Firestore FS-100 with HVX200

[nightowl]

Have been working as camera assistant on an independent film using the HVX200 and FS-100 together. After each day the unit is given to our editors who upload it into the editing suites. So far the system has worked well. However the issue i have with the FS-100 is that it uses a very fragile Firewire connector which connects to the 1394 housing into the rear right of the camera (right behind the thumb record button). The issue occurs when my DP goes to roll the camera, the cable gets bumped because his hand goes straight for the button and is not used to the cumbersome cable being in the way. Not to mention moving the camera from sticks to dolly to hi-hat and just regular wear and tear is proving to be significantly detrimental to the housing itself on the camera.

After two weeks of shooting 13 hour days on the set, with no more than regular wear and tear we had already rendered our first HVX200 useless by slowing destroying the Firewire housing on the camera with each bump.

It is now the last week of the film and our second HVX is well on it's way to being disabled as well.

The plus side of this unit is that i've got 111 minutes of 1080i HD footage a day at my disposal; the down side is that i ALSO have two HVX's that need to get sent back to god knows where to be repaired because of a huge design f*ck-up.

Has anyone else ran into these problems? If Focus Enhancements wants to market this product to professionals they need to come up with a way to protect the housing on the camera, and a fragile 1394 plug on the worst location on the camera imaginable is not it.

- matt

 

[THoff]

All valid points.

Either use a cable with a right-angle Firewire connector, or get one of Siniarch's Firewire Savers:

http://firewiresaver.silo23.com/

 

[David Saraceno]

If Focus Enhancements wants to market this product to professionals they need to come up with a way to protect the housing on the camera, and a fragile 1394 plug on the worst location on the camera imaginable is not it.

- matt

This is clearly the responsibility of Panasonic. Its decision to use FW so prominently in the HVX200 and then elect a cheap, flimsy 4-pin connection is hard to understand.

 

[Jeff Anderson]

The entire industry needs to get away from this 4 pin connector - the 6 pin is so much more secure, although a locking connector for applications like the firestore would be even better. My poor little laptop (sony of course) has a wimpy 4 pin connector that is a nightmare to use. Have to tape the stupid cable to the table to use it as the slightest movement interrupts the connection. Sorry just to rant on much I hate this connector as its on just about every deck, camera, and laptop I use. drives me nuts... rant over...

My guess is that panasonic does it to fit in with everyone else's silly standard of doing this. So they're all nuts. rest of rant over...

that firewire saver gets some great reviews though - in addition to the site theres a thread on it here without a bad thing to say about it.

 

[Luis Caffesse]

This is clearly the responsibility of Panasonic. Its decision to use FW so prominently in the HVX200 and then elect a cheap, flimsy 4-pin connection is hard to understand.

Just as hard to understand as the fact that the vast majority of HVX users are using FCP - and yet MXF/P2 support on the Mac seems to be light years behind PCs.

I couldn't agree more - that little 4pin connector is the Achilles' heel of the HVX.

I got one of Siniarch's FWS-01s a few weeks ago - and while it doesn't solve the problem completely (the only way to solve it would be to replace the 4 pin with a 6pin connector) - it definitely helps me sleep better at night. I highly recommend it.

 

[Jim Carswell]

Granted the 4-pin is not the best solution for this setup. However, I have worked around this quite successfully by using a Velcro fastner to attach the short firewire cable to the Noga arm that holds my Firestore. This keeps the cable out of the way and prevents accidental pulling and jarring that might lead to accidental disconnection or damage to the firewire connection on the camera. I've been doing things this way for about ten months now without any issues.

This is a simple and cheap solution that bypasses any mis-calculations Panasonic might have had when they elected to use the flimsy 4-pin connection.

If you are wondering, the Noga arm is attached to the Zacuto baseplate and battery rig.

Jim

 

[AshG]

I have seen several 1200A decks have their 6 pin firewire port die and cook the daughter board. The 6 pin is generally powered, this causes problems and this is why you see 4 pin on the HVX, to prevent users from frying the HVX. I ended up getting a cable from AbelCine that kept the 6 pin on the HD1200A from getting power.


ash =o)