Author Topic: VX1000 General Discussion (gear/set-ups, filming/editing, tips/advice, etc.)  (Read 102559 times)

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Thomas

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Thanks for your feedback, good stuff.
My VX is still running fine but maybe if my tape deck die I will consider going this way.

Does that also mean that we can buy defective VX for real cheap and this will work ?
I mean, having the tape deck error will still allow me to record ?

Last thing is regarding the firewire cable.
On most of my cap cams it gets loose after some time, and I'm always afraid it's not connected properly.
Any chance this can happen ?

Oh, and props to @vx1000medic who took good care of my VX !

Possibilities are everywhere, search and enjoy.

somethingmustbreaknow

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thanks for sharing and the insights my man.

Garth Marenghi

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Last thing is regarding the firewire cable.
On most of my cap cams it gets loose after some time, and I'm always afraid it's not connected properly.
Any chance this can happen ?

This is the most problematic part of the setup for me. The location of the firewire port makes it likely you either a) scrape the ground with the end of the cable or b) accidentally cut off the legs of the skater to avoid hitting the ground when filming fisheye. The clip in the instagram post kind of proves the latter. An angled firewire cable might help but it's still a scary thought to lose a clip due to the cable becoming detached.

whorific

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When opening the battery door on the inside of my Japanese VX1000 the top L/R switch is obviously the steady cam but what does the L/R switch on the bottom do I notice no difference in camera and during play back
?
" I did not say this I am not here"

pedro_mayn

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Wee back story on this first of all;

Back in 2015 or so, my mate finally decided to sort the viewfinder on his VX1 since it hasn't worked since he bought it. It was a common issue of the ribbon cable dying. He took it a local phone/camera repair shop to get it fixed and funny enough one of my friend's from school was the guy that did most of the repairs there.

Well, he managed to fix the viewfinder with a ribbon cable from a PS1. It was a temporary fix and it ended up needing to go back. I'm not sure if it wasn't fitted properly or if this cable wasn't a suitable replacement.

---

Has anyone ever done this before? I have never heard of it being done and I'm wondering if you can actually do it with any success.

Because I'm a nerd and I watch LGR on Youtube I noticed when he was replacing the CD writer part of a PS1, you can see the part for the laser reader assembly had a ribbon cable to attach it to the PS1 its self, which looks identical to the ribbon cable that fits into the VF. I am 99.9% this is the part.

Guess it'll be useful if parts ever do dry up? Just take a part an old PS1 that died on ya and do that haha.

(I wish Skateperception was still online so I could PM Kerry and ask him directly. I'll ask the British answer to Kerry, that is VXDoc and see if he knows)
« Last Edit: May 01, 2020, 07:02:31 AM by pedro_mayn »
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CHONGO

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Yo everyone.

I'm shooting with a tapeless VX setup and thought I'd post it on here to pose it as a possible option and to get people's thoughts. This is definitely something more suited to the wild west of SkatePerception (RIP), and I know it'll probably get pretty mixed responses on here but I just wanted to pose it as a possible option for sustaining VX footage in the years to come.

Like all VX users I'd had a ton of tapedeck/timecode issues with pretty much all of my VX's over the past couple years and spent tons on repairs, so last year I bit the bullet and bought one of those DN60 firewire capture devices. I was super hesitant at first because I didn't like the idea of having the device mounted on either the top or the bottom of the camera as I thought it’d get in the way when filming low or using an on-camera light, but with the constant tapedeck issues I though it might be an idea worth revisiting if I could find a bracket mount to hold it on the side of the camera without getting in the way of any buttons.

After a few experiments this is what I'm now using:
A DN60 mounted on the side of the VX1000 with an L-bracket and a 30cm FireWire cable connecting the two (images attached in the insta post attached below).

The device captures to CF cards so you don’t need tapes (a 16GB CF card records 1hr 7mins footage), and takes x4 AA batteries (a freshly charged set last about 3-4hours in the DN60) so it doesn’t use or run down the VX batteries. In fact, the VX batteries actually last longer as the tape-deck isn’t being used at all.

