HVX-200 P2 fire wire drive transfer

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DIGIMARK

Member
Hello all.

Producing/shooting a small doc feature using HVX-200 in remote places with limited power during shooting hours. Searching various threads here and on other sites haven't yet found an answer to my storage issues. Is it possible to go directly from the camera into a firewire 400 drive (G-tech/Lacie/WiebeTech) in order to clear card for re-use. This would be for emergency purposes (day goes hour longer than anticipated).
Understand that it would not be viewable but can it be done without laptop or firestore?

Thanks
 
Yes. You can transfer the contents of P2 cards via firewire...however the fw drive cannot be bus powered...

Look in the hvx200 manual under "copying p2 cards to the hard disk drive" using 1394 host mode. If you don't have a manual handy you can find one online...

The drive is formatted by the camera...erasing all contents of the harddrive...you then can transfer 15 times...a maximum of 15 partitions...so if you are using 16gb cards you would want a drive that would hold 16 X 15 gb...

Later once you connect to a laptop/pc do not mess around with the partitions...for example, a friend of mine decided to delete a partition after the camera formatted the hd and he had transferred 15 times so he thought he would delete a partition...ended up screwing up the entire drive...

Good luck!

RJS
 
Thanks RJS.

Has anyone had found a good self powered (battery powered) fire wire hard drive or hard drive enclosure?
you would think with all the other accessories being sold for the HVX some one would have come up with one of those by now.

Have looked at the Cutie drive enclosure and some Frankenstein looking home made contraptions.

Any ideas?

To repeat for those who might not have heard the HVX firewire does not carry power so you would need an externally powered drive to make this transfer happen.

Mark
 
The Nexto CF2525 is the best I've found. It has battery power for up to about 120 GB, and has both firewire and USB ports. Plus it has direct offloading of compactflash cards, which can come in handy if you shoot still photos to CF (or use a Red One).
 
In reading multiple threads on this issue I have discovered a fairly simple off the shelf solution. Hear this one out.
To transfer from the HVX to Firewire hard drive you need power for the hard drive because as we all know the HVX does not provide Bus power for device. If you are on a remote shoot far away from standard power this can be problematic....
unless you cobble together some form of power supply or...

Power any make or model hard drive with XPower PowerSource Mobile 100 by Xantrex
http://www.xantrex.com/web/id/233/p/docs/pt/5/product.asp
You can get this one at amazon or circuit city online for about $100 USD
then just plug in hard drive as you would into a normal outlet.
So hook up the HVX to the Hard drive which now has AC power, enter Host mode and start transfer

data transfer complete. Format card and move on.

Not a salesman, just really happy to find a simple off the shelf solution.

Mark
 
battery-powered firewire hard drive for hvx-200

battery-powered firewire hard drive for hvx-200

That power unit seems bulky. Why not just use an inexpensive powered firewire drive. I use a 2.5" firewire enclosure. AMS seems to be one of the only manufacturers of these type of enclosures.
http://www.firewiregear.net/productdetails1.cfm?sku=AMS25K&cats=
If anyone knows of any other manufacturers of inexpensive battery-powered firewire hard drive enclosures, let me know (they come in handy). thanks
 
I've got one of the AMS enclosures, I found it nigh unto useless because the battery only lasted for a max. of four 4GB transfers.

The Nexto CF2525 is a much better bet, it includes battery power for up to 110GB of transfers. It's a lot more expensive though.
 
Yes, although that one includes a 160GB hard disk. I bought mine as an empty enclosure for $149 and put my own hard disk in it.
 
Maybe someone will come up with a cf to P2 adapter so i can finally use my P2 Store as a still photo holder!!
 
Has anyone had problems getting the HVX to recognise the firewire drive? I have a mains powered lacie firewire drive which I am just testing out but when I enter 1394 host mode all the options except set up are greyed out.

Any help would be great. Thanks!
 
Nexto question for Barry...

Nexto question for Barry...

How long does it generally take to do a 16G transfer... we were working a project in Cameroon and dl to two 60g P2 stores... I'm looking into changing that setup....
see the project at
www.lakegod.com
 
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