Looking for more input on firestore

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I know the Firestore is just out, but, does this thing make sense? I am on my way to pick one up but looking for more info.

As far as I know, you get 100 plus minutes of recording time, yet battery only lasts 90 minutes.

Firewire 400 so it would probably take 20-30 minutes to download full drive.

Average tech support.

It seems I woud be buying something that only does 80 percent of what it says it does. Its like buying a Maserati and getting square tires.


Anybody with some insight into this before I buy it then have to R & D it as well.
 
There have been a few posts on this recently (I do not own one). Yep, it's new but they have been in the business for a while. I have not heard anyone say that it doesn't do what it's supposed to do.

The battery issue is what kept me from buying the FS-"whatever it was" for my DVX-100 (before I parted company with it for the HVX). Seems like some folks are wishing for a few more features but, at the price it's presently the only game in town if you need to record for extended periods.

You may have other options dependind on what your intentions are: Record direct to a laptop? P2 cards to a laptop or P2 Store or PCMCIA slot in a laptop? Wait for the CinePorter . . . whenever that comes out. Record SD to tape.

Blah, blah, blah. Part of what comes with being on the cutting edge <g> is that you automatically qualify as the newest crash test dummy (no pun intended).

Let us know how you make out--cause others will be hoisting the same question up the flagpole in the weeks ahead.

Good luck!
 
I get my 180 minute battery Tuesday. So far I like the FS100. The manual isn't great at explaining but this forum helps. It records flawlessly and playback is a bit cumbersome, but it is version 1.0.0. I believe it can only get better. Until the CinePorter is made available and proves itself, I'm gonna make this thing work.

Don Wilson
 
Hi Don,

My FS-100 arrives today. My dealer did not have 180min batteries so I bought the FS-4 extended battery from B&H thinking its the same thing. I'll find out soon enough if it works, but do you know off hand? Also, ewhere did you get the charger? I can't find it even listed anywhere...
 
I don't get what the big deal is with the battery...... think about it, if you have a 100GB...... 4 or 5 of that is used for formatting..... so then that means you have 95GB left.... on average you get a Gig a minute so then the battery will die with 5 GB left..... The thing is basically already full..... what more could you do with it anyway?
 
PunkMetalDrummer17 said:
I don't get what the big deal is with the battery...... think about it, if you have a 100GB...... 4 or 5 of that is used for formatting..... so then that means you have 95GB left.... on average you get a Gig a minute so then the battery will die with 5 GB left..... The thing is basically already full..... what more could you do with it anyway?
Click to expand...

How about offloading your data and re-using it? My daily rate covers me for 10 hours. Im hardly going to impress the client when I call it a day after 90minutes. At least with P2 Im able to shoot what I need when I need it and only use the store when required. Lets face it, 90minutes of battery life is a huge hinderance. If Im shooting DVCPRO 25 or 50 the thing is going to die on me at 50% or 25% capacity. What use is that? Tape has worked for a lot of people for a long time and has evolved to meet peoples needs as much as workflow has evolved around tape. We really need products that provide the same working opportunities and ability. Its early days but there is no excuse for bringing a product to the market that cant run long enough to fill up its own harddrive.
 
You can use 2 FS-100s... they're the price of one 8GB P2 Card a piece, when you run out of battery... switch it out for the other one..... and recharge the dead one for 10 -15 minutes pull of what you need.... charge it the rest of the way..... and then you can repeat those steps when the other one is dead. It's like hotswapping P2 cards to an extent except you have to stop recording.....or maybe bridge the gap with a P2 card? Don't know if that possible.

I can see your arguement for the DVCPro 25 and 50 though..... 22.5GB and 45GB of recording is low...... I'd never use the FS-100 for DVCPro25 recording tho..... you can get the same amount of time on a 8GB P2 Card.
 
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PunkMetalDrummer17 said:
I don't get what the big deal is with the battery...... think about it, if you have a 100GB...... 4 or 5 of that is used for formatting..... so then that means you have 95GB left.... on average you get a Gig a minute so then the battery will die with 5 GB left..... The thing is basically already full..... what more could you do with it anyway?
Click to expand...

First place, most people don't shoot for 90 minutes straight when shooting film style. The 90 minutes of "record time" is reduced for every minute the thing is on. The harddrive still spins and it still takes power to run the thing. At DVCPro HD you start with 111 miniutes available, so the math is flawed. I have one back up battery and coming this week the 180 minute battery plus other assorted batteries for dc to ac inverting and various cig adapters and batteries. It's just not that convenient to turn the thing on and off between takes as it takes a bit to boot up.

