Sony ZU1 Not Recognized In FCPX - Whats Wrong?

So basically I've never really captured from tape before...I did a commercial shoot today and have been hired to edit it. One of the cameras used was an HDV tape camera - Sony ZU1. I bought a firewire cable for it and plugged it in, opened FCPX and went to import window but its not recognized no matter what settings i put it on...

What am i doing wrong? Any suggestions to try? This is pretty time sensitive, so thanks for any help!

What computer? What drives? How's everything connected? Did you shoot HDV? Is the camera set to output HDV and iLink is switched off?

Tom Wolsky wrote: What computer? What drives? How's everything connected? Did you shoot HDV? Is the camera set to output HDV and iLink is switched off?

New MacBook Pro.

Using a G-RAID.

Camera is hooked up with firewire cable directly to the Macbook Pro's firewire port. (I've tried all the firewire ports on other devices like the G-RAID and my Thunderbolt display too.)

Camera is set to output HDV and the iLink is switched off.

That's funny I thought iLink had to be on?
Had some bad experiences with the Sony cameras blowing their firewire ports.
You have to be really careful to make sure you connect the cable to the camera first with it off and then to the Mac.

Make sure you don't 'hot' wire the camera (plugging in or out the firewire while the camera is on).

Try this sequence:
1) Computer on, FCPX runnning.
2) Camera off. Plug firewire in camera. Plug firewire in computer.
3) Turn camera on.
4) Try to capture.

After capturing switch off the camera before unplugging firewire.

The firewire ports in some HDV cameras would blow if they were hot wired.

simonpwood wrote: Make sure you don't 'hot' wire the camera (plugging in or out the firewire while the camera is on).

Try this sequence:
1) Computer on, FCPX runnning.
2) Camera off. Plug firewire in camera. Plug firewire in computer.
3) Turn camera on.
4) Try to capture.

After capturing switch off the camera before unplugging firewire.

The firewire ports in some HDV cameras would blow if they were hot wired.

No go with that...sadly.

Seanus wrote: That's funny I thought iLink had to be on?
Had some bad experiences with the Sony cameras blowing their firewire ports.
You have to be really careful to make sure you connect the cable to the camera first with it off and then to the Mac.

Yeah thats what I'm afraid of...Been worried ever since i found out it was a tape camera they were using...the few times I've dealt with tape (than i can really remember) has been extremely problem ridden.

Try it without the G RAID connected. Just the camera.

Tom Wolsky wrote: Try it without the G RAID connected. Just the camera.

Tried...nothing still. I did notice that when i turn OFF the camera when its plugged in to one of the FW800 ports on the back of the G-RAID that the G-RAID gets ejected and i get a warning about not properly ejecting the HD...

Did you try a different cable?*** Do you have another machine with firewire for testing? Kicking out the drive sounds like a short in the FW, either the cable or the cam's port.

For safety, you should only connect cam and computer directly when both are off. A friend measured a spike of 80mA when connecting the cam. That can fry a port.

***We had 4 Can XL. Each of them only worked with its own, specific cable.

This might sound like a dumb question, but I didn't see it stated in this thread. You are trying to capture using "Import from Camera" and not "Import Files" right????

dgwvideo wrote: This might sound like a dumb question, but I didn't see it stated in this thread. You are trying to capture using "Import from Camera" and not "Import Files" right????

Import from camera. It recognizes other camera when connected, just not this one.

cgbier wrote: Did you try a different cable?*** Do you have another machine with firewire for testing? Kicking out the drive sounds like a short in the FW, either the cable or the cam's port.

For safety, you should only connect cam and computer directly when both are off. A friend measured a spike of 80mA when connecting the cam. That can fry a port.

***We had 4 Can XL. Each of them only worked with its own, specific cable.

Yeah i tried another computer too. Working with only one specific cable...wow...i love tape. lol

anyway, we are going to try it with a computer its been known to work on before...but i have to go drive and have the guy who hired me to do this do the capture...not good.

shane82388 wrote: anyway, we are going to try it with a computer its been known to work on before...but i have to go drive and have the guy who hired me to do this do the capture...not good.

The computer that it's been known to work on before, was that computer using FCPX, or FCP7? Do you have FCP7? I would be interested to know if you could capture from that camera in FCP7.

The reason I'm interested is because I still use that Sony Z1, but I have never used it to capture with, I always capture with my Canon HV20. I'm thinking the Z1 is not compatible with FCPX, at least it's not listed as a compatible camera.

RonPriest wrote:

shane82388 wrote: anyway, we are going to try it with a computer its been known to work on before...but i have to go drive and have the guy who hired me to do this do the capture...not good.

The computer that it's been known to work on before, was that computer using FCPX, or FCP7? Do you have FCP7? I would be interested to know if you could capture from that camera in FCP7.

The reason I'm interested is because I still use that Sony Z1, but I have never used it to capture with, I always capture with my Canon HV20. I'm thinking the Z1 is not compatible with FCPX, at least it's not listed as a compatible camera.

