Firestore vs Head replacement

B

booggerg2

Well-known member
My DVX with 180Hrs needs a head replacement... With all the random clog warning and drop outs that I've been experiencing the past few months (even with two cleanings) I have lost full confidence of it.

A head replacement was quoted @ $800-900 incl labor. Since even with a new head, there's no guarantee that it won't go bad after 100hrs. Due to this fact, I'm thinking whether I should get a HD based recording device.

I mainly shoot weddings with the DVX. I generally shoot close to 8 hours on my DVX. The current price for a [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]FS-4ProHD 100GB is $1800. Now, is it possible and safe for me to upgrade a lower capacity FS device to have capacities even larger than 100GB? The [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]FS-4 HD 40GB @ $700 is very much in my price range. src: http://www.videoguys.com/FireStore.html

Another questions is reliability.. Can I reasonably expect the Firestore to be reliable? If the HD crashes, I loose all of my footage from the day :undecided If I can transfer it quickly to a laptop during downtimes on the day of the event, then it might be an okay workflow. How fast does it transfer? Can you give me a recorded time to transfer time ratio?

Many thanks
Yang
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It should transfer at 6x from the firestore. I think it goes a bit quicker for me. It took me some experimentation to figure out what settings I should use for it. But I did buy the FS-4HD with the field kit. Includes an extra battery, and a shoe mount for the camera. (which I recommend) The battery's only last 1.5 hours. Plus I pulled out the harddrive, and replaced it with 100GB drive. It will take 520 minutes of DVX video now! And so far it has been reliable, however its always nice to have tape as a backup. I only use the firestore myself with no tape. I am tired of forking out money for tapes.

I had a head replacement on a little sony consumer camcorder, and it never recorded the same. Audio cut in and out, video glitched constantly. It was done under warrenty, and evenually they had to give me a new camera. But replacing something in the camera can leave you more frustrated than before.

That is my experience
 
kdawg: thanks for the info. Is the hard drive swap a common procedure with FireStores? and once you do the swap does it void the warranty?

Another alternative is to always roll tape alone with the Firestore, I wouldn't get a head replacement and hope that the current head will work(which it might)..

Also, from the videoguys website they show a 100GB FS capable of only storing 7.5Hrs of footage. How are you managing 520? Is it just a 2.5" notebook HD inside? Can the FS take even larger capacity 160GB, 250GB?
 
The Firestore will not read anything over 100GB. That is what I read somewhere. I might have put a 120GB in and thats why its 8.5 hours, I'll have to check and get back to you. It does void the warrenty, but its pretty simple. The cable for the HDD inside is very short so you have to crack it open, slip a screwdriver or something in there to help ease it off the pins. But I'll tell you, you will enjoy it more than buying tapes and wearing down heads.
 
Is the hotshoe the best place to mount the Firestore? I need to mount an on-camera light in the hot shoe for my wedding coverage. Am I out of luck?
 
180 hour head replacement? That is unreal. My 100B has 470 hours and runs great, no drops or "X" alerts. What tapes have been used in this camera? Sure you can't run a "dry" Pany cleaner and then just use only AMQ 63m tapes?
 
Admittedly I've been using the consumer DVC tapes.. I was under the impression that as long as I "don't" mix tapes it's fine.

I guess the better recommendation would be to use MQ tapes from the start.

I guess I can try another head cleaning and run some tests with MQ tapes.
 
Please try, with a Pany cleaner, and then AMQs. Would hate to see you spend money for nothing, especially if I am not getting the money. (kidding!) Good luck.
 
Yeah, I know you have to keep cleaning the heads on any camera. I have run some other tapes on my DVX, but I clean my heads every 50 hrs or so. I dont see how you would need head replacement so soon. Have you tried Barry's post on cleaning the heads yourself?

Oh, and if you cannot use the hot shoe, you will have to use the belt clip that comes with the Firestore or fashion your own mount. Should be simple depending on what you will be using to film with.
 
I got mine professionally cleaned once. Dude said he used alchohol, I don't know if it was just isopropal or denatured, but I will not take anymore chances. Doing thru Barry's post works excellent!
 
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