CAMARA PHANTOM VEO 640S MANUAL pagina 2

PHANTOM VEO 640S MANUAL

5 WORKING WITH CFAST 2.0 CARDS

Introduction

Phantom VEO-S camera models are compatible with industry standard CFast 2.0 cards. These solid state cards are a common form of recording in professional video cameras.

Working with CFast 2.0 cards makes it possible for footage to be quickly transferred from the camera's RAM to save, non-volatile storage that can then be downloaded with Phantom PCC software or a CFast 2.0 reader connected to a PC or Mac. There are several advantages to using these cards:

• - Security. Using CFast is a safe way to get Cine Raw files out of volatile RAM.
• - Quality. Files saved on CFast cards are always saved in the Cine Raw format, which maximizes image quality and workflow options.
• - Portability. Using a CFast card means there is no need to connect the camera to a PC.

Important workflow notes

A CFast 2.0 card installed in a Phantom VEO camera cannot be used for video playback. Video playback is only from the camera's RAM. CFast shots can be reviewed via Ethernet, in the Phantom PCC software.

VEO cameras only support loop recording. Images must first be captured in RAM, then reviewed and saved to the CFast card. The transfer rate from RAM to the card is approximately 90 MB / second.

VEO cameras do not support Run / Stop mode (longer recording times at lower frame rates) like CineMag-compatible cameras.

Choosing a card

The only requirement is that the card be specified as "CFast 2.0". Vision Research has verified several Angelbird and Lexar brand cards, however, any CFast 2.0 is expected to work.

CFast 2.0 card format

VEO cameras require the card to be formatted with the NTFS file system. The NTFS format allows CFast 2.0 cards to be mounted in Windows (read/write) or Mac (read only) without the need for special drivers.

CFast cards purchased from Vision Research will be pre-formatted, however, cards purchased elsewhere are likely to have a different file system. When the cards are in a different file system, the card will display a "CF Error" on the screen, and the PCC software will not recognize that there is a card installed.

There are three ways to format a CFast 2.0 card:

1. installed in the camera, using the control menu on the camera. The camera will count down 3-2-1 and then be ready. It takes a few seconds.

2. Installed on the camera, using the Nucleus utility in Phantom PCC (photo left). The Format flash memory tab and the "Force flash memory format" function must be selected.

3. Installed on a CFast 2.0 reader (usually USB or Thunderbolt) connected to a Mac or Windows PC, using the disk format utility. Choose NTFS while formatting.

Formatting erases all files on the card. Make sure that the shots are saved in a safe location before using any of the formatting options.

Installing and ejecting the CFast 2.0 card

Insert the card into the camera's CFast card slot on the back of VEO-S camera models. The card will be available immediately, provided it is NTFS formatted as described above.

To remove the card, press the plastic lever under the card slot. Wait approximately 10 seconds before installing another card. During this time, "Disconnecting CF" will appear on the display.

Saving to and from a CFast 2.0 card

First, a clip must be saved in the camera's RAM: Start in capture mode, trigger once the event occurs (depending on the later position of the trigger).

Review the clip in RAM, set the in and out points as described in the previous section and save them to the CFast 2.0 card. Once the card is full, there are two ways to save the files.

1. Drag and drop the files with a CFast 2.0 card reader: these are usually available with USB or Thunderbolt connections (or both).

2. Use the PCC software to save the files on the card. The following goes through the PCC procedure:

Saving an individual clip

From the "Play" tab in PCC, select the clip you want to save from the "Cinema:" drop-down menu. You will see all clips in RAM as well as the CFast in this list. Once you have selected a clip, you can mark an In and Out point, if desired, by clicking the '[' and ']' buttons respectively.

Then click on the green "Save Movie..." button. In the 'Save Cine' dialog box, select 'Cine Raw' as the file format, navigate to the folder where you want to save the cine and click 'Save'.

Saving all files

In the Playback tab, click the triangle to the right of the 'Save Cine ...' button, and from the pop-up menu, select 'Save all Flash clips to file'.

In the subsequent save dialog box, navigate to the folder where you want to save the clips and select the "Cine Raw" file format. Choose a name for the group of Clip files and click the "Save" button. The file name of each Cine will start with the name you choose and end with the clip number.

Saving specific files

In the Playback tab, click on the triangle to the right of the 'Save Cinema ...' button, and from the pop-up menu, select 'Select and save cinemas to file'.

"_Flashcine #" will be added to the filename of all batch-saved clips, where "#" represents the number of each shot.

In the pop-up window, select the clips you want to save. Use the Shift key to select a range of clips or the control key to add individual clips.

When you have selected the clips you wish to save,

click "OK". In the subsequent save dialog box, choose the destination folder and select the Cine Raw file format. Choose a name for the clips and click the "Save" button.

Selecting a file format (choose Cine Raw)

Vision Research recommends that you save clips from a CFast card as Cine Raw files, although it is possible to save them in several file formats. Cine Raw files not only retain all clip metadata (such as frame rate, shutter speed, timestamps, etc.), but are the fastest and best quality format. Cine Raw files can be easily converted to other formats at a later date.

