My Firestore FS-100 experience so far

Pascal Parvex

Pascal Parvex

Well-known member
First, I should point out, that I still could not get my hands on one. I especially e-mailed Focus Enhancement before release to know, if they will have delivery shortages. And they told me, I quote, "And yes we will be able to meet the demands of all of our customers"

So the Fiercestore has been out for weeks know, but I'm still not able to get one. I looked again, as often before, on ebay, to see the P2 cards for sale, but as I saw the price, I quickly came to my friggin' senses. Don't listen to the P2 crowd, they spent thousands of Dollars on their P2 workflow, just to get some few, meager minutes of recording time, and now they are like people with tattoos: They start to hate themselves, and try to drag other people into their dark world.

I'm also not afraid about the Firestore not beeing a "serious" solution. I mean, those 100 GB of storage do not cost two grands because of the fancy casing, but because Focus Enhancement put some serious thought into it to develop a pro tool. They should maybe add a foolproof device to firmly attach the firewire cable to both the camera and the Firestore. And is it true, that it does break all recordings into pieces of two minutes and eighteen seconds? That sounds annoying. And you people waiting for the Cineporter: Have you seen the size of that thing?

God, I so wish I had a Firestore FS-100.
 
Be glad. One user here actually had one that started SMOKING when he plugged it in to his computer.

Think I'll wait for the Cineporter.
 
Pascal_Parvex said:
They start to hate themselves, and try to drag other people into their dark world.


God, I so wish I had a Firestore FS-100.
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Darth P2: "Pascal.... I am your father!"

How can you describe "your firestore experience so far" when you've never had a firestore?

I hope you do get one, and tell us of your experience.

I'm not going to pass judgement on the Firestore just yet. There might be glitches, but the product must be viable... they've been selling them for a long time.

I like my p2.
 
stabwound said:
I hope you do get one, and tell us of your experience.
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Just a little irony as I could not get my hands on one so far. And it's about my experience with the Firestore without having had one. And yes, I would gladly take a returned Firestore, as long as Focus Enhancement has fixed the problem/put out the fire and upgraded the firmware.
 
I quickly came to my friggin' senses. Don't listen to the P2 crowd, they spent thousands of Dollars on their P2 workflow, just to get some few, meager minutes of recording time
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A few RELIABLE minutes, and with a P2 store it's not so bad.

I'm counting on the Cinestore. I've decided not to touch the Firestore with a Ten Gig pole.
 
Pascal_Parvex said:
Just a little irony as I could not get my hands on one so far. And it's about my experience with the Firestore without having had one. And yes, I would gladly take a returned Firestore, as long as Focus Enhancement has fixed the problem/put out the fire and upgraded the firmware.
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It's very simple...It either works or it doesn't....It doesn't
Here's what my returned firestore will get you...unexplainable lost footage with a jump in timecode...Many dropouts....A drive with a connection that is fragile, and a drive that doesn't like humidity, that my laptop seems to do fine in....Try to explain a software glitch to your clients that just paid you alot of money because of your reel and reputation....I cannot....I do this for a living, and I charge alot....My next money is on the cineporter...Even if it's the size of a Buick
 
Pascal_Parvex said:
Just a little irony as I could not get my hands on one so far. And it's about my experience with the Firestore without having had one. And yes, I would gladly take a returned Firestore, as long as Focus Enhancement has fixed the problem/put out the fire and upgraded the firmware.
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Oh... heh heh.

I totally missed the irony part.

Sorry.

Sometimes iron goes right over my head.
 
They are a good company and will prolly figure it out. Too bad these fixes are always at the expense of the early and devout supporters.



ash =o)
 
BigMike said:
A few RELIABLE minutes, and with a P2 store it's not so bad.

I'm counting on the Cinestore. I've decided not to touch the Firestore with a Ten Gig pole.
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That's a funny quote. I might have to steal that one! I mean come on... isn't this made by videonics or some crap like that... maybe the video toaster peeps?
 