You capture the footage from the device via firewire in the same way you would do off a cap cam, but using the capture controls in Premiere/Final Cut, etc, and the footage is exactly the same as if captured from tape, yet doesn’t glitch at all. Occasionally the device will lag while capturing and drop capture frames (which you can notice through a break in the audio), but rewinding and recapturing the clip will almost always fix it. The DN60 creates it's own timecode and records exactly what would be getting recorded onto tape and it never seems to drop any frames while recording VX input. The firewire is the perfect length at 30cm so it's super study and never comes out or either port. if you want to be 100% safe you can also record to tape and the DN60 at the same time, to save to card and tape, but i've come to realise there isn't really need to because the cards are so reliable. 

The ergonomics and weighting of the camera with the DN60 rig is pretty much the same as a normal VX, with the only major differences being it being the slightest bit heavier that the record button is on the DN60 device - so you have to keep an eye on that to ensure a timecode is being recorded (but a red light comes on to signal when it is). It's also little more difficult to reach the ND and exposure buttons mid line, but it's still doable.
 
I’ve been using this set up for the past month or so to film our next video and not had any problems as of yet. The only issue I had was using the DN60 with one of my VX's but that was because the VX had a faulty firewire port.
Here's an example of some offcut footage to show it's identical to tape:

https://youtu.be/Ft0KxFkhtlQ

I'm sure I’m not the first to do this, but I’ve not seen another VX with DN60 side mounted before yet, which to me seems like the most logical placement for it.
Like I said before, I know this will get mixed reviews from a lot of VX people, but honestly I think it could be a viable way to keep VX footage going, and it feels pretty good knowing the footage isn’t going to be glitched when you come to capture it.
It's a shame not to have the physical archive of tapes, but you can always back it up to drives/cloud storage.

I’ll be shooting our next video with this setup and I'll be posting updates about it all via this insta feed, so check it out if you're interested in any updates:

https://www.instagram.com/orwellian.world.landscape/

Hope that helps anyone considering this as an option. If anyone has any questions feel free to hit me up on here, or you can DM me on either of the Insta accounts. Cheers!

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-cgBJtl92k/

god damn! I remember reading this on SP the 2nd time it came back. Fuck that still blows me away.

CHONGO

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When opening the battery door on the inside of my Japanese VX1000 the top L/R switch is obviously the steady cam but what does the L/R switch on the bottom do I notice no difference in camera and during play back
?

I believe it belongs with the zoom. One makes it so you can zoom in more.

Olympus Mons

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Anybody given this guy a go? Any reviews positive/negative?

https://www.theoriesofatlantis.com/products/theories-vx-day-pack-black-cordura
Is there any money in skateboarding film anymore?
I dunno about money, but the fun is boomin.

Szechuan

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Anybody given this guy a go? Any reviews positive/negative?

https://www.theoriesofatlantis.com/products/theories-vx-day-pack-black-cordura
My buddy got one to go on an NYC trip. But personally I need a proper backpack.

Pappy Jones

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I forgot some people were running the external card reader device situation. Your DN60 setup is amazing, thanks for sharing. I’m seeing the DN60s for around $200 which isn’t bad considering how much I have to spend on repairs/buy more cameras. When you factor in the money spent on miniDVs as well, the thought of going tapeless starts to sound real nice.

I’m tempted to bite the bullet as well but as mentioned above my main concern would be the risk of the cord coming out or dragging on the ground. I like to get as low as possible to the ground with my fisheye stuff so it seems kinda risky.

Love the vx of course but can’t keep dealing with these repair costs and mine have always been related to the heads, tape deck, and record function ugh
« Last Edit: May 01, 2020, 07:18:20 PM by Pappy Jones »

al_hodgson

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Does that also mean that we can buy defective VX for real cheap and this will work ?
I mean, having the tape deck error will still allow me to record ?

Last thing is regarding the firewire cable.
On most of my cap cams it gets loose after some time, and I'm always afraid it's not connected properly.
Any chance this can happen ?

I’m tempted to bite the bullet as well but as mentioned above my main concern would be the risk of the cord coming out or dragging on the ground. I like to get as low as possible to the ground with my fisheye stuff so it seems kinda risky.

You're welcome dudes. Happy that this could be of any insight.

The tapedeck gets no use whatsoever, so as long as the tapedeck issue doesn't cause your VX to auto shutoff, I can't see it being an issue. I have a constant 'no tape' icon flashing all the time I film with the unit and it's always fine. And the fact you don't feel like you're wasting tape leaving the camera rolling or filming random shit is a nice benefit too.

