FS7: ol' good nanoFlash with FS7: good idea?

moldcad

moldcad

Veteran
I was going to sell my nano along with the EX1, but an idea crossed my mind that I could use it with the FS7 to record proxies (HD) to my internal 4K/UHD... Sure it's not 10-bit, but it's 4:2:2. Editing and conforming would be a breeze. What do you guys think? Will the lack of 10 bit make grading much less faithful to the 10-bit masters, especially in Slog? Should I better sell it, after all?

Comments welcome!

Piotr
 
moldcad said:
What do you guys think? Will the lack of 10 bit make grading much less faithful to the 10-bit masters, especially in Slog? Should I better sell it, after all?
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I've never used a Nanoflash, but assume it's a HDMI or SDI recorder, which you're planning to record your proxies with. Sounds to me like that could be a great idea, worth testing though to see if there's not a typical sony 'gotcha!' with the output formats when shooting 4K or UHD (might even differ between the two).

I just wanted to chime in on the 8-bit concern. I think that this shouldn't pose any problem at all for your proxy workflow, because you'd presumably only be putting a rough/temp grade onto the proxies anyway, and re-connecting to your rushes before grading properly - no? If that's the case then you have nothing to fear from the dreaded 8-bit. It shouldn't be any less 'faithful' to your rushes. The only downsides re: reduced colour depth, is that you'll see banding in your proxies where it doesn't necessarily occur in the (10bit) rushes, and you won't be able to make significant warmth/hue/sat adjustments look very nice. If you can get your head around those differences, I think it could be a really useful tool.

One other thing to look out for with this workflow would be making sure your filenaming structure is identical for the camera and recorder-box, otherwise it might not save so much time after all! Also, assuming the Nanoflash doesn't record to .MXF, beware that the current Premiere Pro (CC 2015) is notoriously crap at reconnecting files with different format extensions, and often forces me to reconnect individual files one-by-one (despite them being in an identical folder structure) - very frustrating.

I think this workflow would work best when exporting to DVR for grading, where the extension thing shouldn't be such a challenge.

Good luck!

jason
 
Word to the wise -- don't ever sell your nano. They're just so damn useful. It's so small, so rock solid, so cheap for memory and use so little power. They're great for staff cameras, remote rigs, when you need an SDI->HDMI or HDMI->SDI converter in a pinch, etc. We have people coming to us all the time to buy them if we could still make the things (some key components are no longer available). It's just an incredibly handy box to have around.
 
Thanks for the good advise. Jason - nanoFlash can record MPEG in mxf or mov wrapper, so the extension is not a problem; the actual file naming convention can be correlate between the two devices, as well (I think).

Piotr
 
jasonbrooks said:
beware that the current Premiere Pro (CC 2015) is notoriously crap at reconnecting files with different format extensions, and often forces me to reconnect individual files one-by-one (despite them being in an identical folder structure) - very frustrating.
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I don't know the wrinkles of your particular workflow, Jason, but I'm re-linking happily in Prem Pro CC2016 from ProRes proxies to the original XAVC MXFs. Just thought I'd check, are you unticking the "File Extension" box on re-link? Sorry - probably teaching you to suck eggs, but worth checking. Pic below to show what I mean.

PP Relink.jpg
 
bengiles said:
I don't know the wrinkles of your particular workflow, Jason, but I'm re-linking happily in Prem Pro CC2016 from ProRes proxies to the original XAVC MXFs. Just thought I'd check, are you unticking the "File Extension" box on re-link? Sorry - probably teaching you to suck eggs, but worth checking. Pic below to show what I mean.

View attachment 114091
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Yeah, I wish I could say "wow - I never noticed that", but sadly I have. It didn't help at all in a recent situation. I think the root of the problem was the .MTS (C-100 footage) file structure, and the way that AME transcoded into ProRes .MOVs. But I assure you, PP CC2015 (didn't know 2016 was even out yet), was NOT playing ball. :-(

bengiles said:
probably teaching you to suck eggs, but worth checking. Pic below to show what I mean.
Click to expand...
Not at all, any and all input is appreciated when it comes to trying to wrestle the evil behemoth that is PP into submission! :-)

jason
 
Mitch Gross said:
Word to the wise -- don't ever sell your nano. They're just so damn useful. It's so small, so rock solid, so cheap for memory and use so little power. They're great for staff cameras, remote rigs, when you need an SDI->HDMI or HDMI->SDI converter in a pinch, etc. We have people coming to us all the time to buy them if we could still make the things (some key components are no longer available). It's just an incredibly handy box to have around.
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Yes. I've had offers from people that want to buy it, but I have turned them down. It's kind of like an old beat-up used truck that still runs: the transportation and utility value far outweigh it's monetary value on the used market.

