Newbie needs help! Importing footage...

J

john.sm

New member
Hi there!

I'm new to the HVX200 and I'm new to all this digital video stuff. I work mostly with still photos or with old, analog video.

I will shoot a video with the HVX200 next week and we want to shoot in 1080p25 (we're in PAL land). I want to edit in After Effects, as it will be a compositing heavy project. I don't have the camera yet and I won't have time to try things out so any help in advance is greatly appreciated.

How do I import the footage from the camera? I have After Effects and iMovie HD, nothing else plus I'm on a tight budget with this (can't buy Final Cut Pro). Can I mount the camera to my Macbook Pro and just copy the files over? Can After Effects or Quicktime open these files? What about codecs?

I have to shoot on the P2 cards, right? The DV tapes are only for SD, right?

As I said I know next to nothing and I don't know anyone with more experience so I hope anyone can help me out here. Anything else I should consider? Anything I'm missing here? Getting the footage into my Mac and into After Effects is my biggest concern right now.

Thanks in advance!
John.
 
The good news is that yes, you can just copy the files over from the camera using a Firewire connection, provided you install the drivers that Panasonic supplies.

The bad news is that neither After Effects nor iMovie HD have any clue what to do with the files. You'll need FCP to ingest the material and rewrap it inside a QuickTime file.
 
Thank you! I guess when I mount the camera with Firewire I will see it as a drive, right? Will the camera freak out when I delete files over this connection from the P2 cards?

Where can I get these drivers? Is there a free download? I'm only renting the camera, I didn't buy it.
 
Sorry for my second question, I found the drivers on Panasonic's website.

I know a guy who has Final Cut Pro and he will help me out, except that he doesn't have much of a clue. How do I convert the files to Quicktime? Do I create a new project, import them and render them to Quicktime? Is there a quicker or automatic way? (We will have about 20 or 30 shots.)
 
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