Syncing footage from multiple camcorders.

[x2x3x2]

Hey guys,

Say I have 3 camcorders shooting an event, Cam-1, Cam-2 and Cam-3. These are all consumer grade camcorders such as the Panasonic HS900.

Cam-1 is set stationary on a tripod and shoots the entire set continuously, say from 1pm-3pm.
Cam-2 and Cam-3 are handheld and shoot intermittently between the same 1pm-3pm period.

So the resulting files would be a 2 hour long video from Cam-1, and multiple shorter videos from Cam-2 and Cam-3.
My question is, if possible, how can I get the footage from all 3 camcorders to align in the timeline in an NLE without having to manually arrange them?

If the manual method is the only possible way, is there any preferred method which can be recommended.

Thanks in advance!

[poisondeathray]

You can try pluraleyes

http://www.singularsoftware.com/pluraleyes.html

[2Bdecided]

One way is to shoot all three cams continuously - even when you don't want to (i.e. just shoot with them pointing at the floor!).

Cheers,
David.

[x2x3x2]

Uhuh I was thinking that too, however only the static cam will be tethered to a mains power supply while the other two will be running on batts. Prolly alright for short events though.

Plural eyes seems pretty good, wonder how it manages to sync the clips so intelligently. Does it synch by matching audio? Guess not since the audio from the diff cams would be diff anyway... or is it reading timesamps metadata on the files themselves? If so then I suppose all the cams have to be set at the absolute same date. Curious on how it works so well.