fs100 or 2, 8gig p2 if you HAD to choose...?

wgzn

wgzn

Veteran
ok, i have a fairly longform shoot this weekend and am either going to buy a firestore fs100 or two 8gig cards. either should satisfy most of my shooting needs.

here is my worry. the shoots will have a lot of vibration. going to be shooting a train passing by from about 15-20 feet away and a live band performance.

ive herad various issues about fs100s acting sketchy in hellicopters and im wondering if maybe the low frequency vibration could be the issue.

sounds to me that p2 cards are the way to go for reliability, but i just cant get the additional 84 gigs of the firestore for the same dollars out of my head...
 
Now is not a good time to be buying 8gb cards. The 16gb is just over a month away and the 8gb will be about 1/2 price of what it is now. That being said I wouldn't buy a FS100 either. My recommendation would be to rent a few cards for this shoot and wait 'till may to buy some cards.
 
I like ozduc's thinking. We don't know what 16GB cards will be priced at, but they're supposed to show up in May.

Thing is, if you need it now, get what you need now and put it to work now. If you can limp by with renting that might be a good way to go; if not, get what you need and don't look back.
 
I use my FS-100 on boats, I've shot 10 feet away from a speeding freight train, van on an Interstate, no problems at all. A helicopter is a whole different universe.

I do a lot of Time Lapse, and I'm on a stop animation project now taking full advantage of the FS's SNAP mode recording. The FS-100 comes in super handy for both, as the HVX doens't have the flexibility the FS offers for these type of things.

The FS-100 can also have RS232 control in case you wanted to create some custom, specialty triggering device for recording.

It's a hard drive, hard drives have limits that make P2 more reliable in many ways.

Different situations will require different solutions. No one solution covers 100% of your shooting needs. So, it's something to seriously think about.

For now, rent, see how you like it. If you rent the FS-100, be sure they include the user manual with it.
 
Barry_Green said:
I like ozduc's thinking. We don't know what 16GB cards will be priced at, but they're supposed to show up in May.

Thing is, if you need it now, get what you need now and put it to work now. If you can limp by with renting that might be a good way to go; if not, get what you need and don't look back.
Click to expand...

Good advise.
 
all this is good advice. but what im looking for is opinions from experience/workflow standpoints. like if you could only choose one or the other.
 
That's what we're saying, there is no single solution to cover 100% of your situations. YOU need to consider the pros and cons for your specific situation and make a decision. "If you could only choose..." is, IMHO, asking someone to make the decision for you.

You have tons of info here, consider it, what do YOU think would work best for your specific situation? It's not our decision, it's yours. We just give you the info.

If I had to chose between the two, I'd go with another camera. I have situations where I have no choice but to record for up to 45 minutes without touching the camera. Without the FS-100, the HVX would be useless to me. I'd rather have two hours on P2 cards, but it doesn't exist. Some folks shoot Indies and only need a few minutes at a time. So P2 is great for them. Some of us need Time Lapse the HVX won't do on it's own, that the FS does, some of us don't.

Point is, we'll all give you various different answers to "what if you had to choose only one", so that's just not a productive question to ask "us", but at this juncture, you HAVE to ask "yourself".

Personally, having both gives me much more flexibility and power than just one. But, there are others who have VERY DIFFERENT stories than mine, because we don't all shoot the same thing in the same environment.

Just my 2 senseless cents...
 
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thats exactly what i was looking for ben, thanks!

when the 16 gig cards are out it will be a be a no brainer. two of those. but for now (meaning THIS WEEKEND), it seems that a firestore is the best catch-all for my needs...
 
Just remember that the one and only draw back to the FS-100 is the HVX's stupidly engineered flimsy Sony 4-pin Firewire port.
 
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