Does the FS-100 seem like a bad product?

well you guys have alot of faith. Its kinda like turning your record tally light off on your screen and just crossing your fingers that your recording.... yikes.

I have a history with direct to disk devices, and there has been may times where i have pressed record and the device hasnt followed suit.

I think the zacuto rig is a much better solution... just my opinion of course.
 
Jarred,

;-) The Zacuto rig looks like it mght be difficult to deal with in a hand-held mode. I agree it looks great on a tripod.

Best,

Jan
 
I've been down in hurricane ravaged South Mississippi shooting a feature doc using all possible recording media with the HVX's we have for three weeks. The Firestore is the least favorite by far of the entire drew. It is a nightmare when imported into FCP as it makes a new clip every 2 minutes 18 seconds. We've also experienced the camera telling us the Firestore is in record when it in fact NOT. So, in response to this thread I find it impossible to use a device where you cannot physically tell the FS is in record. Trust me on this one.

The longer life battery is great and the hot shoe mount is good as well, but try and see this thing in sunlight...... We made a shadow box that helps a bit but the blue is wrong wrong wrong. I find it hard to believe the beta testers really went into the battle of shooting a big project and gave this thing their blessings. It needs a lot of updating. I hope the CinePorter people are listening.

Don Wilson
AmericanaMediaInc.com
 
I agree that Cineporter seems to be a better solution based on specs than FS-100. However, the choice at the moment is either between P2 Store and FS-100. I'll have a Zacuto rig next week and at the very least will see how it feels on my DVRig Pro.

The only shots I've actually missed so far with the Firestore have been times when I tried to push record too quickly after stopping a prior record. The FS-100 needs a bit of time to finish writing to disk. I then get a 1394 Disconnect flashing in viewfinder of HVX.

Ned
 
Cut2muz said:
We've also experienced the camera telling us the Firestore is in record when it in fact NOT. So, in response to this thread I find it impossible to use a device where you cannot physically tell the FS is in record. Trust me on this one.
Don Wilson
AmericanaMediaInc.com
Click to expand...

you dont need to tell me twice Don.. i have had the exact same experience, and not just with the firestore , which is why i am saying there isn't a hope in hell i would use the firestore without being able to see the screen. The red light on the side is pretty accurate, but I wish it would change yellowish when on pause instead of staying red and just blinking.

Again.. nothing against the firestore, im just talking about mounting the firestore under the camera, its not the safest solution currently.
 
Im half way through testing the firestore though.. i just did the rock and roll shake shake shake test while recording.. the firestore made a funny noise at one point but absolutely zero dropouts.. not bad.
 
Just unpacked the 1950 mAP battery and mounted on the Firestore. Charging now. Will shoot with it tomorrow and see how much life it adds. Meanwhile, I definitely think it is necessary to add some velcro to the back of the FS-100 to secure it to the velcro in the Jimmybox. It just did not feel secure to me. Larger battery naturally adds a bit of bulk to the unit. Yes, Jarred, et. al., I would much rather have a totally solid-state acquisition solution. Hard drives scare me. I just think back to the micro drives for the early generation of digital cameras before the larger and cheaper chips. I think it was someone on this forum who said: "You only got to drop them once." When I shot outdoors last week with the FS-100, the screen was impossible to read in daylight so I just depended upon the blinking red light.

My dream for son-of-HVX-200 would be eliminating the tape drive and including an on-board removable hard drive with interface to P2 subsystem (in other words, a built-in Cineporter). I for one think it would be worth the extra $2K which I figure would be what it would take to accomplish this.

Slightly OT, here, maybe we need a Wish List thread in HVX forum.

Ned Soltz
 
love the hard drive idea.. basically what the RED camera is doing off the top. Would solve alot of issues.. but i must say, im pretty happy with the p2 store workflow.. its a really good product. Just cant wait till those 16gb cards come out then we are all laughing.
 
Will the extended batteries fit in the holder for the FS-100? or do they make one that will fit?
 
Don't know about holder and FS-100 since I returned the holder prior to receiving the extended battery. It is perhaps 1/8" thicker than with standard battery if that helps. My presumption is that it would fit.

Ned
 
I'll sound in on this one, as I've been doing a lot of feild recording. I feel the need to verify what's on my FS-100 screen as much as I used to have to verify the time code was actually running on my DVX. I don't trust ANY camera at any time during a shoot that is paying my house note!

I like the JimmyBox solution, but it is difficult to get to the unit to read the menus when I do. And I do a lot.

I have also been using the 3 hour batter with the FS-100 for about two weeks now. The lifespan is fantastic!

I have no problems with my FS-100 at all, have been shooting a LOT in the field the past three weeks. I only wish there were a better mounting solution. Most of my shots are with a CineSaddle, which is fine. I use the belt clip to attach it to one of the Saddle's loops. But hand held, well, the belt clip swings and make a loud clicking sound. Need a good hand held solution. I guess I may have to stick myself with the JimmyBox.

Guess we'll see what Matt has to say when he gets back, I guess. I heard a rumor that Focus is working with the JimmyBox folks on an FS-100 specific solution. That would rock!

As for the hot shoe mount, that's a left over from the FS-4. Even Focus recommends the JimmyBox and NOT their own hot shoe mount. Just leave that old thang behind!
 
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Was speaking last night with someone who has 3 JVC 100's and the comparable Firestore. Seems that in the JVC configuration, there is 2-way communication with the camera so he can see recording time remaining in viewfinder. I don't recall whether he said anything about battery indicator.

Ned
 
Ned the HVX is the same way with the firestore, you can see on the flipout a little record or pause icon that is supposed to tell you what the firestore is doing.. problem is its not 100% accurate.
 
Hmmm... all I noticed was just a record icon to indicate that the Firestore was recording but I did not notice time remaining or battery remaining.
 
The big question though, how do we resolve the new clip every 2 min 18 sec of record time? I have clips that have a frame or two missing at the new file cross over spot. This is a really big issue. Just wait till post when you have a jump frame and an audio pop and you'll get what I'm saying. The file limit Fat 32 issue has to go away or my FS100 does. What a pain this thing has been in the real gurellia shoot world!!

Don Wilson
AmericanaMediaInc.com
 
nsoltz said:
Hmmm... all I noticed was just a record icon to indicate that the Firestore was recording but I did not notice time remaining or battery remaining.
Click to expand...

yes... you are right, no dice on the hvx with that data.
 
Don,

Since the FS100 is FAT32, we're not going to be able to overcome that 2 gig file limit, which translates, as you note, to 2:18. Or, perhaps we could overcome it if Mac OS handled NTFS.
 
Hello,

The HVX200 does display the status of the FS-100 in the viewfinder (e.g. record etc.), but as has been pointed out, there is no time remaining on disk. We do display time remaining on the JVC GY-HD100's LCD when used with the FireStore DR-HD100, but this feature needed to be added on the camera's side. I am curious about Jarred's comment of it not being accurate...what are you seeing Jarred?

As for the 2GB file size limitation, this is the side effect of a FAT32 disk format. We do support spanning clips in the XML file (according to the P2 spec), so it is up to the NLE to see this and link the files. Have you run the new FS-100 firmware update yet? You should not be missing frames between 2GB boundaries.

Hope that helps,

Matt McEwen
 
All I can add here is that I have clips that exceed 3 minutes on the FS-100 and notice absolutely no glitch whatsoever imported into FCP, even knowing as I do that the FAT32 files system has split the file. I would still feel a lot better if it were all one file and if Mac could read NTFS.

Ned
 
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