Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

superspiffy

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 6, 2007
740
0
What do you pros do when you're taping like a 2 hour show or event and you have to change camera tapes after the first hour? Do you wait for intermission and change the tapes of all your cameras? (but wouldn't that mess up their timecodes) or do you run some cameras later so you can compensate for that break when you have to change the tapes for the other cameras? Or do you have uber pro cams that use film reels? lol
 
I'd think they might write the raw image data directly to a harddrive instead of tapes.
 
When I'm doing events I usually use a Firestore, which basically captures your footage directly to a hard drive while you're shooting. Of course, roll tape for backup.

Otherwise, I guess stagger two cameras? If you use 24-hour timecode it wouldn't mess things up timecode-wise.
 
What do you pros do when you're taping like a 2 hour show or event and you have to change camera tapes after the first hour? Do you wait for intermission and change the tapes of all your cameras? (but wouldn't that mess up their timecodes) or do you run some cameras later so you can compensate for that break when you have to change the tapes for the other cameras? Or do you have uber pro cams that use film reels? lol

Depends how important every second of what you're filming is is, and what kind of equipment you have available.

If you have multiple cameras, you can start one later than the other, as you suggest, or simply make sure you plan for when there is a lull in the event to drop in a new tape. It only takes 10-20 seconds or so to swap out a tape. Be careful of some consumer level equipment on tripods though... alot of them bottom load and the tripod mount gets in the way, turning 30 seconds into several minutes. Still no big deal if you plan ahead.

Of course there is always the risk of losing a great shot, but if that's really important, then multiple cameras become much more important.
 
Yeah it all depends on what kind of event you're shooting. If it's something thats constant, you'll probably need 2 cameras. But if it's something that has breaks, you can just change tapes.

I used to shoot all types of sports for my high school when I was a junior and senior and when I was shooting something like football or basketball, I'd just change tapes in between plays.
 
Since there is an intermission change the tapes then. It will make it easier to sync them up later than if you stagger the record times.


Lethal
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.