long form doc

J

jackfate

Member
is the general consensus for shooting a doc in the field the firestore. will it really give 4 hours of 720p/24N? How rare is it crashing? and how long does it take to dump to a HDD?

I am shooting a doc that I want to eventually print on 35mm and am looking for the best option.

Even if i just shot it on DV, i would have to buy 200 tapes, and it seems like the fs-100 would be cost effective. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!
 
I'm in the field frequently and havent had issues at all using 3 8gb p2's and a laptop to copy with. I do however usually if not always have an assistant to do the copying for me though.

Dont know about the firestore though although I dont think p2 vs firestore will affect quality just workflow.

My main reasons for not going to the firestore is the sheer amount of time it takes to dump a full or almost full firestore and the added weight as alot of my work is off the tripod.
 
it doesnt seem very feasible to shoot a long doc in the field with the hvx. some of the time i wont have my laptop around...
 
FS-100 in 720/24pN equivalent is over three hours.

I've had no issues with it; others have.

Because it is a FW400 device, transfer times track that protocol.

Eventually you have to dump the contents to something.
 
good luck getting the firestore battery to last 3 hours in the field.

You'll get 90 minutes if you're lucky - unless of course you can plug it in somewhere.
 
The Tekkeon MP3400 MyPower external battery, which works perfectly with the FS, can last up to 2.5 hours.

And Focus makes an extended battery as well.
 
Never used the Mp3400, but I have used the extended firestore battery and was severly diappointed. The only way to get it to last any longer than a regular battery was to turn it off between takes.
It was a real bummer.

Is the MP3400 2.5 hours of record time or standby time?
 
On a side note, given the long potential recording durations with the FS-100 and the V3 firmware, I think the standard battery has become irrelevant, and I think Focus Enhacement should discontinue it, or at least allow customers to order the FS-100 with the extended battery, instead of requiring buyers to make a separate purchase. It makes little sense to have a battery that is sufficient for only ~50% of the drive's capacity.
 
I've never been able to get more than 90 minutes of standby/record out of the standard battery and its very irritating.

i gave up on this thing a while ago. It's much more cost/time effective to use P2 cards since the prices have come down. For the same price as the FS-100 you can get 2 16GB p2 cards - granted you only get half the record time of an fs-100 but you also get half the headaches and dont have to worry about running out battery - (except the camera of course!)

The other bummer is that the high capacty battery is an additional $200 and they charge you $39 for the upgrade! What kind of company charges you for a firmware upgrade? Hoe irritated would we all have been if Panasonic charged us $39 a piece for the HVX firmare upgrade for 16gb cards?

I don't mean to be so negative about the firestore. I'm sure it has a place in alot of people's workflows. I'm just speaking from an early adopters stand point. I fought tooth and nail to get the FS-100 on the initial release. I had to call every frigging licenses reseller in the US and I paid full price ($2250 at the time). I thought it would be the answer to alot of issues but it always seem to present more ups than downs. For every issue it posed a solution to, it introudced 3 new problems. oh well - I'm done venting. To each his own.
 
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