And in response the FireWire worries, I gotta say its super stable, and I swing the camera a lot and film pretty low (although the footage in the video I attached maybe wasn't the best example of that). I've had the camera bump the floor and still never had even a dropped frame, let alone have a firewire loosen/come out.
With the side mount rig you never seem to have that issue, and the cable is short and study enough to never catch on anything. Been filming with this setup the past 4 months now and it's been great.

This is the most problematic part of the setup for me. The location of the firewire port makes it likely you either a) scrape the ground with the end of the cable or b) accidentally cut off the legs of the skater to avoid hitting the ground when filming fisheye. The clip in the instagram post kind of proves the latter. An angled firewire cable might help but it's still a scary thought to lose a clip due to the cable becoming detached.

I can see why you'd think that for sure. I can only speak from my experience but I gotta say I've never scraped the Firewire, even when filming low lines.
With that footage i attached where i chopped the legs, like i say it was probably a quite bad example, as that was the first time I'd used the device so I was being really cautious. But since then it really doesn't feel like it effects how low I can get comparatively to before I used the unit. I'll try and get together some footage after all the COVID situation to show it.
Either way, with all these ongoing tape-deck issues it's a scarier thought to film without it now as I almost know I'll lose a clip at some point to that :/

radcunt

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You guys see that SD card hack from a while ago? Basically making an attachment from a drone recorder box with an SD to HDMI converter so you can bypass the tape.

Olympus Mons

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You guys see that SD card hack from a while ago? Basically making an attachment from a drone recorder box with an SD to HDMI converter so you can bypass the tape.

Let's see some more about this?
Is there any money in skateboarding film anymore?
I dunno about money, but the fun is boomin.

Szechuan

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You guys see that SD card hack from a while ago? Basically making an attachment from a drone recorder box with an SD to HDMI converter so you can bypass the tape.
[close]

Let's see some more about this?
It really makes me want to make one. I wouldn't be surprised if you could make a super slimmed down one from a raspberry pi board, arduinos and an sd card, and maybe throw it on the tape side with no under hang so the mk1 can do its job properly. But I doubt I'll ever do it.

Rockin Robbin

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Imagine of Strobeck filmed some of our favorite clips in his stupid new style. Sheesh.





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mattchew

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LOL dying at those gifs, holy shit.

Where does one acquire a DN-60? Very curious about this...
P R E P A R E  T O  T I M E C O D E

somethingmustbreaknow

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i have some replacements from ebay. not particularly these but mine work great.

worried_basil

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Someone sell me their mk1. Pm me

DiggyDon

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Question for Australian VX heads:

Where do you guys get new batteries?

I’m struggling to find anything on eBay that will post to Aus. I thought I found one from Master Instruments but the battery case is a different formation and doesn’t fit in the camera.
Any info would be greatly appreciated! Only 1/3 of my current batts can hold its charge for more then 10 minutes.

Bigorse

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Question for Australian VX heads:

Where do you guys get new batteries?

I’m struggling to find anything on eBay that will post to Aus. I thought I found one from Master Instruments but the battery case is a different formation and doesn’t fit in the camera.
Any info would be greatly appreciated! Only 1/3 of my current batts can hold its charge for more then 10 minutes.


Battery world are selling np-f550 knock offs which are quite good, there was an eBay seller from Sydney selling good knock offs too. But looks as if it's dried up

pizzafliptofakie

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Hey, sorry if this is a dumb question but I'm kinda new at this. Does anyone have any recommendations for adapters/devises to capture tapes if your computer doesn't have a Firewire port? I'm seeing mixed results on old devices, but I'm also seeing people consistently say to NOT use a Firewire to USB cable. I'm gonna try buying a capture cam this week.

doyle

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I started filming with a VX again recently and luckily held onto a broken 2008 Macbook Pro so that I wouldn't have to figure that out. I just capture on the old one with normal firewire and then back it up on an external drive to bring over to the new computer.

Looks like you can buy them (around here at least) for a couple hundred bucks, some of them may even have FCP or Premiere already installed.

Allen.

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There’s also a free video capture program out there, not sure if it’s only PC. iMovie probably works too?
Idk. I don’t have a Mac.
For someone w.no signature ur awfully hostile, & that is why I do this

pizzafliptofakie

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Is there a way to do this without having a buy a whole new computer? Can I not just buy a firewire to USB or something? I'm seeing a slew of adapters online but I'm getting really confused as to what is compatible with what.

pvz423

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Is there a way to do this without having a buy a whole new computer? Can I not just buy a firewire to USB or something? I'm seeing a slew of adapters online but I'm getting really confused as to what is compatible with what.