I bought mine, what seems like eons ago, and still use it some, mostly for when clients want ProRes when I'm shooting with my C300(don't need it for my 55, because I have the ProRes/DNx card). Slap it on and give them an .MOV. It's a slight pain because and seems weird using an early tapeless recorder with a tapeless camera, but it allows me to provide the client with what they want. The Nano was one of those things when it came out that was a "What?! I can do that, now?" device. Almost a game changer. Dirt cheap and allowed us to essentially turn our tape cameras into tapeless cameras without buying a new camera. Files were/are ridiculously easy to deal with, especially compared to MXF(P2, Canon) or XAVC, etc. One of the reasons I loved it so much was because I could make and keep back-ups of stuff we were shooting on tape.
 
Mitch - is it possible to have it replaced (the battery, I mean) at your local dealer here in Poland? Sending it over to the US is such a hassle that it's out of question for me ....

Piotr
 
moldcad said:
I was going to sell my nano along with the EX1, but an idea crossed my mind that I could use it with the FS7 to record proxies (HD) to my internal 4K/UHD... Sure it's not 10-bit, but it's 4:2:2. Editing and conforming would be a breeze. What do you guys think? Will the lack of 10 bit make grading much less faithful to the 10-bit masters, especially in Slog? Should I better sell it, after all?

Comments welcome!

Piotr
Click to expand...

Dan Keaton of Convergent said, NEVER sell your Nano because they don't make them any more but they will work for years to come. They work great and as you say, they make great recorders and are fabulous for doing conversions OFF the camera. I have two and sometimes use them to make an 18mb .MOV proxy.
And now I found an even better use. I using it as an HDMI to SDI converter, which allows me to plug my A7s into the SDI B side of my Odyssey 7Q+, thus eliminating the clunky HDMI cable run. I have a little bag that holds the Nano and a 90WH camera battery. HDMI into the Nano and then output SDI into the Odyssey via a longer BNC cable. Really takes the stress out of using the A7s as a B cam to my FS7. And as an extra bonus, I can record, thus making a back up or if you drop down to 18mbs, a nice proxy.
The Nano in effect, is a recording distro box.
And it does damn good audio, I mean 48kbs so if you jammed that sucker you would have world class double system audio.
EZ Peezy.
I'll take yours off your hands in a New York minute!
 
moldcad said:
Andrew - did you replace the battery yourself, or has CD do it for you?

Piotr
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No, I bought the battery via the DigiKey website but I cracked open the nanoFlash and decided it wasn't worth the risk of soldering the battery onto the IC board.

Send them an email as Mitch suggested. I did and got a good reply back.

I have read your posts in the past. Given the kind of shooting you do which is event oriented, I would hang onto your nanoFlash. It is not that difficult to set the time before a shoot and most event shoots you can plug stuff into a wall outlet.

If you want to sell it, I am sure you will have several people here that will jump at the chance to purchase it.
 
Gentlemen,

As the OP of this thread, after considering all the pros&cons of my own idea of using my nanoFlash as sort of a backup/proxy recorder with my FS7, as well as what others (particularly Mitch of CD) had to say on how bad idea it'd be to sell my nanoFlash - I came to the conclusion that - considering my health problems and resulting financial standing, I'd like to sell my nanoFlash to get back some of my investment, after all :(

Since most of you agree the nanoFlash can have many uses even in our world of 10-bit, 4:2:2 UHD/4K recording - perhaps someone would be interested in buying my unit? Due to the above-mentioned health problems I hardly ever used it (even with my previous camera, the EX1) - my unit is like new, without any trace of usage whatsoever. However, be aware that for the same reason (long periods of time when it was never powered on) - the internal battery needs to be replaced; otherwise it works perfectly. If anyone's interested, please drop me a PM or contact me directly via e-mail address p.wozniacki at wp.pl,stating your proposed price. Thank you,

Piotr

PS. I'm selling my nano complete with everything that came with it (the power supply, cables, etc.), plus an SDI cable and 2x 32GB + 2x 64GB superfast CF cards.
 
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