Firestore Now Support Native Formats

Great news for FS100 owners. I've just gained a whole lot of respect for the guys at Focus. Unfortunatly, this now makes my decision whether or not to get another P2 much harder.
 
nycfilmmaker said:
like what? what can't the fs-100v3.0 do that the cineporter is set out to do?
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If the Cineporter acts exactly like a big P2 card, then the reviewing of clips will be superior. I had FS-100, and trying to playback the clips on the HVX was trivial. Even when you do play the clips back on the HVX, you lose a lot of funtionality. I don't believe you can view your clips as thumbnails in the FS-100. I don't believe you can delete a clip using your HVX (you have to manually do it on the FS-100). I could be wrong, but the short time I had with my FS-100 has led me to these conclusions. And it is also hard to compare it to a product that still hasn't been released (because maybe functonality will be missing for some reason in the Cineporter too). Also, a benefit for the Cineporter can be the fact that is uses a much more secure P2 Slot, instead of a Firewire port that seems more prone to loose connections or getting worn out.

This is a great day for Firestore users. It's nice to see that after having a rocky start, the FS-100 has really been able to smooth itself out with these firmware upgrades.
 
Good points.

I've been an opponent to the fs-100 for a while but looking at it once more. i think v2.0 breaks in thumbnail viewing on the unit.

what i would want is more harddrive space, since 2.5inch internal drives are so cheap now. Focus should maybe look into this, an ncrease to 160gb.

why not have a p2 stlye connection like the cineporter on the fs-100? It seems Panasonic endorses the firestore so why not allow it to create this type of connection, which is Patented by Panasonic.

All and all this is what it's all about -- progress -- getting up when you've fallen. Hats off to Focus, keep the upgrades coming.
 
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That's great news, can't wait to upgade mine, I also have an 8gb P2 and will use both the firestore and the P2, I actually like using both of them, if you don't have time to hook up the Firestore the P2's already in the cam, just start recording.
 
lboyce said:
So does that mean I'll be able to record variable frame rates with the firestore now? Did I read that right?
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You've ALWAYS been able to do variable frame rates with the FS-100, I did it when I reviewed one of the very first units shipped. I've done it for a long time. Native modes are not needed to record variable frame rates.
 
nsoltz said:
This is great news. My main concern with the FS-100 remains battery life and alternative power options. The 180-minute battery (for an extra $199) still does not deliver 3 hours.
Ned Soltz
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I have always gotten close to 3.5 - 4 hours on my FS-100 with the longer life battery.

My problem with the CinePorter is that it leaves the P2 drive door on the HVX open and exposed. I do a LOT of outdoor, nature type shooting. I have some very dusty enviroments, and some very humid and wet ones, that I shoot in. I have a fear of all that stuff getting into my P2 drives in the HVX and doing some damage. I've emailed the CinePorter folks about this concern twice, but no replies. They seem to take forever to answer an email, and the one they did answer was over a month old, and the reply was, "Did anyone ever respond to your question?" "No" was my answer and I still haven't heard anything from them. And I'm supposed to be reviewing it for a magazine. They aren't doing a very good job with PR at this point, IMHO, for something with such great potential.

My contact as Focus told me they are looking into larger drive capacities, but they have specs the drive has to meet, and it's hard to find a larger drive that meets their specific demands. But they are in fact working on it.
 
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big question for many
go for the v3 firestore (out next month) or wait for the cineportar.

not easy. I still think there are proprietary issues with using a p2 connector not issued by Panosonic, so this may have an assumed longer delay for the cineporter, though i hope they hit the market ASAP. I would personally wait for v3 and see what reviewers have to say.
 
FS-100 it is.

FS-100 it is.

