Firestore vs P2 Card

R

rhodesb3

Member
I currently own neither. I am considering getting the firestore, instead of P2 Cards. Is there any reason this is a bad idea? I realize I would need to have it charged, but its larger capasity and price per gig is making me lean in the firestore direction.

Thoughts?
 
Firestores are the worst. I hate using them. P2 is much better, faster, more reliable, etc. I would stick with the P2 cards. You can find them pretty cheap used or grab the E-series cards. But that is just me.
 
Never had an issue with my firestore. THough its NTSC and never gets used since Im back in PAL land.

I do prefer the ease of use with p2 I must admit.
 
Spend the cash with P2, you will not regret it... 64gig E-series and soon the cheap pana single reader... It's a no brainer.... you only have to buy them once....

Cheers
Tom K
olinevideo.com.au
 
Firestore made sense back when an 8GB P2 card was $1400. Now that you can get 100GB of P2 for the same price, the FireStore makes almost no sense whatsoever. Get the P2.
 
I recommend both. Particularly if you have a Final Cut Pro workflow. Firestore plugs and directly begins editing. That is VERY valuable for time crunch projects. But i wouldn't ONLY rely on the firestore. That is a bad idea. Too many factors can go wrong (cable, storage space, etc).

Right now, I'm using a DVX100, DV tapes combined with Firestore for instant access and master+backup recording. Planning on doing the same when we upgrade to HD and P2 this summer.
 
ive used both as well. and still do. and both STILL have their uses. there are some times. like shooting VERY long situations (like business meetings, training events, music festivals and maybe depositions) where you just need to roll and roll and roll. and thats where the firestore shines

i personally dont enjoy using the firestore, simply because its just one more thing to worry about - battery, drive failure, noise, firewire connection, blah, blah, blah. but with that said, ive owned 2 and used another 3 or 4 of them and have NEVER had a single problem

but nowadays, two 32 gig P2 cards will give you nearly three hours of 720p24n footage.
however, if you HAVE TO shoot 1080, the strength of that math is diminished a bit.

the problem is if you have to keep rolling once those two are full. youd need another PAIR of cards to replace them while the first pair were being offloaded.

now the answer to that situation is just shoot live to a computer and external hard drive. but if you have to move around, that goes out the window.

in typical cases, P2 is the way to go. less hassle, more reliable (typically)

but it depends on the kind of work you do, or plan to do. if you plan to do a LOT of VERY long takes. maybe firestore is the way to go. otherwise, id go P2.

one note on P2 though. i find it wiser to buy 2 smaller cards instead of one larger one. with two cards, you can shoot to one while offloading the other.
 
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I second the above advice ^^^. I have both and still use both when I need to. We just purchased 3 64 gig cards to go along with our 2 16 gig one. We also have a 250 gig firestore that used to be the primary recording device but will now be a back up device. The firestore is nice for those long events, in our case, long traditional weddings for 4+ hours. It can be a pain though to have the battery charged and finding somewhere to mount it. Another concern that I had was with the cable getting pulled but that has not happened. My plan now is to use the 64 and 16 gig cards in each camera leaving a 64 gig card and the firestore as a backup. Honestly the firestore is only useful if you are always on sticks and can mount it to them. Other than that it gets in the way.

I may be selling it later if we get some more 64 gig cards. We'll see if it ever gets used again now.
 
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