Doug Jensen
Carbonite Member
Chapter 1 of my 7.5 hour Z200 and NX800 Master Class is now on YouTube. The other 32 chapters are available on Vimeo.
CAMCORDERS: Sony Z200 & NX800 Master Class
- Thread starter Doug Jensen
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Bassman2003
Veteran
I like the "World's Best Camcorder"... Good luck with the class sales Doug.
Doug Jensen
Carbonite Member
Thanks for that. Most people have no idea how many hours it takes to write, shoot, and edit a 7.5 hour video like this. Over 1200 graphics, alone, plus hours of shooting b-roll, testing, analyzing, and then putting all that info into words that will explain it to others of various skill levels. Every time I finish one of these I always say it is the last. And this one might be it.
Just one question- did anybody , using the Z200 or NX800 ever have problems with a sudden breakdown? I had 4 or 5 breakdowns during filming last couple of weeks , showing no way to turn the 800 off , nor was any button bring to work. The light in the grip was showing red permanently, if I turned the mains off , it still kept running but everything completely frozen . First several times I put the main button in the off position ,(with no effect) , removed the CF card and than the battery . Reinserting the battery and than the CF solved the problem, nothing got lost.But today I left the camera main switch at „on“ and forgot to remove the flashcard before removing the battery and all footage was lost and I was asked to formate the flashcard . It was stupid , I know , bad experience but the basic reason , why the camcorder crashed is completely unknown to me.There are so many different parameters , BUT my question is - could it be the fact that I used the cheap Chinese Pangear CF Express? Gets quite warm but the NX800 never ever showed any message of malfunction or problem to me. Regards.
Doug Jensen
Carbonite Member
What exactly did the message say? I doubt very much that the camera told you to reformat the card. The camera will never tell you to reformat the card. Usually if there is a problem you will get a message that says "Media needs to be restored". And in that case you just allow the camera to fix the XML database problem and all footage will be okay. Or you go the the TC/Media menu page and do it yourself.
So, what did the message say, and what did you do when you saw the message?
FYI, when I was producing my Z200 master class I wasted over half an hour trying to trigger that warning by removing the battery while the camera was still recording, shutting off the power while still recording, etc. I did it multiple times and I could NEVER get the camera to give me that warning, nor did I lose any footage during all my attempts to cause a fault. The camera is rock solid.
The problem could very well be your your knock-off memory cards. Why risk losing footage to save a few dollars? Not worth it. If you can't afford quality memory cards then you can't afford the camera.
Also, CFexpress cards are unnecesary if you use high-quality SDXC cards. I almost never use CFexpress with my Z200 or FX6, even when shooting 4K @ 120 fps.Bassman2003
Veteran
The Sony or San-Disk V60 cards are pretty cheap and will cover most every mode on the camera except All-I and the highest slo-mo. No need to go knock-off on the memory cards!
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Doug Jensen
Carbonite Member
I shoot All-I 4K @ 120 fps on V60 TOUGH cards every time I use the FX6 or Z200. No issues. Even V90 cards are overkill.
Bassman2003
Veteran
Thanks Doug! I had a look at the manual a few weeks ago and thought it had more restrictions on the V60 cards. I am fine with long GOP so I did not focus on it too much. Things have been busy for me so the Z200 got pushed to back burner. I hope to get back into looking at it soon.
I edited my post to read San-Disk instead of Samsung cards...
I edited my post to read San-Disk instead of Samsung cards...
Doug Jensen
Carbonite Member
You're not wrong. If you want to adhere to Sony's recommendations, then yes, you will need V90 and even CFexpress cards for some codecs and frame rates. But my hands-on experience with the FX6 and Z200 shows that those recommendations are very conservative.
Bassman2003
Veteran
Great to hear! Sony Tough and SanDisk are solid cards.
What exactly did the message say? I doubt very much that the camera told you to reformat the card. The camera will never tell you to reformat the card. Usually if there is a problem you will get a message that says "Media needs to be restored". And in that case you just allow the camera to fix the XML database problem and all footage will be okay. Or you go the the TC/Media menu page and do it yourself.
