a seamless synchronization with other devices that use the same controller. I think that the output of this controller should go into one of the two line inputs of the camcorder using the adapter TC-OUT.

All this is correct?

Sergio.

 

[bengiles]

Hi Sergio.

Just to clarify, are you proposing running LTC as an analogue audio signal into the camera? You can do that, and it will obviously then be recorded on the audio track/s of your video files, but how would you convert that to timecode metadata within your editing system? Not something I've ever had to do in the non-linear world (used to do it with U-Matics, but we're going back 25 years...)

Ben.

 

[Barry_Green]

You can input LTC linear time code into an AF100, but not continuously. You'd set it into FREE RUN mode, and input the TC to the VIDEO OUT jack, and synchronize the timecode preset to the incoming TC. But from then on, the camera (and all other devices) will be running their own free-run timecode clocks.

There is no way to continuously jam-sync timecode into (or out of) an AF100. But you can synchronize the presets between an AF100 and other devices, using LTC.

 

[bengiles]

I didn't know you could do that - good to know. I've jam-synched Beta SP camcorders in the past this way (where we couldn't maintain a hard wired TC feed) and we only drifted a frame or so between different iso's over several hours. I'd suggest that's a reasonable solution. On the other hand, $1000-odd for a timecode unit seems quite a lot of money.

With my film editor's hat on, I'd also suggest that the overall workflow is just as quick these days using a visual synch (clapperboard, whatever), run clean synch audio to all the cameras, leave them running and then put the different sources on separate layers in post. You can then do a multicam cut - or just use the splice tool to cut between layers. I've cut numerous multicam concerts this way on Lightworks, Avid and FCP - including a 1 hour concert for Elbow in St Paul's Cathedral last year, 5 cameras and had to be turned round for TX within 2 days. If cameras stop and restart for any reason, you've got clean synch audio to do a quick mod-match and off you go again. Simple.

When we shot concerts on 16mm back in the 80s (eg Genesis, Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood etc), we just ran a large digi slate off to one side, so camera ops could catch a sniff of timecode after loading mags each time. These timecodes were then burnt in to the Umatic cutting copies, so we could quickly synch at any point. However, I haven't used camera timecode to find synch since my multi-machine video editing days - I don't think you need it anymore with multilayer NLEs.

Hope that's useful.

Ben.