Multi-Cam synching in Davinci Studio 18 (and 18.5) of three Nikon Z9 based on time code not working

[skmadapatu]

Recently, I had a once-in-a-lifetime privilege to capture a video of one of the biggest festivals (Chirakkal Perumkaliyattam – Theyyam of Kerala/India). I used four Nikon Z9s (+2 drones). We set up the time code in three out of four Z9 cameras (unfortunately, the 4th Z9 got messed up – which is not part of this testing).

I am working with Nikon Z9 multi-cam footage in DaVinci Resolve 18, but I cannot use multi-cam syncing properly. While syncing the camera footage, the time code appears to be the same, but upon closer inspection, the activities captured in the footage are different. How can I resolve this issue?

We tried to sync it as in this example MANUALLY:

As you can see, the SCRC TC, REC TC, and filename with the CAMERA prefix appear in this video. Many of these are shorter clips (some less than 10 seconds, not concurrently), so audio synching may not be an option.

But just this one performance synch took over five hours. We have around 100 such performances, requiring synching of >5000 clips from >50TB of NEV files. As you can imagine, it is technically and practically (time & financial) challenging.

We tried many options on a new Multicam clip using selected clips, including by recreating the PROXY files from:

1. Internal Nikon Z9 PROXY
2. Using the Davinci Generate PROXY media (the new Blackmagic Proxy Generator App is not recognizing the NEV files)
3. Apple ProRes 422 Proxy using deliver
4. Shutter Encorder App (v17.2)

Upon closer inspection, I noticed the camera name or serial number is missing in the Davinci metadata. Is that the reason these three Z9 camera tracks are not identified separately? If that is the issue, can we fix the camera metadata?



--
Camera Specialization: Nikon Z9, Sony A1, D850, D5, D810, D800E, Sony Nex-7, Nikon D4S
Lenses: Nikon NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S,
Nikon NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II, 24-70mm f/2.8, 14mm F2.8, 150-600MM, Macro Lenses

 

[halfmanhalfbiscuit]

This probably isn't super helpful, but here we go anyway.

I just tested this out now - I don't have 2 Z9s, but I do have a Z9 and a Z8, so I used those.

What I did was the following:

1. I connected the cameras in a controller/remote mode via the networking setup, so I could use the Z9 to trigger the video start and end of both cameras.
2. For each camera I reset the timecode to zero for the first test. For the 2nd test I made sure the time codes were different. For the 3rd test I set the time code manually for each clip - I did this by resetting the timecode to the Current Time on the Z9, and then manually setting the timecode on the Z8 to the same time as the Z9's timecode that was set to the current time.
3. For each test I triggered the shutter with the Z9, so in addition to having the same timecode, they had the same start so that I could try syncing via the "In" method in addition to timecode.

My results were all as expected - when the time codes matched, the clips were synced correctly (i.e., the motion in both clips occurred at the same time). For the test where the time codes were different, the motion was not synced when I used the timecode, but because I started them at the same time, when I used the "In" method, the clips were synced correctly.

When I used a zero timecode for the start for each clip, the clips were synced correctly. When I manually entered the same time code for each camera so that they had the current time, the clips were synced correctly.

On the topic of the metadata - no, it's definitely not that, because none of my clips had the camera name as the metadata. I think the only thing that affects is how you can name the camera angle. It will apparently default to "Camera 1" or "Camera 2". You can also use the clip name, where I have a DZ9 or DZ8 prefix to disambiguate the cameras.

When I tried syncing with sound, unless there was a very distinctive sound in the clip, it wasn't 100% precise; it still did a good job, but not perfect.

Not sure what you're doing wrong, but it seems to work for me. I'm using DR Studio 18.5 Beta (and I see you are too) on a M1 MacBook Pro (so different operating system).