Apologies if you have a PC but if you run a macbook you can buy a Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter then get the proper pin firewire cable for your VX and capture using iMovie super easy.

pizzafliptofakie

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Is there a way to do this without having a buy a whole new computer? Can I not just buy a firewire to USB or something? I'm seeing a slew of adapters online but I'm getting really confused as to what is compatible with what.
[close]

Apologies if you have a PC but if you run a macbook you can buy a Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter then get the proper pin firewire cable for your VX and capture using iMovie super easy.

I've got a PC. I've seen a bunch of those adapters which leads me to believe there should be a PC equivalent but I can't seem to find it.


THOUGH, funny enough, I have an old Macbook that I found in the trash a few years ago. There's some shit wrong with it, but it DOES turn on. Might see if I can fix it up, but it'd be much nicer if I can find something to just plug into my PC. I've browsed YouTube where people talk about all these adapters, but everytime I look it up it's discontinued.

Jordan Wiens

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ever since i updated to macOS Catalina I've had to use the brand new iMovie to capture. To find the files after you capture, you just have to go to Movies>Right Click on iMovie Library>Show Package Contents>Find the Project Name (I call mine "CAPTURE LOG")>Original Media. They'll be called some weird long numbers but they'll be full .mov quality unlike Quicktime Player. I am on a 2013 iMac with a Thunderbolt to Firewire 800 adapter, but if you're on a newer mac you can use a thunderbolt 3 to thunderbolt adapter, and then a thunderbolt to firewire 800 adapter, then the firewire DV cable. If you use USB or Firewire 400 the quality won't be as good so stick with the highest bandwith cables.
youtube.com/wardenjeans
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MintySandwhich

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Is there a way to do this without having a buy a whole new computer? Can I not just buy a firewire to USB or something? I'm seeing a slew of adapters online but I'm getting really confused as to what is compatible with what.
[close]

Apologies if you have a PC but if you run a macbook you can buy a Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter then get the proper pin firewire cable for your VX and capture using iMovie super easy.
[close]

I've got a PC. I've seen a bunch of those adapters which leads me to believe there should be a PC equivalent but I can't seem to find it.


THOUGH, funny enough, I have an old Macbook that I found in the trash a few years ago. There's some shit wrong with it, but it DOES turn on. Might see if I can fix it up, but it'd be much nicer if I can find something to just plug into my PC. I've browsed YouTube where people talk about all these adapters, but everytime I look it up it's discontinued.

I have adapters that should be able to let you work. I used to use it to uploaded my footage to my PC before I eventually got my MAC. DM me if you want more information on it. I could give it to ya. Remember bottom line, you can NOT go firewire to USB.

Looks like this:

Chatbot

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Expand Quote
Expand Quote
Expand Quote
Is there a way to do this without having a buy a whole new computer? Can I not just buy a firewire to USB or something? I'm seeing a slew of adapters online but I'm getting really confused as to what is compatible with what.
[close]

Apologies if you have a PC but if you run a macbook you can buy a Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter then get the proper pin firewire cable for your VX and capture using iMovie super easy.
[close]

I've got a PC. I've seen a bunch of those adapters which leads me to believe there should be a PC equivalent but I can't seem to find it.


THOUGH, funny enough, I have an old Macbook that I found in the trash a few years ago. There's some shit wrong with it, but it DOES turn on. Might see if I can fix it up, but it'd be much nicer if I can find something to just plug into my PC. I've browsed YouTube where people talk about all these adapters, but everytime I look it up it's discontinued.
[close]

I have adapters that should be able to let you work. I used to use it to uploaded my footage to my PC before I eventually got my MAC. DM me if you want more information on it. I could give it to ya. Remember bottom line, you can NOT go firewire to USB.

Looks like this:


To add to this. If you have a PC, you can just buy a firewire card and install it. You just open up the tower and there is a a slot for it. Just look up your computer model and what card is compatable.

Example of the card
https://www.google.com/search?q=firewire+card&tbm=isch

Rawse

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I'm also looking for VX batteries that ship to Canada. I'm on my last NP-F730H, which holds charge for roughly an hour, it sucks. The only ebay knockoff I've found is 100USD, while an OG is listed at 200.....are you kidding me!?

I'll post a WTB ad for used batteries, but if you have any links/ideas that I might be missing, please hmu.