So, what did the message say, and what did you do when you saw the message?
FYI, when I was producing my Z200 master class I wasted over half an hour trying to trigger that warning by removing the battery while the camera was still recording, shutting off the power while still recording, etc. I did it multiple times and I could NEVER get the camera to give me that warning, nor did I lose any footage during all my attempts to cause a fault. The camera is rock solid.
The problem could very well be your your knock-off memory cards. Why risk losing footage to save a few dollars? Not worth it. If you can't afford quality memory cards then you can't afford the camera.
Doug Jensen
Carbonite Member
What?
Thanks Doug , when I reinserted the card I was told that it is an unknown media and should be formated . That’s it. I have a bunch of Sandisc Prof. Class10,V90 working perfectly without any problem so far.I just was curious to try out the speed of a CF because of the fact , that my Casablanca system ( made by Macromotion , ( https://www.macromotion.info ) , you might not know in the US , -quite simple , definitely not professional but I am used to this since 30 years, fulfilling 99% of my desires - is not able to import the scenes with audio from the flashcard.Happened to me first time with the NX800.So I have to convert every scene with a converter , provided by MM , save them to a seperate harddrive and than my system accepts the footage for import. And the conversion of hundreds of scenes takes time , so I had the idea to use a much faster CF as a source for this procedure .To me it’s all a process of experience , but I am very happy with this camcorder now . With best regards, Robert
Doug Jensen
Carbonite Member
The camera will never tell you to reformat a card. The message you probably saw was one of these three:
1) "Unknown Media / Please Change"
2) "Cannot Use Media / Unsupported File System"
3) "Media Needs to be Restored"
My point is that if you should never have lost any footage, and the camera wouldn't have told you to erase the card. Whatever the problem was, it probably could have been rectified without the loss of any of the footage you shot.
Also, you should seriously consider upgrading to modern editor. You have a professional camera that requires a professional workflow and software. Why jump through all those hoops? You could learn the basics of DaVinci Resolve in a few hours and it is totally FREE.
Thanks Doug, was thinking about the same jesterday.I think message was Nr2 and I was disappointed that I did was not 3) because this message was always working well with my Z90.For changing to da Vinci am motivated but at moment a bit „energy depleted“ due to my PCA, now spreading. So let’s wait and see, I am very thankful for your expertise and patience, also versus bloody amateurs like me.With best regards, Robert
Just one more question- does da Vinci enable direct import of video-file plus audio directly from the flashcard without this audio-conversion , my system requires?With best regards, Robert
By the way , my provider gave me the following information- not meaning too much to me:”Sony decided to use a highly compressed audio-formate which will not only be incompatible with my Bogart software but will also cause the same problem with the Super-videoconverter , the ShutterEncoder Converter, the Krita Paintssoftware, the XMedia Recorder and probably many more different programs.” No idea what this means - just wanna go sure, that in case of switching to da Vinci , this problem does not exist.
Doug Jensen
Carbonite Member
Technically, the answer is yes, but that is the wrong way to do things. This is the right way:
1) Insert the memory card into a reader.
2) Create a new folder on your hard drive and name it something like "XYZ SHOOT - CARD 1"
3) Copy everything on the memory card over to the new folder. That means everything, not just the video files in the CLIP folder.
4) Eject the memory card.
5) Make at least one, if not two, copies of the "XYZ shoot CARD 1" folder onto other hard drives as archive backups.
6) Open DaVinci Resolve and import the video files into a new or existing project.
7) Put the files on a timeline and start editing and/or grading.
Doug Jensen
Carbonite Member
I have no idea what the hell they are talking about, nor have I heard of any of the software names they mention. Audio on professional Sony camcorders, such as your NX800, is recorded with 24-bit / 48kHz quality PCM, which is better than CDs -- and not highly compressed. It is a universally supported format by all professional editing software, including Resolve, Premiere, FCP, etc. NOTHING special has to be done in post. When you import a video file, the audio will be included automatically with no extra steps.