I'm the firestore will be great once they solve whatever problems they've got. I'm not sure if all units have problems or only a few units owned by loud complainers.

I was ready to pull the trigger and buy one, but my G-Tech G-RAID Pro (also delayed release) was suddenly available and I upgraded that to the 2 TB model.

Had to cancel my Firestore purchase, after that I started seeing the problems a few people had. Best of luck to them. The Firestore has a lot of potential!
 
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Theodore_Lederman said:
It's very simple...It either works or it doesn't....It doesn't
Here's what my returned firestore will get you...unexplainable lost footage with a jump in timecode...Many dropouts....A drive with a connection that is fragile, and a drive that doesn't like humidity, that my laptop seems to do fine in....Try to explain a software glitch to your clients that just paid you alot of money because of your reel and reputation....I cannot....I do this for a living, and I charge alot....My next money is on the cineporter...Even if it's the size of a Buick
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Was this before or after the firmware update? And what about the Firestore breaking the recordings up into pieces of 2:18?
 
I'm using a Firestore all the time at the moment, and quite honestly wouldn't be without it. It saves a huge amount of time.

But I'm using it with an SD 2/3" camera (DVCAM), and hence may not be typical of most on this board who are intending to use it with a HVX to get over the P2 storage limitations.

Firstly, it does have problems. Occasionally a clip fails to import, though the details are in the bin - just no media! For me, that's an inconvienience, just requiring capturing the missing clip off the tape backup. Used as the only recording medium that would have been a disaster last week - the clip which failed to import was the main interview!

Secondly, it fits on to a large camera quite well without much affecting the balance etc. The same can't really be said of it with any 1/3" camera - with the possible exception of the JVC HD100. The suggestion is to attach it with a belt clip, but that still leaves the irritation of the Firewire cable, with not the most rugged of connectors. (Which may well be the cause of the non imported clips, in spite of taking great care with strain relief etc.)

Hence my Firestore experience so far has been wouldn't be without it for my current work. But wouldn't touch it if it was intended to be the sole means of recording. With a tape camera, it also gives me a tape copy of the rushes without any extra work, as required by the client.
 
harddrive said:
I'm using a Firestore all the time at the moment, and quite honestly wouldn't be without it. It saves a huge amount of time.

But I'm using it with an SD 2/3" camera (DVCAM), and hence may not be typical of most on this board who are intending to use it with a HVX to get over the P2 storage limitations.
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But you don't have a FS-100, more likely a FS 3 or 4, right?
 
Hello,

Thought I would jump in here. There were some early FS-100 units that were effected by an incorrect factory setting which was causing the drop-outs. This was fixed with a new version update about two weeks ago. I have posted the announcement (which was listed elsewhere on this forum) of the upgrade to the base of this message. Regarding availability, the demand for this product has been very strong and we are working full-speed to clear the back log. We do apologize if a unit is not immediately available.

Hope this helps,

Matt McEwen

FS-100 Update Now Available
Recently there have been reports from some FS-100 users of drop-outs during recordings. Unfortunately some units shipped from our production plant with an incorrect FireWire bridge chip configuration. Focus apologizes for this problem and inconvenience, and we assure you that these drop-outs are in no way related to drive performance or future reliability, but rather a simple software error which resulted in a buffer overrun.

We have corrected this problem and posted a software update here:

http://www.focusinfo.com/support/downloads.asp

We recommend that ALL FS-100 users load this updated software, as there is no harm in doing so even if your unit is set correctly. Please download the new software (follow the software update instructions on the READ ME enclosed in the zip file) and then do a System Reset (follow instructions on page 72 of the User Guide).

Best regards,

Focus Enhancements
 
Matthew McEwen said:
Regarding availability, the demand for this product has been very strong and we are working full-speed to clear the back log.
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Any estimates, when the demand can be met? I mean, are we talking about two weeks, two months, half a year? How many are on backorder? Five thousand?
 
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