BP-U60 large battery has arrived

[Paul Joy]

Just thought I'd let you know that the BP-U60 battery arrived in the post today so anyone out there waiting for more battery power shouldn't have to wait long.

regards

Paul.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Thanks Paul. Did you return your camera, or follow my advise after all?

I am afraid I will have to wait till December, even though I'm on top the list of my UK supplier:(

[Paul Joy]

My supplier is waiting to hear from Sony. I've said I'm happy to wait for a replacement if I can hang on to this one in the meantime, otherwise I will return it for a refund and re-order when new stock arrives.

I really don't want to be without the EX now though, using tape feels antiquated, even after only a few days! I've been really happy with my XH-A1, but now that I've tasted the EX goodness I really don't want to go back.

Paul.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

And this is the best solution for you, Paul - I'm happy for you!

[Paul Joy]

Thanks, and I really hope you get your camera soon, you won't be disappointed!

One thing I've changed my mind about with the work flow about is getting a card reader. Plugging the USB lead into the camera and executing the media mode is a bit of a drag, mostly due to the bad placement of the connection panel on the camera.

You also can't turn off the camera or disconnect it without first ejecting the two drives from the computer (or eject media in windows) and it would just be much easier to eject the cards from the camera, push them in to a drive and leave them there until the editing is completed. That way I'll be able to just import the clips as I need them, or go back and import more footage if required without having to reconnect everything.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Originally Posted by Paul Joy

You also can't turn off the camera or disconnect it without first ejecting the two drives from the computer (or eject media in windows) and it would just be much easier to eject the cards from the camera, push them in to a drive and leave them there until the editing is completed. That way I'll be able to just import the clips as I need them, or go back and import more footage if required without having to reconnect everything.

Right, but this assumes you don't need the card for further recording (or have a lot of them, and can record to another one). I think that before they get cheaper, I'll be using just the two 8 GB cards that come with the camera; this implies I'll need to hurry offloading them. I have a new and fast Vaio laptop with ExpressCard slot for this...

[Paul Joy]

Yes, that would make sense. although copying 16Gb of data is going to be a drag via a network, especially a wireless one! I expect that copying the data to a DL DVD will be the best way to get the data from your laptop to the editing machine as then you'll have a backup too, but that's going to be very time consuming, and you'll lose any time advantage gained from the tape less workflow.

I've noticed that copying clips from the camera via USB isn't always that fast either. I imported a full 8Gb yesterday and it imported at 1.5x real time. I have seen it go faster though (5x) so I'm not sure why there is a difference, clip format maybe.

Paul.

[Piotr Wozniacki]

Originally Posted by Paul Joy

Yes, that would make sense. although copying 16Gb of data is going to be a drag via a network, especially a wireless one!

For this very reason, I'm buying a laptop and router with the "N"-draft WiFi standard - it's up to 270 Mpbs. Haven't tried it yet, though - but if it works, it'll also make it possible to play BluRay disks from the Vaio's drive right on my workstation, which - apart from the 24" LCD - is also connected to my 60" HDTV!

Furthermore, for editing on the workstation (maybe even network-rendering - the Vaio will add two cores at 2.4GHz to my 4 cores on the desktop) I'll might not need to copy the source files at all - it should work from the laptop, 270Mbps being some 30MBps. And after editing, the sources would go onto BluRays for archiving and freeing up disk space - all locally on the Vaio.

And after authoring Bluray disks on the workstation, I hope to be burning them on the Vaio's BluRay drive as well.

So this is my very optimistic scenario; whether it works or not I'll keep you posted.