New Poll - FS100 or P2?

New Poll - FS100 or P2?


  • Total voters
    70
  • Poll closed .

MDKfilms

Well-known member
I wanted to take a poll and see who was using the FS100 and who was using P2. I am on the fence about which way to go taking into account each ones pros and cons. Jump in and vote.

Also, would like explanation for your choice. Thanks.

EDIT; Maybe I should have made this poll for MAC users as it would seem we have the highest incidents of incompatibility using P2. But I will let it stand for everyone.
Also if you could give your workflow that would help. Thanks.
 
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P2 is the best choice for me, mainly for the convenience and not having something else connected to my rig that needs it's own battery.
 
I prefer the expanded recording capabilities of the Firestore. It does away with the need to dump cards to a hard drive throughout the day. In over a year of using it I have had only one problem and that was user error. Use it right it treats you right.
Jim
 
I use a firestore as I shoot a lot of performance video and weddings, plus there's a few times where I'm shooting for a few hours at a time and I can't have access to a laptop to dump footage. I think I get over 260 minutes of 720p24pN footage, which is pretty nice for what I do.
 
We purchased the FS100 because we were shooting in in a remote wooded area for a week. Worked great up until the clip on it broke. It worked fine with the broken clip, of course, but with the twenty foot drop that followed... Renting P2 now.
 
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I've used both, prefer P2 for most applications but have used firestore for documentaries and interviews where we needed long-form. No problems with either. P2 sometimes crashes my powerbook upon insertion, but I know this, so I don't have anything mission critical open when I'm downloading footage.
 
Mac, P2. For me it is because the camera and P2 cards have no moving parts except the lens. That makes it extremely durable and resilient to shock.
Can't wait for 64gb!!!
 
Hey RE1000, do you work on MAC or PC?

MAC. I have a G5 desktop. I have a cheap $400 PC laptop I use for P2 dumping. (also serves as GF's internet surfing computer)
I have a 80gb external drive I used to transfer the P2 footage from the PC to the G5.
 
I've used P2 since I purchased the HVX (about 6 months) and have never had any issues. I use a PowerBook G4 to offload and luckily have not run into any of the problems you read about on dvxuser. I am likely going to get a cheap PC laptop to offload to play it safe.
 
p2 - fast and reliable. and no giant box to rig to my camera. I'd also much rather offload in chunks than spend hours (or however long it takes) offloading a full firestore.
 
I currently have a 16gb, which = 40 min in 720p/24pn.
For my work I don't need much more space. But if I did, i'd get a 32gb card, which would be 80 min in 720p/24pn. So if you were to get a card now, get a 32gb or two of them. Of course not everyone shoots in 720p native formats, but a lot of us do.
 
i use both but prefer using p2. offload to a macbook pro using duel adapter. i shoot a lot of bmx action sports, but for my full time job its pretty much ENG work. i do web video stuff for a newspaper. so a lot of times i'm doing interviews with people so i'll shoot firestore for that, then for doing most the broll stuff i use p2. but it all depends ont he situation. and its nice to know that i have another 100gb's of record time in my bag if need be.
 
Firestore all the way for me. Mac quad- about a year and never a problem, All run and gun stuff, I actually mount to to the Jib with a 14' fw. Extremely fast turn around for the post guys.

My shooting environments are outdoors with alot of smoke and dust (motor sports) also use it in-studio for talking heads. Our work flow requires us to simply swap FS 100's with the guys in the trailer and go shoot again. 720pn mostly
 
I just wanted to thank everyone so far for their input. I can see a lot of people on MAC seem to be using P2 without incident. Something I would like to add though is that I work on an older system for my own projects, a MACG4 twin 1.25, FCP4.5HD. It would seem that if I want to go the P2 route I will have to upgrade my system and software, correct?
 
I established a poll just about the same as this one a year into the release, but added Direct to NLE and Direct to HDD using Onlocation and Scopebox and HD Monitor.

P2 still won, but everybody's using what the environment dictates.
 
I enjoy the freedom that P2 provides, but also have the FS100 when longer recording times are required.

I may even "upgrade" my Firestore to Luis's "FS-Forever" if the need should arise in the future.
 
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