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archiving DSLR footage

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archiving DSLR footage
by Gerret Warner on May 26, 2012 at 4:18:12 pm

Before editing I convert my DSLR H.264 camera footage to ProRes before importing into FCP7. I don't see any reason to keep both the H.264 and the ProRes versions. But before I trash my H.264 originals, is there are reason to keep them?

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Re: archiving DSLR footage
by Bret Williams on May 26, 2012 at 5:47:01 pm

If you're going to archive something, I'd archive the H264s. They're the originals, and they're much smaller files. I would probably also backup a media managed project with a couple seconds of handles. You can always recapture / retranscode the h264s. You did use log and transfer to transcode your dslr footage, right? You should keep the h264s exactly as they appeared on the card.

The h264s are also more cross-app compatible if you're going to open use them at a later date in say, Premiere.

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Re: archiving DSLR footage
by Michael Gissing on May 27, 2012 at 1:02:18 am

+1 to archiving the camera originals. I make image files of the cards so the directory structure is completely intact.

Files are small and as I L&T from those image files, I can always redigitise from an archived project file.

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Re: archiving DSLR footage
by Rafael Amador on May 27, 2012 at 10:09:26 am

[Gerret Warner] "But before I trash my H.264 originals, is there are reason to keep them?"
Files size.
Why to archive the stuff in Prores if you have the original H264?
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

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Re: archiving DSLR footage
by Gerret Warner on May 27, 2012 at 1:53:12 pm

Agreed, the smaller files are easier to store, but the ProRes versions have time code, and were imported into my project. If I trash the ProRes versions and later want to revise my video with the H.264 versions they won't relink... unless I'm missing something.

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Re: archiving DSLR footage
by Bret Williams on May 27, 2012 at 8:03:22 pm

It should batch capture via log and transfer. Your h264s are tapes basically. The ProRes files should have timecode based on the time of day created by the EOS plugin in log and transfer.

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Re: archiving DSLR footage
by Michael Gissing on May 28, 2012 at 4:03:08 am

If you didn't use L&T the files will not have timecode, other than always starting from zero. AS Bret said, any timecode should be based on the time of day in the original files so re converting to ProRes should recreate the identical timecode.

How did you do the original ProRes files?

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Re: archiving DSLR footage
by Gerret Warner on May 28, 2012 at 10:54:11 am

I used Magic Bullet Grinder with tc set at 01.00, etc; tc start set at "Continuous." Then I imported those files rather than using Log and Transfer, since they're already QTs.

I don't see how the H.264 without tc would reconnect in the future.

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Re: archiving DSLR footage
by Michael Gissing on May 29, 2012 at 12:14:55 am

Grinder does allow you to use the thm files timecode info just like Log & Transfer. If you used an older version or didn't use this feature then yes you have an issue with recapture. For the future, if you use the time data to convert to timecode then you could just archive your camera card files.

Perhaps with hard drives being so cheap, it might be better to do a Media Manage consolidate of the ProRes final project with handles to an external drive.

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Re: archiving DSLR footage
by Gerret Warner on May 29, 2012 at 11:27:30 am

[Michael Gissing] "Grinder does allow you to use the thm files timecode info just like Log & Transfer. If you used an older version or didn't use this feature then yes you have an issue with recapture. For the future, if you use the time data to convert to timecode then you could just archive your camera card files.

Perhaps with hard drives being so cheap, it might be better to do a Media Manage consolidate of the ProRes final project with handles to an external drive."

Michael,
Thanks for clarifying. But I don't see a file called thm in my 60D card.

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Re: archiving DSLR footage
by Michael Gissing on May 29, 2012 at 11:58:01 pm

I have the 5D. On the card there should be a seperate folder with files that have the same name as the H264 quicktimes with a .thm extension. It is critical that the entire card including these folders are backed up before converting.

If you use the EOS software you don't see these folders. They are important as they contain the metadats that sets the time of day info as timecode in Log & Transfer.

Shane Ross has done an excellent tutorial that explains all this and is worth watching

http://library.creativecow.net/ross_shane/tapeless-workflow_fcp-7/1

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Re: archiving DSLR footage
by Gerret Warner on May 30, 2012 at 12:32:47 pm

I tried playing Shane's video but there's no audio (yes, I checked other playback to be sure). The audio monitor button has an X on it.

But I've used Log and Transfer for years with P2.

It looks as if the 60D doesn't have .thm files. I just looked at the files on a card via Finder and there are none visible. Possible that they simply can't be seen:
eoscard.jpg

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