Recording uncompressed to disc on hpx170

[greg sage]

I'm looking at picking up a used camera, and leaning towards hpx170.

My main focus will be shooting music video material indoors with greenscreen.

I've read up a bit on the 4:2:2 thing, and on the option to bypass the p2 and record direct, but these options are still costly.

What I'm still not clear on is whetehr I need them. If I am indoors in my own home and can hook directly to a standard 7200rpm drive or through my mac mini or macpro, do I need a dedicated portable drive system? I've got 4 drives in the macpro, and another 2 7200 rpm drives in a usb external case.

 

[C Lehmann]

You can record straight to a Mac using a standard FireWire cable. Just make sure you have the right ends and/or adapters because there are 3 different FireWire plug types. I have a long (20'?) FireWire cable that I use for this sometimes and it works great. I highly recommend ScopeBox if you are going this route, the current version is good and the soon to be released one is amazing.

On the other hand, keying can be done with lesser cameras if the lighting on the green screen is even and at a good level. Just as important is using good keying software. Having 4:2:2 definitely makes it more forgiving on high detail areas like hair.