 

[skmadapatu]

Thank you, AJ, for your kind wisdom. I think I found the workaround. Here is what I did as an example:

1. I downloaded all April 6th media of CAM1. Added (empty before) the Camera file metadata to 1.
2. Similarly, I downloaded the CAM2 & 3 files and added 2 & 3 to the camera name.
3. Selected all the clips and right-clicked and selected “Created New Multicam Clip Using Selected Clips” – Angle Sync “Time Code”, Angle Name &
4. Opened it in the timeline
5. Here is the result (I assume we will not get into trouble with NEV file):

--
Camera Specialization: Nikon Z9, Sony A1, D850, D5, D810, D800E, Sony Nex-7, Nikon D4S
Lenses: Nikon NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S,
Nikon NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II, 24-70mm f/2.8, 14mm F2.8, 150-600MM, Macro Lenses

 

[halfmanhalfbiscuit]

Thank you, AJ, for your kind wisdom. I think I found the workaround. Here is what I did as an example:

1. I downloaded all April 6th media of CAM1. Added (empty before) the Camera file metadata to 1.
2. Similarly, I downloaded the CAM2 & 3 files and added 2 & 3 to the camera name.
3. Selected all the clips and right-clicked and selected “Created New Multicam Clip Using Selected Clips” – Angle Sync “Time Code”, Angle Name &
4. Opened it in the timeline
5. Here is the result (I assume we will not get into trouble with NEV file):

Honestly not sure what I'm looking at there - hard to tell from a screenshot if you're happy with the sync or not. But you said you have a workaround, so at least that's good

 

[shuncheung]

I just use the audio to sync multiple video cameras in Davinci Resolve. Seems to work quite well.

 

[NickZ2016]

You should try asking in the Resolve forum on the Blackmagic site. If anybody knows it'll likely be somebody there.

Didn't you use the GPS to set the times?

 

[shuncheung]

You should try asking in the Resolve forum on the Blackmagic site. If anybody knows it'll likely be somebody there.

Didn't you use the GPS to set the times?

There are special tools to sync the timecode among multiple cameras. For someone with 3, 4 Z9 bodies, it is worthwhile to invest in one of those. E.g.: Atomos UltraSync BLUE

I don't have one myself, as I am not that deep into video, yet.

 

[halfmanhalfbiscuit]

You should try asking in the Resolve forum on the Blackmagic site. If anybody knows it'll likely be somebody there.

Didn't you use the GPS to set the times?

There are special tools to sync the timecode among multiple cameras. For someone with 3, 4 Z9 bodies, it is worthwhile to invest in one of those. E.g.: Atomos UltraSync BLUE

I don't have one myself, as I am not that deep into video, yet.

The Z9 and Z8 can sync the timecode with a WR-T10 wireless remote - see New "Timecode" Option: "Reset Using Remote" in the reference guide. Looks interesting.

 

[skmadapatu]

Thank you, AJ, for your kind wisdom. I think I found the workaround. Here is what I did as an example:

1. I downloaded all April 6th media of CAM1. Added (empty before) the Camera file metadata to 1.
2. Similarly, I downloaded the CAM2 & 3 files and added 2 & 3 to the camera name.
3. Selected all the clips and right-clicked and selected “Created New Multicam Clip Using Selected Clips” – Angle Sync “Time Code”, Angle Name &
4. Opened it in the timeline
5. Here is the result (I assume we will not get into trouble with NEV file):

Honestly not sure what I'm looking at there - hard to tell from a screenshot if you're happy with the sync or not. But you said you have a workaround, so at least that's good

Thank you, AJ for your reply. Some strange reason none of the Z9 video files has a camera name. So I added manually that in the Davinci. The Sync is still not perfect (at least it aligned to some extent of 3 out of 4 Z9s on 4 out of 5 days) - we are doing some manual tuning at this point.

It took 5 Hours to sync manually one of those performances in 3 out of six cameras. If I need to sync all the >5000 files from ~100 performances, it takes ~1000 hrs. At least this workaround will save several hundred hours (if not ~1000 ;-) )

 

[NickZ2016]

Ya you could jam the TC but if you let the GPS set the camera time wouldn't that be good enough?

 

[skmadapatu]

I just use the audio to sync multiple video cameras in Davinci Resolve. Seems to work quite well.

