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Focus Firestore Pros & Cons
I know that with Panasonic’s line of P2 cams, that P2 is the way to go if you want to shoot HD, but is the Focus FS-100 a viable option? Can any users of this product offer any pros and cons to using it? Also, is the HD Citidisk an option as well? I plan on possibly using this product with an HVX200 and Final Cut Pro running on an Intel Mac (all hardware and software are current).
Thanks, Jason -
6 Replies
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Pros- More storage at cheaper price than P2.
Cons- Not nearly as rugged/reliable as P2, fewer format options, some nagging ingest issues. -
Do a search both in this forum and the Firestore forum and you should have more than enough reading material to keep you busy for awhile and ultimately make your own decision.
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To weigh in, please read the posts here on the CitiDisk.
Not the best reviews.
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We just finished our first shoot using P2 with an HPX500. Our workflow was to transfer P2 cards to a RAID 1 (mirrored) drive as they were filled. The mirrored drive makes an instant backup of the data. We use P2 Genie for the transfer and HD Log to view the MXF data off the hard drive before wiping the P2 card. The cards transfer at about 2x real time using a MBP and Duel Adaptor so we never fell behind. It worked great!
John
Dual 2.5 G5 4 gigs RAM OS 10.4.8 QT7.1.3
Dual Cinema 23 Radeon 9800
FCP Studio 5 (FCP5.1.2, DVDSP4.1.1, Comp2.3, STP1.1, Motion 2.1.2)
Huge U-320R 1TB Raid 3 firmware ENG15.BIN
ATTO UL4D driver 3.50
AJA IO driver 2.1 firmware v23-28
Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neuman U87s, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN -
Pros: You have many option on what you can caputre long events just as long as its under 111 min. It is a nice option for more space. Easy hook up and downloading.
Cons: added weight, being teathered to the camera is not great.I plan to use both P2 Cards and Fire store. I can’t wait till the 128 gig P2 card comes out. I heard 2009 or 2010
I am a FCP 5.2 user and a DVDSTPRO4 user
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Pros for the P2 cards: heat-proof, cold-proof, shock-proof, dust-proof, humidity-proof, silent, small, no need for a separate battery, no need to be cabled to the camera through a firewire port, can play back clips via thumbnails, can play back clips to a high-def monitor, can be used to immediately record and play back slow-mo, can attach P2 metadata, can edit six streams of HD right off the cards.
Cons for the FireStore: look at every item above, and add a “not”.
Pros for the FireStore: larger capacity for continuous recording than you could get from any one P2 card so far. Also, can record directly in Quicktime format, which can make for an easier import to FCP if you’re using FCP.
Cons for the P2 cards: they cost more per gig currently, and are in very short supply.
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