SDHC Card Workflow & Archive Questions

[Dan Magnafichi]

I recently purchased a JVC GY-HM700 camera and an i-Mac with Final Cut Studio 3 and have some questions concerning the SDHC card workflow and archiving the data on the cards. My system is set up with a 2TB external hard drive that I use as my scratch disk and as an archive for the SDHC cards so they can be re-used for other projects. Here's the workflow I currently use.

1. Insert SDHC card into i-Mac card reader and make a "duplicate" of the card. I rename the duplicate folder to reference the project and the card #. I then move the duplicate to the external hard drive.

2. In a FCP Projects folder on the external HD I have a "MEDIA" folder which contains individual folders for each project. Inside each project folder are "Capture/Scratch and "Render" folders.

3. In the SDHC card "Duplicate" folder I copy the "CLIP" folder and move the copy to the Capture/Scratch folder in the appropriate Project folder.

4. I then drag the "Clip copy" folder into my FCP Browser in the appropriate FCP project.

5. From there I rename the individual clips and seperate them into appropriate Bins.

This seems to be working but I've only done 3 projects so far. Any comments/suggestions?

Also, should I be making a "Disk Image" copy of the original SDHC card instead of a "Duplicate"?

If I want to backup the actual media files on a data DVD should I copy the entire SDHC card (or the Disk Image/Duplicate) or can I get by with only burning the CLIP folder contents to the DVD.

I would appreciate any comments or suggestions.

Dan