Panasonic FS-100-250 250GB Experiences ???

twocik23

twocik23

Veteran
I'm torn between P2 cards ($$$) or this HD. I do mostly studio type work and a bit of on location sets. Most of everything we do requires a full rig (follow focus, rail system, adapter, etc..), so the benefit of having less weight & clutter isn't really a big deal.


I'm in the process of switching my company to HD and wanted to hear hands on experiences with this device ?



.
557087.jpg





.
 
Good Advice

Good Advice

icon1.gif
HVX-FS-100 Corruption Issue
I recently was shooting on the HVX to a Firestore FS-100 in 720/30P and during an important interview, the red roll indicator in the view finder went off.
I was careful not to jiggle or move the sensitive 4 pin connection and even had gaffer tape holding it squarely in the receptacle as a strain relief. This happened 2 or 3 times over the next few hours. When I attempted to off-load
at the end of the day, the contents folder claimed to have an error (probably due to a corrupt file) and wouldn't let me transfer. I had to open the folder and drag the files 10 at a time starting at the last clip and working back to the first files. Sure enough, the first few clips were corrupt from probably being interrupted during recording. I rebuilt the contents folder in the back-up HDD to restore the structure and then backed it up 2 more times. Now the FCP editor that is cutting the doc cannot log and capture many clips because of errors. I imported all the clips I could into PPro CS3 with AHD installed and after deleting the corrupted clips (which were luckily brief test records and bars) I had success with most of the footage and only lost about 8-12 minutes over a whole day of shooting. The FCP editor had told me because of spanned clips, FCP wouldn't log and capture 2 critical files. I now have to export to tape (DVCPRO-HD) the 2 clips that FCP couldn't open as a work-around. Some advice I have is, until panny or a 3rd party supplier come up with a 4 pin to 6 pin adapter that mounts on the HVX, you are risking this same problem. I have alot of confidence in the P2 card system now and have never had a corruption issue with them. I recently purchased Shot Put P2 and the in-expensive Acer laptop that was mentioned in Barry Green's thread. It can copy the P2 card contents to up to 3 drives at once. Sorry for the long thread. Jim
www.southafricamovie.com
 
I use both types of media.

I find for handheld work or short shooting time frames, P2 is most convenient. It's draw back however, is obviously the cost of the cards.

When doing narrative work or when longer running times are required, I've used the Firestore almost exclusively. I've never had any corruption problems (touch wood). My beef about the FS-100 is the meager battery life of the unit. A Tekkeon battery on standby resolved this issue though.

Keep in mind the tales of caution from others regarding the firewire connection. You may want to buy a firewire saver (search the board) to protect the camera connection.
 
Dropped mine to the floor and into the snow, got soaking wet, it was dangling from the flipsy cable on a crane, abused it several ways in heat and cold and sandstorm. Never lost a single frame. So I can´t complain (touch wood too).

Here´s my advice

1. Battery live can be more than doubled by using a modern HD.
2. Get the original craddle with hotshoe and rightangle cable.
3. Make sure you got the latest software.

Living in Pal land I only do 50i 1080x1920.
After I´m done I hit organize to P2 and copy every thing to my HD (including textfiles andwhatnot).
I throw it on a CS3 timeline and it works like a charm.
I have a PC.

Most folks that run into troubles wit the FS use Quicktime and FCP on a Mac plus 60i.

Don´t know if that has anything todo with it.

I hate the FOCUS company because of the arogant support and way they tread a customer (no wonder they had to file chapter 11), but the FS does fine for me.
But as soon as Cineform relases his recorder I switch over to them - saves me a buch of time.

Frank
 
We have the FS and P2. In short, after stocking up on P2 cards we found the FS to be too cumbersome and problematic. Both the FS systems have been sitting on a shelf for a year.

I'd say opt for P2.
 
hmmm. Yea this was probably the toughest decision for us and we went with the FS. At $2000.00 I was hoping for something that would work nice with my Macs and FCP, but if you guys are saying not to then maybe we might try the P2 cards...


