The department has a Sony HANDYCAM video camera, power-supply, and tripod that can be signed-out through Patty McClure in the Business Office. In consideration to others, please offload your videos to your computer as soon as you are done, then format the video card so there is enough room for the next person. Formatting is recommended over simple deleting because some computers default to a “Move to Trash” command instead of a true delete, moving the video to a hidden directory, gradually causing the camera’s memory card to fill-up.
Also be aware there are, unfortunately, two memory areas on the camera: “INTERNAL MEMORY” holding 4gb and “MEMORY CARD” holding 32gb. The 32gb card can hold 677 minutes of recording, while the 4gb internal memory can only hold 84 min., so it is strongly recommended that the first thing you do before using the camera is verify that you are set to use “Memory Card”:
Verify You’re Using The Right Memory Card
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Open the HandyCam screen (this turns on the camera)
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The total time available for recording will will display in brackets in the upper-right (NOTE: it’s only displayed for 4 seconds; touch the screen to show it again).
If the number is 677min, you are all set (i.e. Memory Card is selected and formatted, no need to follow the rest of these steps). If you don’t see that, continue with these steps:
Selecting The Right Memory Card
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Press on the screen, select “MENU” that appears on upper-left
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Select “MEDIA SETTINGS” that appears on lower-right
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Select “MOVIE MEDIA SET” that appears on left
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Select “MEMORY CARD” that appears on right (i.e., NOT “INT. MEMORY”)
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Select “YES” on left
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Once it has finished, select “OK” to finish the steps.
If you still don’t see enough time for your recording session, format the card following the steps at bottom of this page.
Recording Video
To record video, simply press the red dot in the lower-left of the screen. When the letters “REC” in red are in the upper-middle of the video screen, you are recording. Press the red dot in lower-left again to pause/stop recording (“STBY” in green will appear in upper-middle). Close the screen to turn off the camera. NOTE: For reliability, it is recommended to keep the power supply plugged in while videoing.
Getting Video Files Off The Camera
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Open the HandyCam screen (this turns on the camera)
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Connect the camcorder to the computer using the (very short) built-in USB Cable.
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IMPORTANT: On the touch-screen, you will see two “USB CONNECT” symbols; select the one on the right (the one on right accesses the 32gb MEMORY CARD, the one on the left selects the 4gb “INTERNAL MEMORY”)
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Access the videos exactly as you would any USB stick. NOTE: Depending on which OS you have (i.e., MacOS or Windows), you may see a window on your computer requesting to import your video. It is probably best to skip that and instead access the memory card directly via your File browser (“Windows/File Explorer” on Windows, “Finder” on MacOS)
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You will see two volumes mounted. Unfortunately, because the Memory Card can have different names (“USB Drive (J:)”, “31 GB Volume”, etc.) depending on your OS, the simplest instruction would be to navigate to the new drive appearing in your file browser that is NOT called “PMPORTABLE”
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You will know you are on the right card when you will see a folder called “MP_ROOT”. Navigate in to it, then in to the enclosed folder inside (usually called “101PNV01”). There you will find all video you’ve recorded. They will have arbitrary names of the form “M2U#####.MPG”
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Drag (or Cut-and-Paste if you know the command) all video files to your computer’s desktop (or another place on your computer where you know you can find them).
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VERY IMPORTANT: Use your computer’s “Eject” method for USB disks on _BOTH_ drives you just mounted. On Windows, right-click on each drive (i.e., the “PMPORTABLE” and the other one that had your videos) and select “Eject”.
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On the camera, select “END” on upper-left
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IMPORTANT: Format the card using the steps indicated below.
Formatting the Memory Card
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Press on the screen, select “MENU” that appears on upper-left.
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Select “Show Others” button on lower-left
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Press the up-arrow (“^”) on left of screen two-times
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Select “MEDIA FORMAT” at the upper-right
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Select “MEMORY CARD”
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Select “Yes” on left, then subsequent “Yes” on right
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Once it has finished, select “OK” to finish the steps.
For more information on this camera, see the model documents here.