Another Question from a Potential DVX 100 User

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prairiefire

New member
I'm starting to think about workflow.

With my still cameras, I never download from the camera to my Mac's; I always use Firewire card readers.

What is the preferred way to get the video out to a hard drive? A separate deck? Or, do you go straight from the camera?

How does this affect head longevity?

Assuming a 100A is well cared for, how long is the head life expectancy?

Thanks, again. I'm about to jump into something I know little about and need some help before I take the leap.

Steve Herzberg
 
you're supposed to use a mini-DV deck to capture footage so you don't wear out your camera. If you can't shell out for a real standalone deck, you can use a cheap consumer mini-DV camera to achieve this. I've been using an old sony handycam for hundreds of tapes and its worked flawlessly. I think basically every mini-DV camera has built in firewire, which is all you need.

The DVX manual rates the head life at 2000 hours. There are many threads about DVX longevity, cleaning the heads, etc..use the search function and read up.
 
Is there a risk of degrading the picture by using the mini-cam?

Are the mini-cam heads capable of recording or playing back the image sent from the DVX?

If so, can I just buy an out of date or old mini-DV to use as a transfer unit?

Thanks for the help. It is deeply appreciated.

sjh
 
prairiefire said:
If so, can I just buy an out of date or old mini-DV to use as a transfer unit?
Click to expand...

Yes.

Once you record the footage onto mini-DV tape using your DVX camera, any deck that can play the tape will handle it perfectly fine with no quality loss. And you can print to video just fine, too.
 
>I bought a cheap panasonic DV camcorder. Works great.<

Would somebody like to offer a model number for a "cheap Panasonic DV Camcorder" that has the proper Firewire control.... for use with FinalCut Studio?

Thanks!
 
I only shoot to tape occasionally. Most of the time I'm going straight to my laptop with DV Rack. (Now Adobe's On Location)
 
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