Please note that these are NOT continuous recordings (of ~120Hrs performance over 5 days) to 100% rely on audio sync alone. Around 4.5 Lakh (during 5 days ) people attended it in ~3 cent location. We were shooting it in such a crowded location is less than perfect situation. Each of those cameramen was shooting shorter clips when he got the right perspectives. Also, many of those performances' drum (Chenda) beats are similar. There are >5000 clips and the audio sync will go crazy.

 

[shuncheung]

Ya you could jam the TC but if you let the GPS set the camera time wouldn't that be good enough?

In Davinci Resolve, you can time sync multiple videos in a few options. Time code is one of those but camera time isn’t. I just use the sound tracks since I video orchestra performances so that it is relatively easy to match the sound.

 

[skmadapatu]

You should try asking in the Resolve forum on the Blackmagic site. If anybody knows it'll likely be somebody there.

Didn't you use the GPS to set the times?

Thank you Nick!

I don't this is the issue with Blackmagic. We tried FCP & Premier Pro too. It is an issue with Nikon Z9 not mentioning the CAMERA NAME in the Vidoe file.

Three of the cameras were synced with time code - even then while synching the the footage is still not aligning perfectly (we are looking into manually aligning those finetuning). One of that cameras was messed up (it looks like one of the videographer reset) and showed the December 2018 date.)

--
Camera Specialization: Nikon Z9, Sony A1, D850, D5, D810, D800E, Sony Nex-7, Nikon D4S
Lenses: Nikon NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S,
Nikon NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II, 24-70mm f/2.8, 14mm F2.8, 150-600MM, Macro Lenses

 

[skmadapatu]

You should try asking in the Resolve forum on the Blackmagic site. If anybody knows it'll likely be somebody there.

Didn't you use the GPS to set the times?

There are special tools to sync the timecode among multiple cameras. For someone with 3, 4 Z9 bodies, it is worthwhile to invest in one of those. E.g.: Atomos UltraSync BLUE

I don't have one myself, as I am not that deep into video, yet.

Thank you for your kind reply.

I had Atomos UltraSync BLUE. 3 out of 4 cameras we synced.

As I mentioned earlier, it was primarily an issue of NOT capturing the camera name in the metadata of those video files.

 

[halfmanhalfbiscuit]

You should try asking in the Resolve forum on the Blackmagic site. If anybody knows it'll likely be somebody there.

Didn't you use the GPS to set the times?

Thank you Nick!

I don't this is the issue with Blackmagic. We tried FCP & Premier Pro too. It is an issue with Nikon Z9 not mentioning the CAMERA NAME in the Vidoe file.

I don't think that is the problem. When I tested this, camera name was not set in my video file, and I could sync via timecode just fine.

 

[halfmanhalfbiscuit]

Ya you could jam the TC but if you let the GPS set the camera time wouldn't that be good enough?

It should be, but it's surprisingly complicated to figure out. When you reset the timecode, you can reset it to a manual time, to all zeros, or to the current camera time at the time that you push the button. If you press the OK or shutter release button at different times when setting the time code on different cameras, the starting time code will be different if you leave the count-up method to "REC"

If you have 4 cameras, you can set one of them as the controller, and the rest of them to remotes. That will allow you to then sync the camera time across all cameras, accounting fortify GPS time differences. Once you've done that you don't need to be in commander/remote mode any more.

Then, select the count up method to "FREE" so that once set it will continue incrementing even if the camera is off - that will allow the cameras to remain in sync time-code wise between recording clips and even when switched off. I've no idea if it uses more battery or not. Finally, to set it correctly, you need to select "Current time" for "Timecode origin". Do not select "Reset" after that, because it will reset the time code to all zeros, which is not what you want.

So now the cameras will all have the same time code, and it will keep incrementing even when the cameras are turned off.

You can then individually shoot different clips with different cameras, or you can leave them in commander/remote modes and use the commander (or a remote) to start and stop recording from all of the cameras. Note that to do so, you need to change the mapping of the shutter release in video mode to start/stop recording.

