Re: Test of the HPX 2700 now online

I think people are forgetting that with these higher end cameras, they will literally format a hard drive and do a verified copy of contents over to it that's plugged right in to the camera. No laptops or card readers. It's a click of a button or two and away you go. The data is copied just as it is on the cards. You as shooter won't have to worry. In the time it takes you to strike, the cards will be done. If you have a light setup that day, you can either arrange a fedex with the producer, or they wait. it is up to you you to set that expectation and educate your clients. The Producers that I know that understand the workflow will never go back to tape. If they are following the project through to the edit, they immediately see the benefit. Producers that don't understand the workflow are scared of it. Some producers just don't care as long as it all works.

Also, if you plan to work in the near future, you cannot run from a digital and tapeless domain. You can shoot to XDcam, but then you have to find someone with an XDcam deck or bluray drive. You can shoot HDCam, but then you need the deck (along with nay other tape format you shoot). The responsibility of caring and ingesting the media is falling out of the editors hands and on to the shooter. It's a changing of mind set and a change in ability. Better or worse, that's what it is. Instead of throwing your footage over the wall to an editor/post facility and have THEM take on the expense of renting or buying extremely expensive decks, or converting the footage to a standard that is appropriate, you are handing a format of footage that almost any computer can read and any NLE can ingest. It saves money in post and producers like that.

The handling of P2 metadata is another responsibility that can be handled by the shooter, if they so desire. If you're good at it the producer (and editor) won't be able to thank you enough. You will get jobs because of it.

If any of you cares about footage quality, there's nothing out there in this level of camera that really comes close to AVCIntra (full raster 10-bit recording). As you go in to higher quality, the quality of course is on par with and surpasses AVC-I, but you pay for it.

I understand people's tentativeness. It's natural. Change is scary or something. But for those denouncing the workflow fail to see it's benefits, haven't tried it or had something go wrong without studying the workflow and testing and obviously have never or rarely talked to an editor. Yes, tapeless workflows involve a bit of proactive effort, but that's what happens when you get a new format.

There are many opportunities to make tapeless a highly organized and efficient workflow. If you embrace that, you might surprise yourself and your clients at the possibilities. After all, this is a relationship based business, is it not?

Jeremy