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Why no hard drive direct recording on EX-1?
It puzzles me that with the inclusion of both USB2 and firewire on the EX-1 there’s no option for connecting an external hard drive and recording directly to it. There are times when we shoot long, back-to-back interview segments, and having to deal with transferring data from the memory cards on-site would be a hassle, certainly compared with simply having everything to an external drive.
Anyone else wishing for this feature?
Dave Bittner
Blogging at:
https://www.pixelcadabra.com -
8 Replies
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Probably because the SxS cards have such long run times.
The camera can take two 16-gig cards that will give you 100 minutes of recording time. Somewhere in that time you can eject a full card and insert a blank one.
Sony had a piggy-back HDD recorder but I believe it was only HDV.
Dean Sensui — Imagination Media Hawaii
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Give it a short while, but can’t one record from the firewire port to a Firestore or something. I don’t own one so I have no idea.
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
Sony EX-1 has arrived and it’s fascinating. -
Currently you can record to hard drive in HDV mode only, from firewire port.
Those 16GB cards which hold 50 minutes in XDCAM HD (HQ) mode can hold 70 minutes in the same HDV (SQ) mode. So in that mode 2 16GB would hold 140 minutes. Dumping a card to laptop with express port would probably take less than 10 minutes.
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Is this true? I can directly connect a hard drive and record directly to it in HDV mode? No laptop needed in between, no Firestore? If so, this would be great for us. I looked through the owners manual and couldn’t find any mention of this feature.
Dave Bittner
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I think Craig was referring to a firestore drive or something similar that has internal software. Or a dedicated HDV recorder. You can also hook up another tape based HDV camcorder via iLINK and it will act as a slave to the EX1, stopping and starting during the record process as you stop and start the EX1. This was done only recently by another forum member here with a Sony V1U.
But as far as hooking up a stand alone FW drive and expecting it to record direct from the EX1’s iLINK port I’d have to say no.
– Don
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Yes, Firestore or Sony’s DR-60.
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Is that DR-60 available? and how much?
Steve Wargo
Tempe, Arizona
It’s a dry heat!Sony HDCAM F-900 & HDW-2000/1 deck
5 Final Cut (not quite PRO) systems
Sony HVR-M25 HDV deck
Sony EX-1 has arrived and it’s fascinating. -
DR 60 has been available for some time as it came out around the time the V1 did. It’s about $1400 and holds 60 GB, about 4.5 hours. Keep in mind that with the EX1 you’re limited to 25mbps CBR HDV spec.
Currently you can gat two 16 GB cards for just under $1800 which would give you a combined 140 minutes at the above data rate (100 minutes at XDCAM rate).
Depending on what happens at MacWorld you can get a MacBook Pro for about $2000 and there may be a $1500 13.3″ model announced. At that price you can offload cards at 10x, have client screen shots and do a rough cut (assuming you have an assistant).
There may be good specific reasons to get a DR 60 but given the prospect of 32GB cards and the dropping cost of laptops, there are alternatives.
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