George Featherby
November 14th, 2010, 05:57 PM
As some people have been asking me about the viability of this workflow, after testing I can confirm that a USB transfer from the Sony EX1 to the new 11.6" Macbook Air using Sony XDCAM Transfer 2.12 to the internal solid state drive works extremely well.
Not only that, but Final Cut Pro 7 runs extremely smoothly considering the limitations of this machine! I successfully edited the EX1 (1080-25P HQ 35mbps) footage on both an XDCAM-EX and ProRes HQ 1080-25P timeline and exported both an XDCAM-EX quicktime and ProRes HQ quicktime with no problems at all (though the render was understandably a little slower than I'm used to on a Mac Pro / Macbook Pro!). The resulting ProRes HQ file even played back perfectly on the MacBook Air without dropping a single frame. The 16:9 aspect of the 11.6" screen is perfect for reviewing rushes on location.
I'm running the top spec 1.6Ghz machine with 4GB RAM which helps a bit, and though Final Cut Pro warns that it is not optimised to run on such a small screen when first run, it performs fine and is perfectly useable! What's more, after the OSX install there is approx 105GB of space left on the internal 128GB SSD and using a custom install of Final Cut Pro I was able to install just FCP and Compressor, which only occupy approx 1.5GB of space, leaving me with enough space to transfer 3 x 32GB XDCAM SxS cards on location should I need to back up on the move, and that's before I even connect an external drive (bus powered USB drive such as a 1TB Lacie Rikiki would be an excellent choice). It's a great setup and means I don't even feel the laptop in my camera bag.
My next test will be using the PDW-U1 XDCAM Disc Drive with the same setup and seeing if XDCAM-HD422 footage from the PDW700 will behave as well as the EX1 footage does. Sure, the transfer is quite a bit slower than I'm used to using my Macbook Pro with Expresscard slot and firewire 800 drive, but I can live with the performance hit for the portability of this machine. Can't recommend this new setup enough!
Would be interested to hear from anyone else using this setup and any tips they might have to further enhance this workflow!
Not only that, but Final Cut Pro 7 runs extremely smoothly considering the limitations of this machine! I successfully edited the EX1 (1080-25P HQ 35mbps) footage on both an XDCAM-EX and ProRes HQ 1080-25P timeline and exported both an XDCAM-EX quicktime and ProRes HQ quicktime with no problems at all (though the render was understandably a little slower than I'm used to on a Mac Pro / Macbook Pro!). The resulting ProRes HQ file even played back perfectly on the MacBook Air without dropping a single frame. The 16:9 aspect of the 11.6" screen is perfect for reviewing rushes on location.
I'm running the top spec 1.6Ghz machine with 4GB RAM which helps a bit, and though Final Cut Pro warns that it is not optimised to run on such a small screen when first run, it performs fine and is perfectly useable! What's more, after the OSX install there is approx 105GB of space left on the internal 128GB SSD and using a custom install of Final Cut Pro I was able to install just FCP and Compressor, which only occupy approx 1.5GB of space, leaving me with enough space to transfer 3 x 32GB XDCAM SxS cards on location should I need to back up on the move, and that's before I even connect an external drive (bus powered USB drive such as a 1TB Lacie Rikiki would be an excellent choice). It's a great setup and means I don't even feel the laptop in my camera bag.
My next test will be using the PDW-U1 XDCAM Disc Drive with the same setup and seeing if XDCAM-HD422 footage from the PDW700 will behave as well as the EX1 footage does. Sure, the transfer is quite a bit slower than I'm used to using my Macbook Pro with Expresscard slot and firewire 800 drive, but I can live with the performance hit for the portability of this machine. Can't recommend this new setup enough!
Would be interested to hear from anyone else using this setup and any tips they might have to further enhance this workflow!