The 10-bit 'Packed' format is the default when saving Cine Raw files. This results in smaller and more manageable files than the 12-bit 'unpacked' format and no loss of quality. If you are using third-party post-production software to read Cine Raw files, make sure they support this "packed" format. To save the Cine Raw in unpacked format, simply uncheck the "Packed" box before saving.

Erasing a CFast 2.0 card

A CFast 2.0 card can be erased using the CF Format function of the VEO menu system, or in the Phantom PCC software. PCC will allow you to delete individual clips, otherwise the CF format will always erase all clips.

In the PCC software, navigate to the "Live> Flash Memory" menu and click the "Delete" button. Delete individual clips, delete all clips, or format the card. Confirm that you want to delete all clips.

Once completed, all data on the CFast card will be erased, and the card will be ready to record again immediately.

6 PHANTOM PCC SOFTWARE

The latest version of the Phantom PCC software can always be downloaded from the Vision Research website: www.phantomhighspeed.com/pcc

Pre-installation

The Phantom control software is certified to operate with the following Microsoft Windows operating systems: Windows 7 Pro, Windows 8.1 and 10.

The computer and camera must be associated with the same subnet to communicate with each other. Refer to Chapter 3: Network Configuration in this manual for instructions on how to configure the Gb Ethernet and/or 10Gb Ethernet network adapters to communicate with the Phantom cameras.

When using multiple computers or network cards together, each port requires a unique IP address, e.g. 100.100.100.100.1 (255.255.0.0.0), 100.100.100.100.2 (255.255.0.0), etc.

Overview of the PCC application

The Phantom Camera Control (PCC) software is built around a multi-layered workspace that includes the following work areas:

Toolbar.

Provides quick access to the most frequently used functions. Place the mouse over a button and wait a second to display a text box describing what it is.

Please note the "Help" section. This provides valuable reference information about the software, including extensive documentation.

Control Tabs

The main PCC window is divided into three tabs: Live, Play and Manager.

When opened for the first time, the "Administrator" tab opens. This is where connected cameras are displayed, selected for use and renamed. It is also used to manage saved clip files.

To rename, highlight and then click on a camera name. This can be useful when working with multiple cameras.

All camera control and setting of shooting parameters (frame rate, shutter, etc.) is done in the "Live" tab.

The "Playback" tab is used to review, edit and save Cinema files (either from the camera or from files on the local hard disk).

PVP (Phantom Video Player) Application Overview

PVP can be started directly from the desktop or by clicking the "Video Out" toolbar button in PCC.

PVP controls only the camera's video outputs (HD-SDI and HDMI) connected to a compatible monitor.

It provides optimized control for playback and basic capture, trigger and save commands.

PVP provides the ability to view, capture, review, edit and/or save a clip recorded in the camera's RAM to a hard drive or an installed CFast card. PVP is extremely effective when used with high resolution cameras, as most computers are not powerful enough to view live files captured seamlessly over Ethernet.

The camera's video mode and display settings are also set via PVP. The best video system for the camera or project will vary depending on the country you are in, the type of video monitor used and the screen resolution required.

All video systems available for the connected camera can be found in the PVP 'Settings' menu along with the production area and other video overlay controls.

Camera control via PCC

The first time PCC is launched it is important to set up

User Preferences. PCC offers the ability to select various units for specific camera parameters by clicking the "Preferences" button on the bottom tab of the Manager.

Units can be set to commonly used values ("Defaults") or can be customized using the drop-down selections. First time users should use one of the three "Defaults".

The "Exp" unit is probably the most important unit to configure.

to configure. It specifies which unit to use to display

The exposure time. This can be displayed in degrees, microseconds or percentage.

360 degrees = 100% = the maximum exposure time. The other units to configure are PTF (Post Trigger Frames) and EDR, which are discussed later in this section.

Choosing camera

Double-click on the camera(s) to be monitored listed in the "Manager" tab, or select the camera(s) from the "Camera" drop-down list in the "Live" tab.

Once a camera is selected, a "Preview" pane will be displayed to the left of the control tabs that shows the

Current image being captured by the camera. This image may differ slightly from the image being output through the camera's 3G HD-SDI port due to display differences on video monitor and computer screens.

Image processing

The image tools provide extensive controls over the appearance of the image, from color and contrast settings, to image orientation and cropping settings. The menu is accessed by clicking on the "Image Tools" toolbar button (the one that looks like an artist's palette).

The upper part of the "Image Tools" window displays a "Histogram". This is a graphical representation of the brightness levels in pixels of the displayed image. The left represents black, the right represents white and the height represents the proportional number of pixels at that particular value. Unlike a waveform, the histogram shape is not representative of the content, it is simply an average of the brightness values.

Below the histogram are controls that change the image settings for live images, recording and video output from the camera.

Some of the vSriSbles include; brightness, gain, gamma, saturation, hue, white balance settings (Temp (K) and Tint), individual pedestal in red, green and blue, gain and gamma values, hue control and more.

