Cineporter - Anytime soon?
- Thread starter noistar
- Start date
The FS-100 is by all accounts pretty solid now. There were problems when it first came out that have been corrected through firmware updates, so it is crucial that it be kept up-to-date. There have also been enhancements included, and soon a V3.0 firmware release will greatly increase the recording capacity by mimicking the HVX200's native recording mode which does not record redundant frames.
The Citidisk has also had problems, and it has a far shorter track record. There were a few positive reports from users that were immediately followed by updates indicating the device was basically unusable. A gentleman from Proconn who sells them has indicated that the problems were isolated and have been corrected, but I've not seen a single positive end-user report since.
Depending on the type of shooting you do, you can also record directly to disk using Final Cut Pro, Canopus Edius, or Serious Magic/Adobe DV Rack 2.0 HD. This obviously requires you to be tethered to a computer using a Firewire cable.
Offloading from P2 cards to a PCMCIA/PCCard laptop isn't as bad as you think. I shoot live events and rehearsals at 30PN, and with two 8GB cards that gets me 33 minutes of continuous shooting time. Offloading a card takes 6 to 7 minutes, so it can easily be done while I continue shooting on the second card. If I record using DV Rack, I'm only limited by disk space.
The Citidisk has also had problems, and it has a far shorter track record. There were a few positive reports from users that were immediately followed by updates indicating the device was basically unusable. A gentleman from Proconn who sells them has indicated that the problems were isolated and have been corrected, but I've not seen a single positive end-user report since.
Depending on the type of shooting you do, you can also record directly to disk using Final Cut Pro, Canopus Edius, or Serious Magic/Adobe DV Rack 2.0 HD. This obviously requires you to be tethered to a computer using a Firewire cable.
Offloading from P2 cards to a PCMCIA/PCCard laptop isn't as bad as you think. I shoot live events and rehearsals at 30PN, and with two 8GB cards that gets me 33 minutes of continuous shooting time. Offloading a card takes 6 to 7 minutes, so it can easily be done while I continue shooting on the second card. If I record using DV Rack, I'm only limited by disk space.
You could run Serious Magic's DV Rack 2.0 HD under Bootcamp. It has both timelapse and stop-motion support. The onion-skinning feature for instance lets you ensure that your stop-motion animation moves are lined up correctly etc.
I think FCP 5.1.2 now drops duplicate frames automaticaly, so you get the same recording capacity that you would get with native mode.
I think FCP 5.1.2 now drops duplicate frames automaticaly, so you get the same recording capacity that you would get with native mode.
Jason Ramsey
Admin
The main thing I can think of that could be a larger turn off for the firestore is battery life. You still don't get that long of record times, and extra batteries for it are expensive from what I understand.
Without getting into a debate about p2 cards... I will say, that I kind of felt the same way initially, but p2 just rocks. Record times are a minor sacrifice with many workarounds. And, as has been said many times, record times with p2 are only a temporary "problem" along the way to much better and greater workflow possibilities. There are many ways around it in the mean time. I am using 8 gig p2 cards and I love them. I will still use them even after I get the cineporters.
That said, from my meager personal experience with spec-comm, and the things said about them on this board, I think the cineporter will absolutely rock. It may likely have its glitches out of the gate, but I even anticipate those being far fewer than folks may have seen from the firestore and the citidisk. They have been very gracious in sharing with the dvxuser forum along the road to the cineporter becoming a product we can actually put in our hands. One thing that really attracts me abou the cineporter as well is battery life. However long it may last, the batteries you use are the same batteries that the hvx uses. I have 8 spec-comm batteries and 2 panny batteries for my 2 hvx's. I'm sure that would hold me over for a full day's shooting with both cams and 2 cineporters. If not, batteries are only 100 bucks....
Anyways, I don't know that I provided any useful info. in that essay that I just wrote, but I will say this. Don't hate p2 cards until you have tried them. They are great, and nothing can "truly" replace them except larger p2 cards (if one even needs long contiguous record times.) You might want to get 1 or 2 of them and use them with your hvx now. Get that hvx, and learn all about it. The cineporter probably won't be easy to come by for a while once it is released
Jason
Without getting into a debate about p2 cards... I will say, that I kind of felt the same way initially, but p2 just rocks. Record times are a minor sacrifice with many workarounds. And, as has been said many times, record times with p2 are only a temporary "problem" along the way to much better and greater workflow possibilities. There are many ways around it in the mean time. I am using 8 gig p2 cards and I love them. I will still use them even after I get the cineporters.
That said, from my meager personal experience with spec-comm, and the things said about them on this board, I think the cineporter will absolutely rock. It may likely have its glitches out of the gate, but I even anticipate those being far fewer than folks may have seen from the firestore and the citidisk. They have been very gracious in sharing with the dvxuser forum along the road to the cineporter becoming a product we can actually put in our hands. One thing that really attracts me abou the cineporter as well is battery life. However long it may last, the batteries you use are the same batteries that the hvx uses. I have 8 spec-comm batteries and 2 panny batteries for my 2 hvx's. I'm sure that would hold me over for a full day's shooting with both cams and 2 cineporters. If not, batteries are only 100 bucks....
Anyways, I don't know that I provided any useful info. in that essay that I just wrote, but I will say this. Don't hate p2 cards until you have tried them. They are great, and nothing can "truly" replace them except larger p2 cards (if one even needs long contiguous record times.) You might want to get 1 or 2 of them and use them with your hvx now. Get that hvx, and learn all about it. The cineporter probably won't be easy to come by for a while once it is released
Jason
dregenthal
Veteran
noistar said:
Interesting comments.
While you're waiting for all these alternative solutions to materialze (each of which permits you to avoid one of the primary benefits of this camera (solid state), and at a higher cost than a P2 card) you might want to read some of the hundreds of posts which include questions, objections, rationale, and answers to your question as well as others that will surely follow (and have been asked and answered many times over).
I would be interested in knowing the math which, when shooting stop motion, requires an interuption of your progress . . . I mean, have you stopped to consider just how many stop frames you can fit on one 4gig P2 card? The really cool thing is you won't need to buy any software to accomplish your purpose.
Not trying to be an a** here but it's curious to me how many people that don't even own the camera rush to judgement . . . with respect, I think you ought to give your workflow a bit more thought.
BTW, if you are interested, there is a great article in the latest Creative Cow magazine explaining how to shoot stop motion using a DSLR camera at a much higher resolution than you'll get from any of the 1/3" HD cameras.