I figured I'd get mix stories on the product just like any other, but damn they went out of business ????

So I'm guessing this is dead technology and probably won't see any updates (hardware or software) ?
 
I used a pair of FS-100s in June for a feature with 2 cameras and the units were flawless. One even got dropped in the street from a height of about 4' and still remained fully functioning.

My biggest and really only gripe is the cooling fan noise which varies with ambient temperature and operating temperature of the unit itself. I got some 15' Firewire cables to at least put the units in another room inside a case while rolling. I also used paper clips to keep the fans from spinning but I don't do this anymore since the fans got tweaked after a while and were rubbing on the inside of the housing.

I've used the FS-100 numerous times for run and gun work and studio work mounted to the top handle of the camera and on my belt and never ever had a problem. You must make sure that the small end of the firewire cable is well secured to the camera (and your belt if wearing on belt.) I usually zip-tie the cable to the wrist strap on the camera so there's no stress on the jack.

I even shot all the way up to maximum capacity once with the unit and had NO issues.

For the record, I shoot 95% of footage as Quicktime files which are used on a 1.67 GHz G4 Powerbook and a G5 2GHz Dual.

.
 
Last edited:
twocik23 said:
hmmm. Yea this was probably the toughest decision for us and we went with the FS. At $2000.00 I was hoping for something that would work nice with my Macs and FCP, but if you guys are saying not to then maybe we might try the P2 cards...


I figured I'd get mix stories on the product just like any other, but damn they went out of business ????

So I'm guessing this is dead technology and probably won't see any updates (hardware or software) ?
Click to expand...

Focus Enhancements is still in business, but under reorganization. You can buy used FS-100 100Gb HDD's for around $1K, not much more than a single 16Gb P2 card on e-Bay. I use two FS-100's with my HDX900 all the time, no problems except for some drop outs from vibration on a camera car.
 
I have a friend of mine that bought an older FS and replaced the hard drive with a seagate 150gb and works like a charm.

Has anyone ever heard of this ?
 
I've used both the FS-100 and P2 on a variety of shoots...and while the FS has some nice features, I like the process of P2 much better.

The FS-100 definitely has some serious advantages - a longer recording time, the ability to record as a QuickTime file (extremely convenient!), and a lower cost for recording time. I have had some issues with FireWire cables coming unplugged mid-take, though. Generally, this just resulted in having to redo a take (fortunately this never happened during anything expensive!), but once it cost us an entire afternoon! Just make sure you check the connection and check to make sure the hard drive is "driving" before every take and you shouldn't really have too many problems. The FS-100 also makes hand-held shots a bit tricky if you don't have a good mounting bracket.

I've recently fully switched to P2 and am actually selling my newly refurbished FS-100 for $1700. Shoot me an e-mail if you're interested to rythom@gmail.com!
 
Now from what I understand is that you can't record Native with the Firestore and only with P2 cards, right ?


Now if this is true from what I've been reading, then why does Focus Enhancements say -


Native Frame-Rate Recording

The FS-100 enables you to record DVCPRO HD at 720p 24/25/30 in P2 or QuickTime file formats at native frame rates. Only the required frames are recorded. This feature not only eliminates the need to remove pulldown or duplicate frames during ingest, but also enables you to record twice as much DVCPRO HD video to disk. The FS-100 also supports variable frame rate (VFR) recording for spectacular slow-motion and fast-motion effects. VFR files are imported directly into your NLE system’s timeline—no conversion is required.
 
I use my FS100 for most projects. I just wish it had a modern screen that can be used for viewing clips.

It shouldn't be that hard to produce, based on today's technology.
 
twocik23 said:
Now from what I understand is that you can't record Native with the Firestore and only with P2 cards, right ?
Click to expand...

Focus is correct about the FS-100, I shoot 720/24P Quicktime Native, P2 Native, as well as 30PN. You must have firmware version 4.0 for your FS-100 and Final Cut Studio 6 for QT Native. I get over six hours of 720/24PN recording with a 160Gb drive, it would be over ten hours with a 250Gb FS-100 version.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top