That settles it. I'm getting a Fire Store. As much as I want a P2 based connection, My need for more record time out weighs my ability to wait for something to come to market.
My thoughts on the Cineporter Vs. FireStore are this. The FireStore has been on the market for a while and is maturing very well and rather quickly. Where as the Cineporter will only be coming to the market as a Rev. 1 several months after I'll have been shooting with the FS-100. (My estimate at least)

With a lot of nudging from everyone here, I bet we can convince Panasonic and Focus to release a factory supported P2 adaptor for the FS-100.
If they could pull that off and allow full P2 functionality, they would basically own all aspects of HVX storage needs except for the RAID solution of the Cineporter. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge... If you can't find one large drive that'll work, use 2 :thumbsup:

Hey Focus!!! Give us a P2 adapter and we will buy it!!!
Oh yeah, and include some kind of option to safely enclose the P2 slots.

I'm saving my pennies
 
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Barry_Green said:
You always could. This update just removes the post-processing step through the FCP Frame Rate Converter that you used to have to do.
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Barry, could you explain a little more detailed? I'm completely unaware as to how you can shoot variable frame rates using the firestore and final cut pro. Would it be possible to post a short little explanation? It would help for an upcoming shoot! Thanks!
 
The exact same way you'd do it directly off the P2 card. Once you run the Organize P2 function on the FS-100, when you mount it on your Desktop, what you copy is exactly identical to what you copy from a P2 card. I've done a tutorial for Focus I'll send to Barry to post here.
 
Hmm, interesting.

Given that I've had my heart set on the cineporter until now, I'm not familiar with the FS100 workflow.

I'm wondering how easy it is to review recorded FS100 footage in-cam? Is it easy as 1-2-3? This recent update implies to me that you can now review 720pN footage (with visible over/undercranking effects) from within the cam. Can someone confirm this?

One other question, does the FS100 run off the same battery as the HVX or do you need another power supply?

Thanks!
 
Thanks Ben! I know you and I (and Ned) have been trying to stamp out the myth all over the web; I'm sure your tutorial will go a long way towards overcoming it once and for all.
 
j8jweb said:
I'm wondering how easy it is to review recorded FS100 footage in-cam? Is it easy as 1-2-3?
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Well... you can do it, but not quite the same way as a P2 card or CinePorter would. You put the camera in MCR mode, then turn off the thumbnails, then on the FS-100 you scan through its list of files until you find the one you want and hit "play" and it shows up on the camera's LCD screen. But you don't see thumbnails on the FS-100 so selecting which clip you want isn't like how it'd be off a P2 or CinePorter.

This recent update implies to me that you can now review 720pN footage (with visible over/undercranking effects) from within the cam. Can someone confirm this?
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It sounds like that's how it will work, yes. But we here can't confirm it as the firmware update is a couple of months away. Maybe Matt McEwen will stop in and confirm for us?

One other question, does the FS100 run off the same battery as the HVX or do you need another power supply?
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It uses its own battery.
 
From the press release it also sounds like you can bypass MXF (if you want to) all together and record DVCPRO HD with a Quicktime wrapper instead. I know it has supported Quicktime for other codecs before now, but isn't this the first time it has had direct DVCPRO HD Quicktime support too?
 
Sorry for the late reply. I have only just returned from IBC.

You will be able to review 720p/24, 25 and 30 native footage back through the camcorder with the new 3.0 update. The only trade off will be that audio will be muted. This is mainly due to the fact that the camera's FireWire port cannot really accept anything but base 50 and 60Hz streams, but we will be able to get around that OK for video. Audio is a little trickier. But, when you are over on the computer, all will be OK and your audio will be fine. Mark is also correct that native record mode will be possible wrapped as an MXF or a QuickTime file. With QuickTime, you can obviously bypass the Import Panasonic P2 window in FCP and just do a regular Import (instant). As for the VFR stuff, it is definitely an aim to be able to play this back, but until we see all that is involved, we cannot confirm exact field playback in the camera.

I have been playing with the early alpha version of the software and I can tell you that it is really awesome to be able to import direct into FCP native. I demo'd this at IBC and if any of you are going to be in Campbell, CA. (Silicon Valley), I'd be happy to give you an early demo.

Hope that helps.

Matt
 
So v.3 will let me record to QT DVCPRO-HD with all the metadata? That would rock! That'd save the time of ingesting, which is very minimal for me, but from what I understand, can take some machines a very long time to do. That one feature alone is making me, well, "excited"...

When's it slated to be released?
 
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