Edirol F-1 field video recorder

tallrd

tallrd

Well-known member
I know there have been some mixed reviews on the Firestore field video recorders, and after searching the forums I'm not sure people are widely aware of this Edirol piece as a viable alternative to some of the others on the market today (also a step up from the Datavideo DN-300).

It's a little more expensive, but for good reason. It ads removable drives, remote-controllable via network connection, direct VGA output, 2 XLR pre's to capture uncompressed audio, etc).

I thought there would be some people on here who would be interested in knowing more about it, so here's the link to their site.

http://www.edirol.com/index.php/en/products-mainmenu-421/field-recording-mainmenu-390/f-1
 
b/c I don't want to turn this into a "sales pitch" thread, I'll give "street price" which is the minimum price below which a dealer cannot publish: $2995.00.
 
Here is a short report me using the Edirol F-1 with the JVC GY-HD251, (product was updated to its latest firmware).

I decided to write what I find as the weakest points of the product and not its strengths.

1-Boot start-up time 0:26 seconds, ridiculously long.
In ENG scenario camera must stay on the all time.
2-There is no indication in the JVC camera viewfinder that the F-1 is recording.
If the F-1 is not turned on (by mistake) there is no chance for the cameraman to know he is recording to tape only.
3-There is no way to record to the hard disk only if tape is not inserted.
4-"Soft, short fire-wire" cable must be supplied with the unite.
The "normal long" cable is an invitation for trouble.
5-Fan noise is very loud.
Recording at quiet environment (classical concerts) or indoor interviews might be problematic.
6-When switching camera recording format (25p, 50i, 50p), F-1 must be turned off, then on again to accept the new recording format
(between the p and the i mostly).
7-When recording Audio only on the F-1 via its XLR connections (camera is not power on), then trying later to shoot video, the F-1 is loosing its Sync with the camera resulting in recording to tape only.
F-1 must be synced again in through its menu to the camera.

All in all potential is there , but a bit disappointing product. Hope some of the problems can be fixed with firmware updates.


Thanks.

Johnnie
 
I will share each of these points with their national product manager. Thank you. Anyone else have any experience with other cameras?
 
Great thank you!

More things I would like to see in this unite:
1-Since it is a recorder/player, it will be nice to have a down-convert possibility (from any HD supported format to SD).
2-Future possibility to change the hard disk to SSD drive in order to avoid moving parts.

J.
 
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