FCP7. I know that has to do with it but i figured it would at least be recognized as its a fairly common camera. I was going to install FCP7 Last night but i didn't have my Snow Leopard disk around to install Rosetta so i couldn't.

shane82388 wrote: FCP7. I know that has to do with it but i figured it would at least be recognized as its a fairly common camera. I was going to install FCP7 Last night but i didn't have my Snow Leopard disk around to install Rosetta so i couldn't.

Yes, the Z1 is compatible with FCP7 I just looked it up on this chart :

Like I said, I have never used the Z1 to capture, I've always (and still do) capture my tapes Pro Res 422 inside FCP7 using the cheaper Canon HV20 camera to save the drive mechanism on the Z1.

I don't think you need Rosetta to install FCP7, you do however need it to install one of the applications in the FCS suite (I forget which one right now) but Im pretty sure you can choose to install just Final Cut by itself. However, I don't recommend that you install it on the same partition as FCPX because I'm pretty sure it will mess up FCPX.

RonPriest wrote:

shane82388 wrote: FCP7. I know that has to do with it but i figured it would at least be recognized as its a fairly common camera. I was going to install FCP7 Last night but i didn't have my Snow Leopard disk around to install Rosetta so i couldn't.

Yes, the Z1 is compatible with FCP7 I just looked it up on this chart :

Like I said, I have never used the Z1 to capture, I've always (and still do) capture my tapes Pro Res 422 inside FCP7 using the cheaper Canon HV20 camera to save the drive mechanism on the Z1.

I don't think you need Rosetta to install FCP7, you do however need it to install one of the applications in the FCS suite (I forget which one right now) but Im pretty sure you can choose to install just Final Cut by itself. However, I don't recommend that you install it on the same partition as FCPX because I'm pretty sure it will mess up FCPX.

I had both installed before and it worked by just putting Final Cut Studio all in its own folder in the Applications folder, but you do need Rosetta...well at least for FCS2...so maybe FC7 is different....Actually, it probably is. I just uninstalled it once i had another Compressor corruption that made me almost jump off a bridge...Once i started using FCPX because i can never imagine going back.

I think Ron found your answer. I knew the Z1U was compatible with legacy FCP so I assumed it would be with X. Maybe Apple will add it at some point, but if it's not on the list you most likely won't be able to get it to work.
If you have a bi-directional converter (Matrox, etc.) you should be able to connect the camera to that and import a DV stream that way.

shane82388 wrote:

RonPriest wrote: I had both installed before and it worked by just putting Final Cut Studio all in its own folder in the Applications folder, but you do need Rosetta...well at least for FCS2...so maybe FC7 is different....Actually, it probably is. I just uninstalled it once i had another Compressor corruption that made me almost jump off a bridge...Once i started using FCPX because i can never imagine going back.

Maybe that's what I'm thinking, you do need Rosetta to install FCS2 but you don't need it to install FCS3. I'm not sure anymore, but I remember researching all of this before I purchased my iMac because I had planned on installing FCP7 on it after I purchased it knowing that it would come with Lion. However, I just decided not to install FCS3 (or FCP7) on the new machine period.

Anyway, If you had FCP7 installed, you could capture in ProRes 422 on the fly in real time to FCP7, then just import that footage into FCPX. Thats what I do, I capture in FCP7 on my old MacPro on an eSATA external drive, then just connect that drive up to the iMac and create a new event on that drive. I don't need to actually copy the files when I import them into FCPX, I just reference the original files.

RonPriest wrote:

shane82388 wrote:

RonPriest wrote: I had both installed before and it worked by just putting Final Cut Studio all in its own folder in the Applications folder, but you do need Rosetta...well at least for FCS2...so maybe FC7 is different....Actually, it probably is. I just uninstalled it once i had another Compressor corruption that made me almost jump off a bridge...Once i started using FCPX because i can never imagine going back.

Maybe that's what I'm thinking, you do need Rosetta to install FCS2 but you don't need it to install FCS3. I'm not sure anymore, but I remember researching all of this before I purchased my iMac because I had planned on installing FCP7 on it after I purchased it knowing that it would come with Lion. However, I just decided not to install FCS3 (or FCP7) on the new machine period.

Anyway, If you had FCP7 installed, you could capture in ProRes 422 on the fly in real time to FCP7, then just import that footage into FCPX. Thats what I do, I capture in FCP7 on my old MacPro on an eSATA external drive, then just connect that drive up to the iMac and create a new event on that drive. I don't need to actually copy the files when I import them into FCPX, I just reference the original files.

Yeah i got it sorted out. Capture on the FCP7 computer and now i have it on my computer...

As a side note...Is it just me or does HDV 1440x1080 60i footage from that camera look really bad in comparison to a DSLR? It seems noisy/grainy even in broad daylight and everything has such little detail...Is something wrong or is that just how it is?

I looked at the raw files that were captured and that appears to be just the way it is but I'm just curious as i don't know a lot about tape based workflows and what not...?