FS-100 crapped out on Shoot !!!!!

A

ajmax

Well-known member
HVX-200
720 24p
FS-100 Version 3.0 recording on Quicktime PN

In the middle of a shoot with a client.

Halfway through the shoot I turn the FS-100 back on, ( turned off between setup shots, about 30 min between each time ) and it read :

"NO DISC DETECTED"

I couldn't get it going. I called Tech Support and they had me do a number of things
and they finally said that I would need to send it in....
this is the 2nd time i have an issue with this thing...
I was able to borrow a couple of P2 cards and had to reshoot everything all over again!!!
This totally pissed off my client...
Has anyone else had this happen?
 
I haven't heard of too many reliability issues with the FS-100. Most people seem to be quite happy with its reliability. But, alas. That 'tis the risk with using spinning drives as recording mediums.

Maybe you just have bad luck. Sorry.

Later,
Jason
 
You asked if people have had problems like this.

I said, I haven't heard really any complaints about the reliability of the FS-100.

I guess you are just unlucky, and hopefuly (if this is the second time with the same unit) you will press them to just replace the unit entirely. Or, figure out what it is you *might* be doing (I'm not saying you are, just an idea) to be causing, or influencing this problem to happen

Beyond that, what is it that you are asking. What type of response were you expecting, exactly? :)

Jason
 
It sounds to me as if the part that failed wasn't the FS-100 itself, but the hard drive, a component that Focus buys from another company. The same could have happened to you in your laptop, iPod, DVR, editing system at the office etc.

Like everything made by man, stuff eventually fails. It is regrettable and sometimes disastrous, but there isn't anything you can do to avoid it 100% of the time.
 
It has happened to me a couple times. I dont use them anymore, never will again. Even with a tiny failure rate, you lose everything forever when it fails. On P2, you have the option to do as I do and back-up to redundant drives or to mirrored RAIDS. The tapeless workflow is great for some things... and terribly risky for many other things.



ash =o)
 
I had a failure with a Firestore that was fairly serious. Fortunately I had an 8-gig P2 card that essentially saved the day.

After a couple of jobs in which the Firestore acted up, I bit the bullet and invested in P2 cards and a P2 Store. It's not as convenient as a 30-minute or 40-minute tape, but it's a very reliable system.

The only issue that ever came up so far was losing track of which P2 card was downloaded. But a better-planned workflow, along with a dry-erase pen, solved that problem.

Multiple P2 cards and a P2 Store isn't cheap. But I feel that losing coverage is much more expensive.
 
I am under the impression that there is no truly reliable direct to disk recording solution yet.

so I have not even considered a firestore or cineporter.
 
I've been using an FS-100 since it first came out. No problems. I did lose some clips on a P2 card once that nothing on a Mac nor PC could read, once.
 
ajmax said:
HVX-200
720 24p
FS-100 Version 3.0 recording on Quicktime PN

In the middle of a shoot with a client.

Halfway through the shoot I turn the FS-100 back on, ( turned off between setup shots, about 30 min between each time ) and it read :

"NO DISC DETECTED"

I couldn't get it going. I called Tech Support and they had me do a number of things
and they finally said that I would need to send it in....
this is the 2nd time i have an issue with this thing...
I was able to borrow a couple of P2 cards and had to reshoot everything all over again!!!
This totally pissed off my client...
Has anyone else had this happen?
Click to expand...

THIS is exactly why I haven't jumped onto the tapeless revolution with both feet yet, due to the nature of what I do, which is docs. Short of having P2 cards AND a Firestore, or two Firestores, I just don't feel that there is the same redundancy that the Canon XHA1 with a Firestore offers - having indentical copies upon shooting. Despite it's audio shortcomings, I think that's where I'm headed, simply to avoid a situation like the one you're describing. I suppose if I were more of a narrative filmmaker, I would probably be less reticsent about spending the extra cash for the HVX, as it most certainly is the superior camera in that realm, I just can't justify the "above and beyond" expenditures the camera would require to meet my workflow needs - and would NEVER want to explain to a client that because of my hard drive, I couldn't shoot ANYTHING, at least until some cards arrived. From a client's perspective, that's kinda like showing up to a 35mm shoot with no film.
 
If it were't for the FS-100, I couldn't use the HVX on my doc. I have to shoot 1 hour plus at at time non-stop, without being able to fool with hardware swapping out P2 cards. Changing a tape I could do, but not swapping out P2s and offloading. The only problem I have with the FS-100 is Panasonic's 4-pin FW connector. So, that's not an FS problem, that's an HVX problem.

Wait until the first Cineport hard drive crashes...

If anyone is actually using the XHA1, please PM me.

Actually, anyone who's using what they consider comparable image to the HVX with another cam, PM me.
 
