I am shooting a narrative film with my DSR-PD100 and I will be editing it on a NLE system. My question concerns making sure I take the proper time code to ensure editing and digitizing is as easy as possible. I heard somewhere that everytime the camera shuts off that the time code starts back up at zero making it a nightmare for digital batch cpaturing/digitizing. Please tell me is there anything I can do to avoid this problem?

-- Eric Eason (eeason@pdn-pix.com), July 12, 1999

Answers

You might encounter the problem you mentioned if two things happen.

If, when you turn the camera back on, the tape advances past where you were when you last shot, and also there is no other previously recorded material on that spot on the tape, your timecode will reset to zero.

There is a very simple way to avoid this, that is to 'pre-black' your tapes.

When you get a new, un-used tape, put in you camera with the lens cap on, and the gain turned off. Record on the tape, all the way to the end. With your PD100 that will take around 42min. Then rewind the tape to the beginning, advance 10 sec, then start shooting as normal.

Your sound will be recording also, you can either turn off the built- in mic, or plug a terminator plug into the ext. mic jack to kill audio.

This procedure also eliminates sticking points on the tape spool that develop when the new tapes have sat around for a while and some of the particles stick to the back of the next piece. This will cause a glitch if you try to tape without pre-blacking.

I hope this helps.

J.D. Wilcox

-- J.D. Wilcox (Jdwfilmz@aol.com), July 15, 1999.