Need some help converting HDCAM footage?

[mosesma]

Hey guys,

I have an hour of footage shot on a CineAlta (24p, 1080) and I'd like to acquire the footage so I can edit in FCP. I figure there are two ways to go - (a) buy a Kona or Blackmagic card for my Mac, and rent an HDCAM VTR for playback and capture via HDSDI ; or (b) give the HDCAM tape to somebody to do a conversion for me, which will run $500 an hour. This is a one time thing, I'm pretty sure I won't be shooting any more on the CineAlta.

So here are my questions -

1) What are the timecode issues I keep hearing about, when acquiring video from HDCAM to FCP?
2) What's the cheapest Kona/Blackmagic card to get for my PCI based Mac Pro workstation?
3) Is there a really cheap but reliable HDCAM conversion house somewhere out there?

Thanks in advance for your help!

MM

 

[NoahK]

If it's a one time deal- this is something you should do at a dub house. In L.A., Technicolor, Fotokem and DigitalFilmTree could give you a good price on that. Not sure about places in SF but I bet they exist.