What is the most economical way to shoot HD?

lawriejaffa

lawriejaffa

Veteran
Yep i am in a mind-seething fit of confusion and er 'churlish' pain lol

I have an HVX (which i got to future proof myself) and have been shooting SD merrily for the few clients i get lol. I am now wanting to shoot HD for personal projects and some clients (none of this work is particularly run&gun or ultra-fancy work, i cater for the discount market of corporate video - in a generally poorer area of my country *ahem*)

Anyway, I need to get a fairly effective HD workflow set up, but i don't have that many pennies.

Now perhaps you guys can help! I have about £1500 (which doesn't get me that far.)

I live in the UK and the choices are,

1) Getting a FS-100 (im not sure what version its updated to at the mo, its from a uk retailer) and thats £1529 inclusive

2) Getting HD Rack 2.0, and a laptop for roughly the same price. (I do not at present have a laptop you see, but how have low budget filmmakers got on with this kind of a setup?!?) - i have seen HD rack considerably cheaper on some retailers than the actual site price?

Thats about it, P2 cards really need a laptop for a decent workflow and in the UK 1500 would probably get me nothing really (okay it would get me 1 8gb card and maybe a 4gb card, but ive no laptop to offload them onto anyway.)

*falls on knees*

Oh my comrades, what help can ye offer me?
 
You also might want to check if Panny is offering the free 8 gig card in the UK like they are here for those who bought it from October through end of December.


The laptop is the most economical and functional approach. You can get by without DVrack until you get it. It's also kind of clunky and reserved to studio shoots for the most part.... You could get a P2 card combo with a cheap laptop as the other option. You wouldn't need an expensive one. Just one with a DVD burner and a PCMCIA cardbus....


Good luck and both have advantages. I personally bought an extra P2 card and the P2store after a couple of field shoots.. where a laptop was just kind of a pain. It depends upon waht you shoot and how demanding your clients are...


Where in the UK are ya?
 
Yup im in Fife, in Scotland, tho i got my HVX as an ex demo (basically someone who probably opted for a JVC cos they got scared of the extra stuff they needed for the HVX) from http://www.proav.co.uk

Hey Justyn I couldnt stretch ur brain for another mo and say what kinda laptops i should give a peak for that purpose? I normally shop at scan.co.uk or aria.co.uk -

At the mo P2 8gb cards are £800 from proav or creativevideo.co.uk

Of course id be like a jumpy fox offloading a 4gb card all the time hmm, it makes me wonder if i should go for the firestore but at 1500£ (compared to the prices in the USA) its just depressing isnt it lol

I'm also going nuts in my head thinking should i wait for a cineporter before a bigger investment?

I had thought of getting a laptop and recording it streaming into it, (like rack) or instead cos i can use of edius v4, but then, to get a laptop decent enuf thats gonna cost a lot (for a temporary solution.)

Argh... i'll go check out this panasonic promotion tho? is it just on their main site?
 
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take a long hard look at the firestore 100. its been proven in the field, and once the v3.0 update comes out it will be really top notch.
 
Righto well I know u love ur fs100 Ben! lol

Can you recommend the fs100 setup i should get then if i buy it, it would comprise of the unit itself obviously, and what about this battery issue? Is it a basic must to get the longer life one and is that an exclusive type of battery or? Also if there firmware version is v1 say (this is the UK afterall) then do i have to pay to get it to v2, and then again for v3?

Oh and a right angle firewire cable right ? hehe
 
Firmware 2.0.1 is free on the web site. Version 3.0 will be $39 US.

I have written several times that the battery issue can be solved by the Tekkeon MP3400, which is a Lithium Hydride battery weighing less than 1lb (that's less than 500g grams) and which can power the FS-100, a light, a notebook... just about anything up to 19v. Of course, it can't power all of these things simultaneously. It is the best $125 US you could spend. But I will also say that you might find that the higher-capacity FS-100 battery is worth the $199 US. I have the high capacity battery + the Tekkeon (which also charges the battery). That's good for a day's shooting.

Ned Soltz
 
Just get the extra long life battery from Focus, it'll out last the DVXuser battery, it lasts a super long time. Then you charge both up, you have more hours of battery life than you'd ever need.
 
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