Sony HVR-Z7U Archiving
by Aaron Porteous
on
Jun 6, 2008 at 6:41:21 pm
Hi, our company purchased the Sony HVR-Z7U, and currently we record to cf cards, and simultaneously record to miniDV in DV CAM mode (so we can reuse the tapes). This process is working for us pretty well for capturing our footage and having a backup, but we are not sure what to do about archiving. How would you archive your footage to give to clients, or for restoring projects at the same quality you originally edited them? Our old Canon cameras recorded to miniDV tapes so we would just give the tapes over to our clients.
Do the Sony cameras only work with Sony tapes? If not, what tape format would you recommend?
What is the best way to archive your HD footage at a good enough res to edit with?
Re: Sony HVR-Z7U Archiving by Harry Pallenberg on Jun 6, 2008 at 8:12:46 pm
Isn't the whole point of the camera to be able to record to CF and live' archive to HDV tape? The tape is the archive - record to HDV not DV, then the tapes will be good enough.
Thanks,
Harry
Forum Cowmunity Leader: Indie & Doc
Forum Cowmunity Leader: HDV
Re: Sony HVR-Z7U Archiving by Aaron Porteous on Jun 7, 2008 at 6:20:33 am
Yes I understand that point, we just don't want to keep buying Sony's miniDV tapes if we don't need to. They're somewhat expensive and we're told that their tapes are the only ones that will work in the Sony cameras.
Re: Sony HVR-Z7U Archiving by David Smith on Jun 7, 2008 at 11:38:58 am
[Aaron Porteous]"we're told that their tapes are the only ones that will work in the Sony cameras.
"
Not true at all. The common wisdom I've read is to stick to one brand, as they use different types of lubrication that may not play well together. I'm not qualified to say if that's true or not, but it's what is normally touted (with some folks disagreeing). Also, Sony makes mini-dv tapes at various price points.
[Aaron Porteous]"we just don't want to keep buying Sony's miniDV tapes if we don't need to. They're somewhat expensive"
Sorry Aaron, I fail to follow your logic here. You want a method to archive the clips from your CF cards in order to give them to clients, but simply handing over a 10-15 $/hour tape that you don't have to spend any time creating is too expensive? You want to reuse these tapes for other professional shoots that you are charging clients money for? That seems penny wise and pound foolish.
If your client wants archived copies of all of the footage, simply add the cost of the tape, with a decent mark-up, to your bid or have them supply the tape stock.
And why would you back up record a high def shoot in an SD format?
Re: Sony HVR-Z7U Archiving by Harry Pallenberg on Jun 7, 2008 at 3:41:00 pm
Yes stay with one brand is the wisdom... that I can say I have not followed - with no problems. I think its pretty much a hold over from the 'olden' days... but, I guess it is risky.
And YES it is totally penny wise to not want to buy a $10 tape. You are talking about shooting Hi-Def footage! Tape stock should be one of the cheaper things on your plate.
Thanks,
Harry
Forum Cowmunity Leader: Indie & Doc
Forum Cowmunity Leader: HDV
Re: Sony HVR-Z7U Archiving by Ryan Valle on Jun 8, 2008 at 5:02:46 am
Tape is fairly cheap, but of course there are other ways to archive footage.
Some ways to do so are:
1. Hard Drive backup - fairly cheap to do with the prices of hard drives being cheap, but the draw back is that a hard drive will eventually fail an the data loss will be a pain in the butt.
2. DVD data backup - I've read that people using the EX1 go with the 8GB cards and archive to dual layer dvds. I think this is a great solution but I find it risking since a simple scratch can render a DVD useless
3. Tape backup - I think this is the most reliable. Tape is fairly cheap, only costing as low as a few bucks per hour. As far as I know, miniDV won't degrade over time (correct me if I am wrong), and will not fail to a scratch like a DVD or fail like a hard drive. Just keep away from magnets.
4. Other - There are many other ways to archive data including servers, Pro Disks, etc, but with HDV, i find those use illogical at this moment
You should choose the method that works best for you. If the cost of tape is what worries you, pass those costs on to your clients which I am sure will be happy to pay if you offer the quality work. My one suggestion is to NEVER EVER write over a tape because you will never know when you have to go back to the original footage. And also, tape recording quality tends to degrade each time you write over it.