 

[halfmanhalfbiscuit]

You should try asking in the Resolve forum on the Blackmagic site. If anybody knows it'll likely be somebody there.

Didn't you use the GPS to set the times?

There are special tools to sync the timecode among multiple cameras. For someone with 3, 4 Z9 bodies, it is worthwhile to invest in one of those. E.g.: Atomos UltraSync BLUE

I don't have one myself, as I am not that deep into video, yet.

Thank you for your kind reply.

I had Atomos UltraSync BLUE. 3 out of 4 cameras we synced.

See my description of how to sync time codes across multiple Z9 and Z8 bodies earlier in this. It's kinda neat

As I mentioned earlier, it was primarily an issue of NOT capturing the camera name in the metadata of those video files.

I'm not convinced that's the real problem, because I can successfully create synced Multicam clips without having a camera name set in metadata.

 

[skmadapatu]

You should try asking in the Resolve forum on the Blackmagic site. If anybody knows it'll likely be somebody there.

Didn't you use the GPS to set the times?

Thank you Nick!

I don't this is the issue with Blackmagic. We tried FCP & Premier Pro too. It is an issue with Nikon Z9 not mentioning the CAMERA NAME in the Vidoe file.

I don't think that is the problem. When I tested this, camera name was not set in my video file, and I could sync via timecode just fine.

Thank you, AJ, for your reply.

At least half a dozen Davinci/FCP/Premier Pro professionals spend days and tested it over a week before I posted it in DPReview.

Without a camera name, the synched tracks go crazy (identify hundreds of cameras), or everything synched to one track. Here is the result after changing the camera name in the metadata.





--
Camera Specialization: Nikon Z9, Sony A1, D850, D5, D810, D800E, Sony Nex-7, Nikon D4S
Lenses: Nikon NIKKOR Z 70-200mm f/2.8 VR S,
Nikon NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S, Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II, 24-70mm f/2.8, 14mm F2.8, 150-600MM, Macro Lenses

 

[halfmanhalfbiscuit]

You should try asking in the Resolve forum on the Blackmagic site. If anybody knows it'll likely be somebody there.

Didn't you use the GPS to set the times?

Thank you Nick!

I don't this is the issue with Blackmagic. We tried FCP & Premier Pro too. It is an issue with Nikon Z9 not mentioning the CAMERA NAME in the Vidoe file.

I don't think that is the problem. When I tested this, camera name was not set in my video file, and I could sync via timecode just fine.

Thank you, AJ, for your reply.

At least half a dozen Davinci/FCP/Premier Pro professionals spend days and tested it over a week before I posted it in DPReview.

Without a camera name, the synched tracks go crazy (identify hundreds of cameras), or everything synched to one track. Here is the result after changing the camera name in the metadata.

Hmm. Well, I only tried with 2 cameras and no clips had the camera name in the metadata - perhaps it gets more confused when there are more cameras?

 

[areallygrumpyoldsod]

You should try asking in the Resolve forum on the Blackmagic site. If anybody knows it'll likely be somebody there.

Didn't you use the GPS to set the times?

Thank you Nick!

I don't this is the issue with Blackmagic. We tried FCP & Premier Pro too. It is an issue with Nikon Z9 not mentioning the CAMERA NAME in the Vidoe file.

I don't think that is the problem. When I tested this, camera name was not set in my video file, and I could sync via timecode just fine.

Thank you, AJ, for your reply.

At least half a dozen Davinci/FCP/Premier Pro professionals spend days and tested it over a week before I posted it in DPReview.

Without a camera name, the synched tracks go crazy (identify hundreds of cameras), or everything synched to one track. Here is the result after changing the camera name in the metadata.

In summary can’t one just add a camera name to each clip in the media browser in DVR AND this fixes it? Or is that too simple?

--
areallygrumpyoldsod
Nikon and Hasselblad shooter -- wildlife and and -- https://www.andymillerphoto.co.uk/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/ajm057/