purchasing advice please

gkb444

gkb444

Active member
I am going to be purchasing the hvx200 very soon and am trying to decide if I should go with p2 cards or firestore. I have a copy of dvrack hd and have used it a little but I am also needing to purchase a new laptop that is a better quality (pc user). I have been doing mostly short film work but will be doing comercial and interview work soon. what is the best route for me to go. if I go the firestore route will I lose quality if I transfer my media to an external hard drive via firewire at the end of the day? any information or suggestions will be much appreciated.

Thanks,
GKB444
 
You will not lose quality by going the firestore route.

I have both, and I shoot on p2 WHENEVER possible. But there have been many instances where I have needed that long recording time.

I would suggest if you can hold out for 32GB p2 cards, do that, and buy two of them. Add a laptop with p2 slot and you're ready to go.
 
im with arges - i have and use both. its a matter of "horses for courses" they each have their place. a firestore will still be handy even when the 32 gig cards come out.

if you need to run LONG single shots - its the only way to go (aside from connecting straight to your computer)

ive owned two firestores and neither have ever failed me - again however still in agreement with arges, i am WAY more confident with p2 and will go that route whenever possible. just because the wiggly little firewire connection always scare the bejesus outta me
 
P2 yes.

P2 yes.

I agree on the P2 cards workflow. I used a Firestore for the last job I did and although it didnt fail me, it needed additional battery support to keep running for the 8 hour shoot day, by the end, I was wearing a 12v belt and I felt like I was back in 3/4 inch bag days.

The firestore is just not built to pro standards, the 1394 cable connect is suspect at the best of times and theyre is no 1/4" screw hole to mount the thing anywhere.

The P2 cards rock and if you have a good data wrangler setup on set you can shoot and dump at a fairly consistent pace, an extra body to do this helps as well.

My 2

Gordo88
 
Thanks

Thanks

Thanks for the input I really appreciate it. I do have one additional question that is somewhat unrelated. since the p2 card is a pcmcia card essentially could you put a pcmcia firewire card in the p2 card slot and transfer media via 9pin firewire to a portable harddrive/laptop 9pin firewire connection? if this works then it would at least move the firewire cable to the back of the camera and there it would be easier to wrangle with power cords and such. If I had to guess this would not work since the camera most likely wont recognize the pcmcia card but I thought I'd ask.

Once again thanks for the input.
gkb444
 
I have my reasons against firestore. My first time at this production company it crapped out the night before (froze anytime you touched the buttons too many times) Makes me so nervous. P2 baby.
 
gkb444 said:
since the p2 card is a pcmcia card essentially could you put a pcmcia firewire card in the p2 card slot and transfer media via 9pin firewire to a portable harddrive/laptop 9pin firewire connection?
Click to expand...
Nope, can't be done.

You can however connect a SBP2-compatible Firewire drive to the camera using the DV port. Put the camera in 1394 HOST mode, and it can format the hard drive and offload P2 cards to it.
 
I have tried HD RAck (non Adobe version) as well as shooting live right to an AVID bin from a P2 spx800 via FW. That P2 copy to Laptop drill can be messy and in a hurry you could erase important P2 files. The best way is the new 32gb P2 cards and then copy to a laptop, I tried copying two 4gb and 1 8gb P2 cards to a laptop during a 12 hr shoot and it was a fisaco as later trying to read my notes and find the video and edit it was a joke. I was using user bit times and often I forgot to write down the right user bit info...etc etc.

My firewire cable has come out, accidently erased p2 vidoes copied to a laptop, I have been through it all. Now I am considering a FS100 for an upcoming 12 hr shoot, but I need to know if I can turn the thing off and on and what the start up time is ? Also, how many FS batteries for a 12hr shoot do I need ?

Thanks, Patrick
 
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