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Okay.
I sent my Fire store back to Focus as they requested.
They told me it would take 4 weeks...
I went ahead a purchased another P2 card along with my Rebate card.
As soon as i get it back I'm gonna try and sell it..
I am not impressed with it at all/
The cards are easier , better , and more reliable.
they are more expensive on the front end, but in the long run, it will pay off!!!
I am swearing off FS-100!!!!
IT'S CRAP!!!!!!!!
 
Suprising as you seemed to really enjoy using it to shoot Mardi Gras. What was the other problem you have with the FS, just for my own education?
 
What i liked about it was the Storage Space,, Which came in Handy during Mardi Gras...
However; being in the middle of a shoot in front of your client.. changes things dramatically!!!
It is not worth going through that and loosing your client and future clients...
the previous problem was: the Fire store was not allowing me to record anything at all..
the settings were all right, everything else seemed all right. My dealer said to bring it in. before i did that, i had installed version 3.0 and it seemed to be working fine...
That was until yesterday....
I just didn't want to take another risk again...
It's one thing when equipments goes goes down while we are experimenting or playing with it.
It's totally different when you are running a business and your clients don't understand the reality of hardware going down...
My clients are not TV related people so explaining situations to them won't cut it...
They just want what they pay for with out any problems...
I'm sure you guys can relate...
 
BenB said:
Suprising as you seemed to really enjoy using it to shoot Mardi Gras. What was the other problem you have with the FS, just for my own education?
Click to expand...

That's a little rough. Naturally, he liked it when it was doing what it was supposed to do! It's tough to explain a situation like this to a producer. I wouldn't wish that scenario on anyone.

Well, maybe there are a couple of people...

e
 
I also had a FS crap out on a shoot. Firewire on the FS itself went out. We shot on single P2 card for the last hour.

The FS + HVX just isn't a reliable solution for heavy duty field work. Between the spinning disk drive the the weak 4-pin FW port on the HVX you're just asking for trouble. In fact, I was told by the "big" rental house in my city the reason they refuse to carry them because they always come back broke.

edit: I just used the FS + HVX on a shoot again two weekends ago. I had a whole range of problems:

- The FS would freeze up. I had to pull the FW cable, power cable, and pull out the battery for a "hard" reset. We probably did this 5 or so times over a 3 day shoot (5 hours of video).
- I have several takes where the recording just stopped. No one moved or touched the camera or FW cable it just stopped. I have no clue why it did this.
- I had many, many instances when hitting record on the HVX wouldn't start recording on the FS. The only way to fix this was to power cycle the FS.
- I had one mixed up clip with video from two different scenes. Now this could be the x-fer to FCP or something else, but it is just one more thing that makes me scared.


I've used the HVX + FS combo on two shoots now, probably recording a total of 10 hours of video, and it scares the hell out of me. Each night when I dump footage I seriously pray that it is all there.
 
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BenB said:
If it were't for the FS-100, I couldn't use the HVX on my doc. I have to shoot 1 hour plus at at time non-stop, without being able to fool with hardware swapping out P2 cards. Changing a tape I could do, but not swapping out P2s and offloading.
Click to expand...

To change a tape you would have to stop recording. To change a P2 card you can continue recording for as long as the camera has power. If you are running on AC that could be indefinately, on battery, about 3 hours.
 
BenB said:
Suprising as you seemed to really enjoy using it to shoot Mardi Gras. What was the other problem you have with the FS, just for my own education?
Click to expand...

No more surprising than when you spent months touting the wonders of a tapeless workflow and then all of a sudden you spent a week totally bashing it and selling off all your P2 gear and vowing to go back to tape due to some problems you encountered.

The fact of the matter is throughout the history of media aquisition there has yet to be a totally reliable method for capturing and storing images. Film has had it's share of problems, tape has had it's share of problems and solid state and disk based media are also having their share of problems. Our problem is deciding which is the more reliable and cost effective in certain situations.
Personally I would much rather rent a few more P2 cards so as to be able to stay mobile and not have to lug around a hard drive that requires more battery power while I'm in the field.
 
BenB said:
Wait until the first Cineport hard drive crashes....
Click to expand...
However, the Cineporter will give you the option of using a RAID configuration, and the hard drives themselves are user-replaceable. If one of your hard drives does crap out, it will be easy to fix without having to send the Cineporter back for four weeks.

And on a truely bizarre note, I just got back thirty minutes ago from a shoot this morning where I brought my Toshiba laptop. I unpacked it from the case, plugged it in, turned it on, and watched it fail to boot -- it blue-screened. Tried it twice more, then tried the Last Known Good configuration, no dice.

The hard drive is making weird clicking noises, so it probably took a dive between last night when I shut it down, and this morning.

That's why we make backups and design as much redundancy into our processes as possible.
 
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