Done some initial setup on the F3 that came in this afternoon. Obligatory test shooting and all that...

Like some of you I have been using an XDCAM camera for a few years, in my case an EX3 so I was relying on the installed software for import. Right now I am running a XDCAM Clip Browser 2.00 and XDCAM Transfer 2.12 on a Mac Pro running Snow Leopard.

I began with Clip Broswer. Had about eight clips on the SxS card but only the first one appeared to be readable. I launched Transfer and everything was seen and the ingest worked.

I have the install discs that came with the camera but before I do an install I want to find out if there is a particular version of the software I should be running and if I do have to install the software do I have to perform an uninstall?

I know Doug Jensen a couple of months ago had some concerns about the new version of "Transfer" (I think that was the name of it).

The new software is called XDCAM BROWSER, and I don't recommend using it for FCP owners. Even the newer version 1.1 still does not address the workflow problems I initially complained about to Sony. They are working on it, and I have hope v2.0 someday might be worth swttching to.

In the mean time. the tried and true workflow using XDCAM EX CLIP BROWSER and XDCAM TRANSFER, that has been working great for more than 4 years, is still the way to go. But you should make sure you have: XDCAM EX CLIP BROWSER v2.6 and XDCAM TRANSFER v2.12.0 and all the Sony drivers installed.

The Cinemon plugin is also an alternative if you want to edit native MP4 files, but that isn't my choice because it isn't perfect either. It is worth buying though just so you can playback native files within any QuickTime supported program on your Mac. That does come in handy.

The XDCAM EX CLIP BROWSER and XDCAM TRANSFER workflow is great, why fix it if it ain't broke?

Andrew

I had used v1 of XDcam browser for FCP. Its worked with no problem. Tried using the XDCam EX clip browser v.2 and it doesn't work. Have not had time to track down Sony to figure out why. V1 works, but not sure if you can still get it on their website. Let me know and I can FTP you the dmg of v.1 That's what I've been giving my clients

SONY XDCAM EX (http://www.sony.ca/xdcamex/software.htm)

Scroll down to v 2.51 at bottom for FCP. Downloading it to try

Thanks gentlemen. I will check into this later on today when I have an hour to spare.

What is the difference between XDCAM Clip Browser and XDCAM Transfer software? What does each one do?

Not a mac person, but XDCAM Transfer is an FCP plugin I believe for import into FCP. Clip Browser is also on PC and lets you review the original data, export all or portions in different codec or wrappers, check metadata, screen grabs, and generally manhandle the data to and from SxS cards.

Thanks everyone. I had recently redone my boot drive with all my apps and grabbed an out of date version of clip browser. Of course Doug was right about version 2.6 of Clip Browser. Shortly after he posted what versions to use, I recalled a lengthy thread on this issue in the Sony EX forum where the "preview problem" on the Mac was solved with version 2.6 of Clip Browser.