Use of SLR for video

[Randy LaPolla]

Hello,
Before my recent fieldwork in NW Thailand I bought a Sony SLT-A55V (a very high end digital SLR), and its paired mic Sony ECM-CG50 (a directional mic that mounts on top of the camera). I was told by the salesman that it would film for 29 minutes and then you could start again. It takes HD video of amazing quality. It worked fine in the shop and in trials at home, but in the village in Thailand it failed miserably, overheating after only 5-7 minutes (it was about 33 C in the shade). The manual does say that in 40 C it will only last 5 minutes, and the 29 minutes is only in 20 C, but the salesman never mentioned that, and I wasn’t aware of it until after I bought it. So one point of this message is to warn anyone thinking of using an SLR for video to think again. (Btw, in contrast a cheap Nikon Coolpix camera that we had had no problem shooting 29 minute videos with clear sound in that heat.)

A second issue is the format Sony uses: I was warned about the proprietary software and format that Sony uses, but assumed it wouldn’t be a problem. Wrong again. The software they give you for working with the videos does not work on a Mac, and the HD files created seem to not be openable by any other software currently available on my Mac other than VLC (which only is for viewing, not editing). From a check of the Web it seems iMovie’08 (which I don’t have) and certain other types of software might be able to play them, or convert them, but there are problems with some of them. Does anyone know what is the best software for working with .MTS AVCHD files (ideally without converting them, if possible)? (There is the choice to create MP4, but I want to keep the HD quality if possible.)

Thanks very much.

Randy

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Randy J. LaPolla, PhD FAHA
Professor (Chair) of Linguistics
La Trobe University
VIC 3086 AUSTRALIA
Tel.: +61 3 9479-6402 (RCLT) / 9479-2555 (Ling)
FAX:  +61 3 9467-3053 (RCLT) / 9479-1520 (Ling)

RCLT: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/rclt/
Linguistics: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/linguistics/
The Tibeto-Burman Domain: http://tibeto-burman.net/
Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area: http://stedt.berkeley.edu/ltba/
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