GuyInLyonFrance Posted September 7, 2020 Report Share Posted September 7, 2020 Excuse me if I seem to be reinventing the wheel but I'm really just trying to confirm (after some research) some ideas I have about using timecode in a two camera shoot. It's for a longish-term gig that a few friends and I have been talking about that may, or may not, actually occur. Call it a labor of love. We have: 1) A timecode enabled recorder (okay, okay, it's a Zoom F6 but it's affordable and I own it.) 2) Two timecode enabled cameras, one a Canon C300 and one a Sony FS7. My idea is to have one Denecke JB-1 that I would just leave on, to act as a master clock, since I think that all of the other stuff's timecode clocks either stop or go off sync when the camera or recorder is turned off. The JB-1 "Prime" would run for the entire day while other things would be turned on or off and re-synced as needed (there will be some driving/sitting around on each of the shooting days). I figure that this "prime" JB-1 would be used to feed timecode to the recorder. I'd have another two JB-1s (one for each camera) to provide them with a timecode signal. Is this an okay scenario? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Perkins Posted September 7, 2020 Report Share Posted September 7, 2020 If you jam all the JBs together then you should be fine. What you are doing is more or less standard current practice, except that most of us don't bother with an ext TC generator for the audio recorder: the internal clocks of professional machines are just as stable as the JBs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bash Posted September 7, 2020 Report Share Posted September 7, 2020 Best practice would be a system where you have a timecode device for each recorder, be they audio or video recorders. Choose one device as a master, set it, and jam the other two devices from the 'master'. Ideally you would have a system where the 'master' is continually or regularly updating the jammed 'followers'. Ambient Nano Lockits are very good, Betso are simpler, Tentacle are cheap and cheerful, but many people work well with them. I would plug master into your audio recorder, and the jammed followers into the cameras. Do tests. Check TC at regular intervals throughout the day. Enjoy..... sb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronFilm Posted September 20, 2020 Report Share Posted September 20, 2020 Be aware that the FS7 needs the XDCA back to be able to accept timecode into it. Any particular reasoning you're mixing FS7/C300mk2 together, rather than using two of the same, is that all you can get? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Perkins Posted September 20, 2020 Report Share Posted September 20, 2020 Just a guess: "personal cameras". I have a shoot coming up with 2 diff models of RED, a BM 4k and a C100, all owned by their operators.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PMC Posted September 20, 2020 Report Share Posted September 20, 2020 If the camera manufacturer hobbles the otherwise professional camera with no TC I/O (like the FS7) then send the TC signal as LTC into one of the audio channels of the camera. I do this with my FS7 with either my Denecke box or tentacle box. Then sync it up to my SD664 sound files on the timeline. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Perkins Posted September 20, 2020 Report Share Posted September 20, 2020 59 minutes ago, PMC said: If the camera manufacturer hobbles the otherwise professional camera with no TC I/O (like the FS7) then send the TC signal as LTC into one of the audio channels of the camera. I do this with my FS7 with either my Denecke box or tentacle box. Then sync it up to my SD664 sound files on the timeline. This approach works ok but is nonstandard enough that a chat with the editor before the job would be a good idea. Most if not all non-TC shoots done around here use audio (a ref track sent to the camera's audio track) as a sync reference and guide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PMC Posted September 20, 2020 Report Share Posted September 20, 2020 I totally agree. If your camera only has two audio inputs send a dirty mix to one channel and the TC output to the other channel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GuyInLyonFrance Posted September 20, 2020 Author Report Share Posted September 20, 2020 14 hours ago, IronFilm said: Any particular reasoning you're mixing FS7/C300mk2 together, rather than using two of the same, is that all you can get? Not my choice at all. The DOP just wants it that way, even though he's going to be renting the cameras. Why not two of the same cameras? No idea. 13 hours ago, Philip Perkins said: Just a guess: "personal cameras". I have a shoot coming up with 2 diff models of RED, a BM 4k and a C100, all owned by their operators.... That's what I thought, but the DOP is renting all the gear. I have a feeling that he may like one camera while the second cameraman likes the other. Weird. 11 hours ago, Philip Perkins said: This approach works ok but is nonstandard enough that a chat with the editor before the job would be a good idea. The DOP is also the editor... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PMC Posted September 20, 2020 Report Share Posted September 20, 2020 As a DP, the only time I will use two different camera technologies is if one is on sticks and the other is on a Movi (gimbal). If both cams are on sticks and i am renting, I can think of no reason why your DP is geting two different cams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.