The Tale of the Tape

The ideal for HD shooting is tapeless.  The Sony XD CAM EX 1 and EX 3's shoot on SxS  or Express cards.  They provide for a fast data rate throughput of 800 Mbps.  The EX 1 and EX 3's shoot progressive HD, even better.  Rather than interlace which was normal for Pal or NTSC which each frame consisted of 2 fields, these camera shoot progressive, like a computer monitor, each frame is completely updated, not broken into fields. Progressive is lovely.

So I am pro tapeless HD capture. However,  have we lost something by not using DV,  HDV  or other type of tape to record on?  When using tape there was preparation before shooting.  You had to black and code or black and stripe tape. That was recording continuous unbroken time code and a black video signal to your tape before shooting.   If you did not black and code your tapes then editing was a nightmare. The broken time code error.  The whole point of editing with a time coded and blacked tape was repeatable or redundant edits.  Which means if you lost files that you captured to your computer and if you had the Final Cut Pro file (or other NLE files), and your original tape you could easily recreate your entire edit easily, that is if you blacked and coded the tape before shooting. The tape was "Golden".  There are problems associated with tape. It stretches, the first and last 30 seconds of the tape is unreliable and it can break. DV and HDV tape decks  can be expensive. It's was never perfect, but with a "Golden" tape of my shoot, I slept better.

With modern HD cameras like the Sony, Panasonic etc that shoot to a memory cards we need to adhere to an I.T. type backup. I will offer my solutions to this in future posts, but I thought I would give a suitable epitaph to DV and HDV tape.  And lets find a way of creating that "Golden" backup with modern HD cameras. I will sleep better that way.

Final Cut Pro - The scratch disk

When starting up Final Cut Pro (FCP) you want to be sure you know exactly where your footage is going.  In FCP terms this is the scratch disk.  With Photoshop, 3D and other programs scratch disk has a different meaning, the scratch disk in those programs it is used as a temporary or virtual  memory storage on the hard drive generally when memory on the computer runs low.  3D programs are notorious for creating large files on the scratch disk.


With Final Cut Pro the scratch disk will be the destination of your captured clips, render files and audio render files.  It is important to set your scratch disk when you start an editing session.  You can set the scratch disk in a number of avenues in FCP. 

1. From the menu choose system settings, 

Then select set, a file window opens and you can choose the directory where your final cut pro clips go.

2. When  you first launch log and capture you can select where your clips go

This opens another window where you can set your scratch disks, choose folders etc







Which disk should you set your scratch disk to? This is dependant on the data rate of the footage you are capturing.  For most small  DV,  XDCAM EX 1 and HDV my MacBook Pro startup (internal) drive keeps up. If I was doing a bigger project  I would look at an external firewire 800 drive.  Something from Lacie.  If you want to go to uncompressed HD then you need a Mac Pro and fibre channel. But to get started with FCP, at least know where your captured files are going and set your scratch disk.

INQ Mini 3G

The INQ Mini 3G is a stylish mobile phone that looks likes it should be fun to use, and it is.  Not only is it great looking and easy to use, it's has social media capabilities too.  I was lucky enough to have an INQ Mini 3G for a couple of weeks to test.  It's a sweet little phone, and although I tend to love smart phones, I have been  tempted by this little gem.  I will also get to test the INQ Chat 3G. The INQ Chat 3G has a full keyboard, whereas the INQ Mini 3G has a regular mobile keypad.

The phone has built in Skype, Facebook, Twitter and Messenger, all ready to go right from the start. The look and feel of the phone is deceiving, because under the cover is a full fledged 3G phone. 

All the app's are easily accessible through a carousel of icons on the  on the desktop. The menu has a nice layout and it has the same design look to it as the rest of the phone (and packaging).

The phone also has some widgets like yahoo weather, which will appear on the desktop. 

I wanted to test Skype first.  It's already there so just enter your Skype name and password and you are ready to go. The sound is fine.  I made and received some Skype calls on it and it worked great. 3UK gets praise heaped on them from me for insisting Skype is installed on their  handsets.  The INQ Mini fits the bill perfectly for 3UK.

Twitter is important to the social media crowd.  And again the INQ Mini goes into the phone booth, puts on it's superman costume and voilà, you have a twitter app at your fingertips.  Not even my Nokia N86 has a built in twitter app. Twitter  is fabulous on the INQ Mini 3G.   Since the phone does not have gps you won't be able to take advantage of any location services.  I don't tend to broadcast my  location live unless I am heading to a meet up, so having no gps is not a big loss.  I do use gps on my N86 as a satnav and to find my way around London. Some people may feel otherwise.  However on a day to day basis I tend to tell people where I WAS, not where I am at the moment.  I like to play hard to get, er, find.

My gripes about the INQ Mini 3G are the "0" key on the keypad.  It does not feel like a key on the keypad, my thumb rolls off of it like it's the end of the phone.  If I used this phone everyday I would get used to it. I am not even used to the keypad on my N86 and I do use it every day.   I used to think the keypad on my N95 was not that great, now I long for it.  The phone can become sluggish if you run a couple of apps.  Occasionally I had problems with the twitter app crashing the phone.  Remember, it is an inexpensive phone so any criticism of the phone that I have is lessened by the overall fun factor and price.

The screen even though it's small works well, plenty of screen space given the size of the phone.  The interface is cool, everything from the box the phone arrives in to the wallpaper and menu icons has an artistic look.  It has a 2MP camera. There is no front facing camera so with video calls you have to turn the phone around if you want your video caller to see you (this could work to your advantage, think early morning calls...).  You can send photos to Facebook right from the camera application. Since Facebook butchers your images anyway 2MP straight to Facebook is about right.

It is a 3G phone and has a built in browser.  3UK's 3G speeds keep getting better and better. I  have a 3UK MIFI and try to post data speeds to twitter when I have a chance.  It used to be that only speeds of 3.5mb/s+ were found in central London. I am regularly getting those speeds and above now outside of London.  As I was scrolling through the apps I noticed there is also gmail  available. 

The INQ Mini 3G is  a social media mobile phone that is fun to use. You can tweet on the move, update Facebook, all from a sylish mobile.

Though the INQ Mini 3G is aimed at young people I believe that there is a 30+ crowd that do not like smart phones, and are not interested in touch screens but use Skype and Facebook and would appreciate (buy) an easy to use mobile like the INQ Mini 3G.

I really like the phone. Even though a smart phone is a "must have" for me,  there is something very likeable about the INQ Mini 3G.