My real life experiences with a Firestore FS-100 ...

H

HD Studio Belgium

Well-known member
The good bits.

It works ! Yes after no more then 60 minutes, going through the manual, the menus make sense, are logic and are almost as simple to use as an iPod (without the scrolling wheel then) ... Connected to the HVX it records DVCPRO HD out of the box. It copies the timecode from the camera ... WHILE THERE IS A P2 CARD INSERTED ... So what without a P2 card ... you go into the menu of the HVX ... other functions and activate the 1394 backup mode and the recording/pause trigger controls. And yes it works ...

Finished ? ... You go to the utilities menu on the FS100 and activate the P2 organise function ... creating a recognisable folder or Final Cut Pro.

Computer connection ... go to HDD Mode menu and activate DD Drive ... yes the firestore mounts and you can import P2 files into FCP ...

So ... is this the perfect unit ?

I don't know ... It works ... yes ... but ...

1- It feels fragile as a unit ... some rubber sides like the Panasonic P2 'dump' unit would have been welcome.

2-Why is there not some hotshoe adapter for the HVX ... ? The supplied beltclip is no good. The little clip at the back does somehow fit into the hotshoe adapter , but I can't control my recording and zoom functions anymore ... I will need to add some 'velcro' tags to make it attached. ... No ... you can't just leave it in your accessory bag ... with a long 1394 cable because it will become very hot!

3- Timecode problems ... When used as a direct recording device ( no P2 .. no Tape) it gives me the strangest timecode as .mov files ... they all start the same code and have different endings ! Maybe me ... I will post if I find my own mistake ... if any.

4- talking about .mov files ... yes they seem to exist ... when you ask FCP to import P2 files from the folder on the Firestore where they are supposed to be ... BUT ! ... When you open the file yourself it looks empty ! Explain that one ! And also in the P2
FCP Import browser ... no thumbnails appear ...

So as I said ... it works ... but ... It sure feels I bought something because there is no aletrnative at the moment ... It does not give me the feeling I bought some well built piece of equipment of 2300 Euro ... Rather feels like I must settle for this 5400 RPM Harddisk in a plastic enclosure ...

But ... hey it works ... I could have bought 16 minutes DVC Pro HD Time on 2 8GB P2 cards ... but I didn't !

Hope this was useful ... It was my first post ! Greetings from the old city of Brugge in Belgium.
 
Hi,

Thanks for posting your experiences. Here is a couple of answers for you.

We do make a hot shoe mount for the unit ($129) which positions it on a swivel mount. Most have elected to use a solution such as the Jimmybox (www.jimmybox.com) and there is also some other mount solutions coming.

According to Panasonic, if you wish to use RECRUN TC on the HVX200, you must have a P2 card in the camera for TC to output properly over 1394. If you do not have a P2 card, you will need to use FREE RUN mode.

When you import clips from FS-100 to FCP, it is actually copying and converting the file to QuickTime on your FCP scratch disk. It does not write the file back to FS-100, hence why you don't see it. Also, a new update to the FS-100 firmware is coming which supports thumbnails...should be in the next week or so.

Hope that helps,

Matt McEwen
 
Hi Matt,

Is there any news in the blocking/dropout issue. I have run the firmware update that put out to correct that, but it has not fixed the issue on my FS100? I have contacted the reseller I bought it from and it will have to go back, but if you have added more fixes in the upcoming firmware update I will wait.

Thanks
Mark
 
Mark,

After you loaded the new software to FS-100, did you do a system reset (in the Utilities menu)? This is usually the issue if you are still seeing the drop-outs.

Matt
 
Hi Matt,

I followed the instructions to the letter and did the system reset after the update. Is it worth running the process again?

Thanks
Mark
 
Hi Matt,

I am impressed with your feedback. I figured out the Time Code issue ... my fault. With no P2 card inserted ...set to Free Run I can indeed generate a sense making time code. The Mounting plate is something I will look into or construct a metal base plate myself. And for the thumbnail explanation, I will look forward to the firmware update. It would be extremely handy to be able to select which clips to import!Yesterday I had my first day of over 90 minutes of recording and over 300 short clips ... the unit worked perfectly! It sure did save me lots of time!

Keep up the good work.
 
Hi Matt,

Ok, ran the latest update and was very, very methodical in making sure I did a system reset at the end. Have just done some run and gun tests and there are no dropouts, so a very happy customer I am :) Thanks for persevering with me!

In another note, I noticed that the firmware update on the site has a new update in it for an Avid import issue - is this the issue where some MXF files show in Explorer but not in the Media Tool?

Thanks again
Mark,
 
Correct...I am just about to post an announcement here.

A new version of FS-100 firmware is now available for download from http://www.focusinfo.com/support/downloads.asp (select Software Downloads, and it is currently the top item). This new version solves an issue for Avid users where under some circumstances, the P2 Global Clip ID was duplicated causing the Avid Media Tool to only see certain clips. This version also has the earlier FireWire bridge updater fix included (remember to do a System Reset on FS-100 once you have loaded this version!).

Thanks,

Matt
 
Matt, I just got the handle (hot shoe) mount kit from Focus. It's a much better system that I was expecting. Love the swivel! It's actually very nice! And unlike the JimmyBox, I can easily access the menus during production.

A note for our FCP poster here, FCP places the imported QT movie files into the Capture Scratch folder of your Scratch Drive. Once you ingest into FCP, erase the FS-100, it's done, you now have QT files to work with on your local hard drive.
 
Matthew McEwen said:
This new version solves an issue for Avid users where under some circumstances, the P2 Global Clip ID was duplicated causing the Avid Media Tool to only see certain clips.
Click to expand...

Great news. Thanks for the quick turnaround.
 
I just did a corporate shoot with the Firestore. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to source any kind of mount in time, so we made do with the belt clip. I generally agree with the comments of the first poster - on the whole, I've been impressed with the performance of the unit. It's quite a mind shift; for me, the idea of shooting to a disk tethered over Firewire will just take a while to bed in, but as I say, my overwhelming feelings are positive.

We shot in DVCPRO50 16:9 and one thing I noticed that having ingested to FCP, the clips weren't tagged as anamorphic, whereas stuff shot to P2 is correctly tagged. No major shakes - just thought I would mention it in order to share the experience.

The shoot required a really quick turnaround and the benefits of P2 and the FS-100 are proving immense. Furthermore, the firmware updates from Focus are a really positive sign too.
 
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