At the bottom of the window there is a "Default" button that restores all parameters except white balance.

all parameters except white balance, hue and color matrix to their default values.

The "Default White Balance" button restores the white balance to factory defaults on color cameras.

The "Reset" tone button restores the image tone S to the default values and the "Reset" color matrix button returns the color matrix values S to their default values.

Changes made here only affect S the metadata of the RAW file. They are applied in software, but not integrated into the image. If you are saving in different formats or recording via video output, make sure that everything is set to the image settings you want to record.

The 'Zoom Real Sizeʼ toolbar button rescales the size of the images displayed in the Preview / Playback panel to their actual size.

The 'Fit Zoom' toolbar button resizes images to fit the panel. Images can also be zoomed to a specific magnification ratio by selecting a number from the drop-down list to the right of the Fit Zoom button.

Automatic white balance

Performing a white balance should be the first step in color adjustment (White balance does not apply to monochrome cameras).

Right click on the Task that appears white in the image in the preview or playback panel and then click on the "White Balance" pop-up window. It is not necessary to fill the white box, a small section is sufficient.

It is recommended to perform white balance after CSR and on a white or gray object that is not fully saturated.

Capture configuration

Just below the "Camera" selector in the "Live" tab there are Camera related settings for you.

This manual covers the most commonly used settings. See the "PCC Help" file for details of other settings.

Camera and archive settings

Time settings: synchronizes the time stamps embedded in the recorded image data with the computer clock.

Color depth: VEO cameras only operate in 12-bit mode.

Shutter mode: Only for VEO 4k models. Operates by toggling the camera between global shutter or rolling shutter. Once set, click "OK" to confirm. See FAQ in this topic for more information.

Partitions: select number of desired partitions (also called split memory segments) from the "Partitions" drop-down menu

Lens control: Only available for canon lenses, for aperture and focus control.

Overwrite and reset: Allows user and factory settings to be saved and loaded from the memory.

saved and loaded from camera memory.

Resolution: sets the required camera resolution. There are several options in the drop down menu, alternatively type in a value and the closest valid resolution will be adhered to.

Sampling Rate: sets the required frame rate in frames per second (FPS).

Exposure time (shutter): sets the exposure time in degrees, microseconds or percentage (this depends on how PCC preferences are set).

EDR (EXTREME DYNAMIC RANGE): sets a second exposure time for pixels that may become fully saturated or overexposed. This is useful for monochrome cameras, but be careful with color cameras as there may be color washout in areas where EDR is applied. VEO 4K models do not support EDR.

Exposure Index: sets the exposure index (effective ISO) of the image, loading preset tone curves. Adjusting gamma, gain and other settings will contribute to the total EI value. And this combined value is what should be used to determine the lighting.

CSR (Black Balance): closes the internal camera shutter and restores the black point of each pixel for optimal image quality.

Image range and trigger position: the slider represents the memory cycle, with the duration indicated in seconds and the total number of available frames.

LS trigger position is indicated at the end of the pull-down menu as "T" along the timeline.

Activating advanced settings

The first of these options is to enable "Start/End recording actions" to be performed automatically at the beginning or end of a shot. The most common are:

- "Auto-save to card" this option saves a user specific portion of clip, to the CFast card immediately after recording.

-Auto-playback on video output" starts after recording. The range marked below "Auto-playback on video output" affects both playback and saving to the CFast 2.0 card.

-When "Restart recording" is enabled, it automatically restarts the recording process after the automatic actions have been performed.

When "Restart Recording" is enabled, PCC does not offer user confirmation before the clip in RAM is deleted and starts recording again.

"External sync" conditions the camera to use one of the following three frame sync sources:

Internal: the camera uses its internal crystal oscillator to drive the camera frame rate.

External: should be selected when an external frame sync pulse is supplied to drive the frame rate. This can be used to synchronize two cameras together via F-Sync.

IRGI: should be selected when an IRIG-B signal is received to drive the frame rate. When using IRIG, the frame rate can only be set to multiples of 100.

Video lock: The frame rate follows the commands of the camera's current video frame rate. The frames per second will be approximated to the nearest multiple of the video frame rate set in video (23.98,24,25,29.97 or 30).

Flash Memory

Displays the amount of free space and size (in gigabytes) of the installed CFast card. Direct recording is not an option for VEO cameras. By selecting 'delete' a second menu appears to allow deleting individual files or formatting the card.

Recording a Clip

To start recording to the camera's RAM press the red 'Capture' button.

The red 'Capture' button changes to 'Abort recording' and the green 'trigger' button is enabled when the camera is in recording mode. The abort recording button tells the camera to stop recording, leaving the camera RAM empty.

When the trigger button is pressed, the camera stops recording immediately if the trigger position is set to zero. If it is set to a value greater than zero, the camera will continue recording frames after the trigger position until the specified limit is reached.

If a clip exists in the camera's memory, you will be asked if you are sure you want to delete it before proceeding. If yes, press delete clip(s) and start a new recording.

For precise use at the desired time use the trigger button on the camera body or an external trigger connected to the trigger input.