I got the charger from Focus. I believe it is the same as the FS-4 charger but I can't guarantee that. I also have the new cradle coming next week that will hold the bigger battery. Over this past weekend, on breaks from shooting etc I plugged the FS in to a battery with inverterto that we kept at central locations to charge and I was able to run all day, but with the additional batteries I'm expecting, it should get easier. And if you are shooting DV25, why use the Firestore anyway, go to tape. I'm sure those of you who object so strongly to this thing are very much in Panasonic's favor as they'd love you to buy more P2 cards. So far, it is a lot more convenient than dumping every 19 minutes of record time. it's not perfect but this is new technology and it will only get better.

Don Wilson
 
Why leave it on.... if you stop recording either you're talking with actors/crew or you're changing set-ups..... That's like letting the tape run in the camera when you're changing set-ups. I mean you wouldn't waste Film Stock why waste the battery of the harddrive.
 
Thanks for the imput on the firestore, I'm not yet convinced. I think the p2 store is the most native approach. I have to disagree with you Don, i'm not in Panasonics favor because I don't want to buy more p2 cards, as a matter of fact I don't think Panasonic should have even released this camera until there were ample HD recording solutions. IE.. more available p2 cards at reasonable prices. And this shorter -than-recording-time battery issue is just wrong. But, I do like the camera and I've gotten some great images. This new technology will only get better when we don't have to upgrade every accessory we buy before we even use it.
 
Okay...so the firestore acts like a big P2 card right? Unlike DV, it will still require a conversion in FCP although it says on the site there is no need for any conversions. I own two old FS-4s for my DVXs, so I will say they saved me loads of time capturing and was well worth the money. The FS-100 though is just basically a big bulky P2 card as far as I can see since I don't see how it deals with MXF files any differently than P2 cards. (There are problems with the FS interface in any case...at least for the FS-4...readability of the LCD was mediocre at best...and sometimes near impossible in bright light situations. As far as turning it on and off...well film stock doesn't require it's hard drive to warm up and make your link is up.)

I feel their marketing is misleading and no one who has an FS-100 has yet to say it isn't anything other than an MXF storage bin. Could someone who has experience with it please enlighten us? Can you or can you not, mount the FS-100 and "just start editing"? Or do you have to do a P2 import?

Can you imagine how long it will take to "import all" a 100 Gig P2 card over FW 400? I don't know so can an owner tell us how long?

Do I buy 3 or 4 P2 4gig cards instead?

Any information from FS-100 users would be great.
 
Bob, I am under the impression that the firestore actually acts like a HD only, capturing mxf files. It is not like a p2 card because if it were it would increase recording capacity in 720 p-native mode. You still have to off load for archiving and you still have to import and convert to quicktime for FCP. This is only what I have read. And yes it would take a bit of time to download full drive, or almost full drive if your using the battery that comes with it. I think info on this firestore is still being hashed out.
 
You can record from the camera in Raw DV mode eliminating the MFX environment altogether. I can firewire connect the FS100 to the desktop or laptop and edit away....if I wanted to which I don't. I used to edit prime time 1 hour episodic with 3/4 decks and a change anywhere in the show meant a world of hurt. Hearing everyone complain about having to dump faster than real-time from any HD device makes me cringe. My firsrt Avid had 4 bit B and W video, you could hardly see the friggin time code burn-in, the drives were 560 MB and they cost 7 grand... and look at it now. It will all get better....and fast. New products like CinePorter and CitiDisk (if they can get their act together) will force Focus to step up. I'm already looking in to a 160 gig replacment drive for my FS100. There are issues like how to deliver camera original masters with the delivery show master and we're working on that, but be patient, give input and see the results coome quickly.

Don Wilson
 
Cut2muz said:
You can record from the camera in Raw DV mode eliminating the MFX environment altogether. I can firewire connect the FS100 to the desktop or laptop and edit away....if I wanted to which I don't.

Don Wilson
Click to expand...


Thanks for the info. But I can record DV mode on my FS-4 too and just edit away. I would like to record HD 720p24n mode and just mount the drive up and "edit", but that is not what I think it can do. If the FS100 is just a powered hard drive, what exactly is the value added besides a battery? I'm assuming it records MXF files directly to the hard disk instead of dubbing from a P2 card, but while that allows some longer shoots, it's not anything near the usability of the FS-4 and DV mode and it appears to cost nearly 3 times as much.
 
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