CitiDISK

Yes, search around, there are many user reports. Offhand I can't think of a single positive user report, but there are plenty of users who have written in to express their opinion about how the Citidisk works. Or doesn't, for that matter.
 
Rapsucks,

Michael Schoenfeld (In Salt Lake City ) here,

I'm in the business section of the yellow pages under commercial photography.

Call me and I'll give you a first-hand evaluation of the Citidisk - I had on for about three weeks this fall.

All the Best,

Michael Schoenfeld

www.michaelschoenfeld.com
 
Citidisk is a real bare bones solution. FS-100 offers timelapse in any HVX format from 1 frame to 24 hours. Snap shot mode. Pretty much anything the HVX can shoot, the FS can record. Disk and clip repair utilities built in, a "reel" system for organizing clips during a shoot, pre-cache, etc, etc, etc. Plus version 3.0 of it's firmware will give it 5 shooting modes:
DV Raw
P2
P2 Native
QuickTime
QuickTime Native

If you're on a tight budget and can't afford the FS-100, the Citidisk will do. But you give up a TON of very useful features going with the Citidisk rather than the FS-100.

Not to mention Focus has been doing this longer, and simply does it much better.
 
just wanted to toss my 2 cents in. though i haven't used the citidisk, i have used the firestore. we rented an HVX with the firestore to test the system before buying. we were sold on the firestore and pretty much ready to go. the initial setup was painful, but we finally got all the correct settings. once we started shooting- about 4 minutes into shooting, actually- the wire connecting to teh camera was pulled. with the wire came the smell metal lining into the camera, along with pieces of the connector. it was not a hard pull, yet it tore the camera up. luckily we had insurance.
just for reference, i am an experienced cinematographer/camera man. i have experience with film cameras, dv & hd (although i'm new to the hd side). very unimpressed with the build and stability of the firestore.
 
I use the FS-100 all the time, almost daily, and have never had the cable pull out so easily. In order for it to pull the sleeve out of the camera's firewire port, you'd have to yank it pretty gosh darn hard. I've had extensive experience with the FS-100, I know the camera and FS very well, and the cable just doesn't fall out by itself, nor does it just fall out by itself.

I've never found anything about setting it up painful, unless you're not reading the user manual.

And a right angle reversed Firewire cable makes the connection extra secure.

Just my 2 cents.
 
mlsphoto said:
Rapsucks,

Michael Schoenfeld (In Salt Lake City ) here,

I'm in the business section of the yellow pages under commercial photography.

Call me and I'll give you a first-hand evaluation of the Citidisk - I had on for about three weeks this fall.

All the Best,

Michael Schoenfeld

www.michaelschoenfeld.com
Click to expand...

Michael,

I think its time for you to re-evaluate the CitiDISK now that Shining has fixed both the hardware and the software. Please contact me if you want another demo system.

Thanks,
Richard
 
Richard.

Michael Schoenfeld here,

Thank you for your generous offer, but I must respectfully decline; I now have two FS-100 Firestore units which are working flawlessly, and with the upcoming 3.0 firmware, I expect they will function even better.

Thank you again, best holiday wishes,

All the Best,

Michael Schoenfeld

www.michaelschoenfeld.com
 
I was interested in the CitiDisk when it first came out, but considering that it still doesn't have MXF file format support makes it uselss to me.

Considering on it's product page:

http://www.shining.com/products/totalsolution/citidisk_hd

it claims:

"CitiDISK™ HD is powerful, lightweight, portable and, with its internal rechargeable battery, connects directly to camcorders and captures footage to its miniature high-capacity hard drive and to tape simultaneously – directly from the camera's FireWire port into MXF files. "

at the top, and then further down reads:

"Current firmware release does not support P2-MXF. User is able to upgrade the firmware once it is released. However, by choosing Quicktime( MOV ), or AVI2 or Canopus AVI2 saves the conversion time from "MXF to MOV", or "MXF to AVI2"."

it seems that they can't even get their own website providing consistent content, so I'm not sure how much I trust that they will deliver a working product, especially considering the negative reviews I read around here.

A shame too. The CitiDisk was promising, especially for its price point.
 
Potentially the citidisk could be more popular in the UK market, where FS100s are extortionately priced.

I would not mind reviewing a citidisk with the latest firmware update, to be honest i am getting a cineporter myself. But i do know colleagues in the UK that would benefit from a budget media recorder if it was working now. If all went well, there are certain organisations and publications I could forward my review to in the UK *shrugs*

If your interested or if that would be useful then let me know Richard. Cos fairs, fair, while the citidisk has obviously had probs, it is important to re-evaluate.
 
Before it was officially released, I understood they were sending me one to review for Even DV magazine, but we never did hear back from them.
 
I am not sur if all the offers made by Richard are serious. I sent him an email with some questions and he deleted the mail without opening.
I am not happy with my decision to buy a FS-100. Its to expensive and I know some people which are not really satisfied with it. A lightwight and well working alternative would be very good and could be a good business for the manufacture.
But cheap alone is not enough, it has to work credible.
 
I'm thrilled with my FS-100. If I didn't have it, for what I'm doing, the HVX would be a worthless camera to me. I've found it to stand up to very harsh enviroments, very durable, easy to manage, top quality. Not sure what the Cineporter will do better, as it's just a hard drive like everything else. I don't see that simply using a P2 slot connector will make the hard drive more reliable. Not to mention I needed a solution months ago, and the CinePorter, although I'm sure it will be a solid product, is just a promise at this point. Love my FS-100!

I'm pretty disapointed that Shining promised us at Event DV a unit to review and then blew us off.
 
benn said:
I am not sur if all the offers made by Richard are serious. I sent him an email with some questions and he deleted the mail without opening.
Click to expand...
How do you know this? Just because you never got a reply from him, or a receipt indicating the message was read? There are a multitude of reasons why you should not rely on such things -- a phone call and conversation with the person you are trying to contact is much more useful.
 
I got the message" mail deleted without reading". OK could be a junk filter, but a man whose communication runs over the mail account should`nt have such restricted filter settings
Benn
 
With the SMTP/POP3 e-mail architecture that is used on the Internet, there is no way for you to determine whether someone ever received your message, read it, deleted it, or whatever.

Support for Read receipts is an extension that is entirely optional, and so-called "bugs" (generally transparent one-pixel GIF bitmaps embedded in the message) that are sometimes used to try to see whether the message was opened are utterly unreliable because most SPAM or other content filters remove them -- Outlook and Outlook Express do that by default, for instance.

I'm not saying that Richard didn't do what you say he did, all I'm saying is that there are other possibilities.
 
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