I am using a Panasonic P2 camera and I want to capture live video into my Final Cut 6.0.6 and I cannot figure how to see it. I am able to long and capture video, just not live action, IE: Baseball game

more than likely you're gonna need some sort of capture card like something from aja or blackmagic. The video camera probably has some form of video out that you can use to feed the capture card. Almost positive there's no way to feed a digital signal from a p2 camera directly into fcp without a capture card.

I believe the Pannys will output DVCPro over firewire and full frame HD over the component out.

If you want to do the firewire out, read the camera's manual on how to set it up. Once it's sending a signal, all you need to do in log and capture is set up the camera as a "non-controllable device" and use "capture now" to record.

If you want to use the component out you'll need a third party capture device. I do this with a matrox mini to a older mac book pro with a Caldigit VR mini RAID 0 attached via FW 800 as the storage media.

Works quite well.

Good luck,

x

I stand corrected but be aware that it's dangerous to depend on a live capture without recording back up.

Michael Grenadier wrote:

... be aware that it's dangerous to depend on a live capture without recording back up.

So true.

If you do a live cap w/o backup ...

Here are X's 10 rules for a happy outcome:

1. Tape down all cords. It's amazing how clumsy people will be around cords and cameras

2. Given generally curious and clumsy people, block off the area around your camera and equipment

3. Use gaffer tape to secure cable connections on the camera and the computer

4. Make sure the laptop and camera have charged batteries but still run them on mains. sometimes cameras won't let you do this. If it is really critical, bring a UPS and plug equipment into that.

4a. Use microphones that have phantom power. Assume any and all batteries will run out of charge at the worst possible moment.

5. Turn off any and all sleep or powersaver functions on cameras, hard drives and computers

6. Test your computer and hard drive to see how they work under long record times (hours)

7. Test your camera to see how it does under long ON times (some get VERY hot) and some will not work unless you have a tape in the machine as well.

8. If this is a "once in a lifetime" thing, bring a complete second setup.

9. DO NOT eat or bring drink near the equipment- or let anyone else do so. Enough said.

10. Have your excuses worked out ahead of time if things go really wrong.

(ask me how I know this stuff ...)

Best,

x