Sync/TimeCode/3 Camera Shoots

R

robFinalCut

New member
I have 3 DVX-100's and want to sync the cameras together
during a shoot. Is there a device that I can start and stop
recording/adding timecode though the firewire port?
 
we just matched 2 Betas and 1 DVX with realtime-timecode.
with 3DVX there is even an easier way:
set the current time like 09:00:00 as preset. set the timecode-generator to FREERUN (NOT RecRun) and with a remote start it for all of them at once. if you do a countown you can also do it manually and maybe end up with a 1 second difference max. that´s whatwe had and it was no problem in post really (i can set a TC shift when capturing and took care of it in my NLE).
 
If you are really run and gun, and you can jsut roll tape and leave it rolling.
Roll all the cameras, then shoot the screen of cam 1 (with the timecode visible) with cams 2 and 3. - that way you will have a manual reference for the difference in timecode between the cams.

- Mikko
 
Damn Mikko, that's too easy. Why haven't I thought of that. Might not work in many situations, but sounds great for those where it would.
 
Mikko, that is freaking brilliant -- how come I've never heard of that before! We just did a three-camera shoot with DVX, PD150 and JVC DV500, and had to manually count down and clap and such, and we never thought to just drag the camera over and shoot the timecode off one of the others!

Okay, back to the subject at hand -- sync'ing timecode. With all DVX's it's easy; to add to what Alpi69 said, you have to make sure that you're all in the same mode (DF or NDF) and make sure to choose FREE RUN, TC PRESET, and then manually set the preset to be the same, and confirm the preset on all the cameras simultaneously with the same remote control. That'll give you TC that starts at almost exactly frame-sync, and should stay frame-sync for quite a while, although it may drift throughout the day.

Even starting with TC the same, it's a good idea to add a slate or hand clap to fine-tune the sync. At one point we got the "brilliant" idea of using a camera flash, but if you're shooting 24P, the flash DOESN'T WORK RELIABLY! There's a 50% chance that the camera won't see the flash! (the flash may go off when the camera's shutter is closed). So if you're shooting 60i, the flash is okay, or if you're shooting 24p at 1/24, the flash is okay, but for regular 24p/30p shooting, using a flash is not a reliable way to sync the cameras up.
 
If the cameras are not close to each other, I have aimed a laser pointer at an object all cameras can see. They film it until the light is extinguished. Then you can sync to the last frame during which the light was on.
 
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