P2 cards or Firestore for HVX?

Pro Swooping Tour

Pro Swooping Tour

Active member
I just bought a HVX 200 to go with my DVX 100B and need to know which recording devices are better, cheaper, easier to use with the HVX 200.....the Firestore or P2 cards?

Are there other recording choices for the HVX 200? I need to purchase a recording device for my HVX camera soon. Please let me know ASAP....

JIM SLATON
 
I got one of the first ones. It is being replaced this week by the vendor. I have finally gotten the thing working well and Matt at Firestore has been awesome in helping iron some of the version 1 issues, which are to be expected. All the issues I've had have either been fixed or are being dealth with. I do think it's a great product and will co-exist well with the CinePorter. The cards are fantastic as well. I have 2 4 gig cards, the Firestore and a Mac with FCP that we record directly into. I really think you need all three media storage solutions. especially if you're doing long take shoots.

Don Wilson
AmericanaMediaInc.com
 
I'm personally waiting for the Cineporter, but the Firestore has the advantage of being usable with other cameras because it does not use the P2 slot to connect -- you can use the FS-100 with anything that puts out DV25.

I realize that most people here probably don't care about that, but it's a nice feature to have.
 
Firestore or P2???

Firestore or P2???

We have been using a couple Firestore FS-100s for about a month now. Here is my take on the product at this time.

It works great when we shoot 720p60i. I can get a little over 100 minutes on the drive. The clips end up being just under 15 MB/sec or close to 1 GB/min. The problem is that I really would like to shoot 720p24pn NATIVE which comes out at about 6 MB/sec. The Firestore is not currently capable of capturing 24pn because of some technical issue with not being able to transfer 24pn through the HVX200's firewire port.

Now I don't know if that is something that can be fixed by a firmware update to the drive or the camera, but as of now, it is not possible. And it may never be a capability on this camera. This is a big issue for me because I could get 4.5 hours on the FS-100 IF it could do 720p24pn.

So now I find myself at a crossroads. If you figure that drive space costs about $1/GB (I know you can find it cheeper, but work with me here), then by shooting in 720p60i I end up having to pay $1/min in drive space. If I were able to shoot 720p24pn onto the FS-100, I would only end up paying about $.40/min in drive space. Plus, in a networked storage environment, I can get far more streams at 6MB/sec. than if I have to stick with the 15MB/sec that the 720p60i files from the FS-100 take up.

So now I am considering investing in a number of 4GB P2 cards (3 per camera) at about $500 a pop. A laptop with a slot for a P2 is a cheeper choice than another FS-100 or even Panasonic's own P2Store storage device. But then I either need to have a PA on every shoot helping to pull P2's and dump them to the laptop before the others fill up. Quite the wealth of things to consider in order to make sure you make the best purchase based on your shooting style and needs.

Let me know if I need to clear any of that up.

-Mark.
 
I don't think it is fair to Firestore to say that it has a number of problems. My issues with the Firestore, which will appear in an upcoming article, simply revolve around its size, form factor and awarkedness in mounting. But these can be overcome in favor of the extended recording time. I like the concept of Cineporter with P2, but there is no Cineporter yet. There is no CitiDisk HD yet. So, FS-100 is the only show in town. Can you work with just P2 cards? Sure, it depends upon your workflow. In some workflows, you need the extended recording time. I'm in Israel right now doing some run-and-gun documentary work by myself. There is no way that I could rotate P2 cards in this scenario. Firestore is a great alternative. As far as 24pN, that's a Panasonic thing. The question is whether it is technically possible. Moreover, the only reason for native mode is to save space on the P2 card. You can record 24p to the FS-100 and let your NLE remove the pulldown.

Greetings, all, from Jerusalem...

Ned Soltz
 
Since the software updates, the FS-100 quircks are about gone. I've been using it and love it. No real problems. Just get the longer life optional battery.
 
id agree with BenB - since the firmware upgrade i have not seen any problems with dropouts or glitches like before. Batter life is a pain and the extended battery does not fit in the camera mount.
However i have some stuff I shot before the firmware upgrade to edit right now that is horrible trying to sync it to my timeline. This is 90 minutes of live music with so many drops and repeated segments and all sorts of weird stuff its taking its time to do... Arrgh !
I also recently shot some stuff in RAW dv mode accidently - my MAC cannot understand it and i just see coloured-snow. Awaiting more info from Focus on some way to convert these RAW dv files into something i can read with FCP/QuickTime. At least with P2 cards you cant really go wrong with the recording format - unless you want variable frame rate 720p PAL (25/50) as no support in FCP yet from the P2 or FS100 and no 720pn on FS100 either so you will need P2 for native mode.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top