Edius Plugin for new Canon XF300 camera

[GrassValley_SL]

@ Jerry the xf 305 is approved for independent production for BBC HD:)

Price is not the whole story if your doing work for Broadcast.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/production/hd.shtml

* For use by Independent productions only:

Canon XF 300E & 305E
Red One
Sony PDW 800 & 700

If you look at this list it is cheap.

[VideoOpp]

It handles both the 300 and 305 very well. If you need any specifics on it, let me know.

Pat,

Thanks for that.... Perhaps one clarification will help me know how much hard drive storage to take with me on my next trip. (I am currently in Vietnam, my shoot is in Nepal, and the camera will be meetingg up with me there, brought in from the US by a friend, so there is no time to get some of these things sorted out before I go....)

I will be on location for about two weeks, shooting about an average of 60 - 80 Gigs a day. My question is, if I want to take a look at the footage in the field, Will Edius play the raw files or do they need to be converted, and if so, what kind of files sizes are we talking about?

Thanks!

[pjsssss]

I don't have the camera itself, but I downloaded some raw files when it first cam out. Edius plays the native files fine. No need for transcodes. It appears that there are 3 files in each folder and Edius sees 2 of the 3; the MXF and the CIF

[VideoOpp]

That sounds great! From what I have read, the workflow is much more tedious in FCP and APP. Once I get the whole system up and running, I will have to start promoting Edius to other Canon XF users!

[VideoOpp]

OK, I now have the camera in hand and have done some testing... Edius does recognise the native files and plays them back quite smoothly, even on the fairly slow laptop that I will be taking out to the field.

My question is now on workflow and backup procedures ...

When I plug in my card reader, Source Browser sees all of the clips from the card, even though the Canon file structure system puts each clip in it's own individual folder with other data files ... Nice! Source Browser lets you choose which clips you want and then lets you copy these files to the project folder. It seems to keep the meta-data of the clips, and keeps the file in its native file format, perhaps changing the wrapper?? But the process of using the Source Browser to offload the clips from my card does seem to take a lot longer then a straight dump to a external drive. As I am headed out for a week long shoot where there may not be much electricity, I am looking for ways to minimize offloading times.

When I offload clips with a straight dump (or copy), with or without Canon's XF Utility, the Media Browser of Edius does not seem to recognize the folder on the hard drive, once it is copied, and the only way to import them into the project is to go after them one at a time, opening up the individual folder of each clip.

Am I missing something? Is the source browser the only real way to offload the clips?

Thanks for any insights

Frank

[pjsssss]

Frank, I have dumped files onto my computer and Source Browser sees it fine. Copy the folder structure as is from the card.

The trick is thatin Source Browser, you have to open the folder that is right above the BPAV folder. Then Edius will see the clips. It seems like you wold point the Browser to the BPAV folder but that is not the case.

Try that and see if it works.

[VideoOpp]

XF300 Workflow ...

Thanks Pat,

That works fine for one dump to the hard drives. Trouble rises when you go to dump a second card to the same hard drive, as each card has the SAME file structure. You can add the new clips to the first "Contents" folder, but the new contents folder has it's own index system which seems to be an important part of the whole viewing process in the browser.

I will take another look at the XF Utility, but at first glance it seems to be working in conjunction with a plugin, for either PP or FCP. I don't seem to see any option at Canon for an Edius plugin. I guess they are just expecting that we will use the Edius Browser tool ...

[VideoOpp]

Well it looks like there are two workable options for an ingesting/backup work flow.

Option A
1. Start an Edius project on the first external drive you wish to save media to.
2. Use the Source Browser to see and select the clips from the card
3. Select "Add and Transfer to Bin"
4. Keep an eye on the transfer process in "Show Background Job"
5. When done, Copy project to a second drive for backup

This process transfers all of the meta data on the clips to the project, including any User file info that you may have assigned. Sweet! (File info of the properties window seems to be a little confused about what file to reference, but other then that, all seems well.

Option B
1. Use the XF Utility to back up the media from the CF card to one of your hard drives. Using the tools menu, select the hard drive that you want to send your files to, using "User Configuration"

2. Select the files you want to backup and then hit the backup button. Files will be sent to your hard drive of choice, putting them inside a folder that uses the current date.

3. Open up a project in Edius from the second drive that you want to use for a "backup of your backups"

4. Open your "Source Browser", Right click on "XF" and select "Open Folder" and point Edius to folder that XF Utility just created on your first hard drive.

5. Select the clips you want and Add and Transfer to Bin

6. Keep an eye on the transfer process in "Show Background Job"

When done you will have one copy on one drive, created by XF Utility, following proper procedure, and then a second copy on another drive, ready for editing.

A third option is to use the "export" function of XF Utility, to remove all of the native MXF clips from their folders and send them to a drive and folder of your choice, and then simply import these all at once using "open File" from the bin window... Edius reads these files fine, but be advised that this option strips out the meta data and leaves you with only the basics!