[Christopher Wright]

Actually now that the P2 cards have become cheaper and added capacity, the point is almost moot now.
Back when the P2 was only 4GB and you had to hire a separate “loader” for every shoot over 8 minutes long, the choice was much simpler and easier. That being said, I have never “lost a shot” on the FS since the first day they came out, and I own two of them. I have definitely gotten way more than “what I paid for,” very reliably, for many years now. The only problem I have ever had with the FS is when someone either hit the cable and loosened it or actually yanked it out. The problem is that most people don’t ever read the manual or do a test on the equipment they use before they have to actually shoot. I for one would never rent a FS without specifically checking the “snugness” of a FW connection, and running it for a full hour to test it before a shoot, making sure my FS and P2 settings were the same frame rate etc. and testing the clips out in an actual timeline in FCP. People are not gentle with rental equipment, that is specifically why I never rent or loan out my personal gear. The problem actually goes much deeper than that though, as you can see from reading the P2 forum and seeing all the people who have problems with that workflow as well. There seem to be quite a few people “loosing” (sic) clips and whole shoots using P2 all the time. I call it the “dumbing down of the Cow.” There have been several posts in many different forums from leaders lamenting the basic lack of any knowledge of hardware, software or experience from many of the Cow posters now. I really miss the posts and technical discussions years ago on the Cow from people like Marco Solorio and Mat Silverman, where a certain skill level had to be attained before you even could follow their posts coherently. Now people are actually asking “how do I do dissolve” in FCP, and “how can I loop 4 real time video clips in AE for three hours” etc., etc. The same questions get asked about mixing frame rates, interlaced vs. progressive, dropped frames from using either internal or USB drives over and over again. After awhile it does seem like a futile waste of time even responding anymore…
Enough said, rant over, and out…..

Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
Nehalem Octocore 12 GB Ram, Nvidia card, MBP, MXO, MXO2 mini, Windows Vista Adobe Studio CS4, Vegas 9.0, Lightwave 9.6, Sound Forge 9, Acid Pro 7, Continuum 6, Boris Red 4, Combustion 2008, Sapphire Effects

[Christopher Wright]

Sounds like a loose or bad Firewire cable to me.
You should probably also head over to the Firestore forum and do a search for questions like this.
Many set-up and troubleshooting tips for the FS can be found there.

Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
Nehalem Octocore 12 GB Ram, Nvidia card, MBP, MXO, MXO2 mini, Windows Vista Adobe Studio CS4, Vegas 9.0, Lightwave 9.6, Sound Forge 9, Acid Pro 7, Continuum 6, Boris Red 4, Combustion 2008, Sapphire Effects

[Christopher Wright]

I’d say, if you wanna make the movie, make it… if it is something that you want to do, if it is a subject or theme that is close to your heart, if it seems fun, or if you want to build your reel. Don’t make it though in expectation of a future payday down the road. I have rarely seen those happen.

Very sage advise.
I have been through this process with film projects many times, either on the D.P. end, editing end, or as a full on production resource. One “director friend who only lives a few miles from me” totally hosed a good project and even tried to stop the film from being shown at film festivals and to distributors. You never really know who your real friends or enemies are until you try to make a feature film with them, and there is money involved. As has been mentioned by many here, even if your film gets good reviews and is played at a major film festival, rarely does anyone make a dime on their effort, especially their “first feature under their belt.” Making a film takes a lot of hard work and effort, and dedication from all participants in the project especially if no one is getting paid for it. And as one producer once told attendees at a seminar on filmmaking at our local film festival, “Making a film is easy, it’s getting someone to actually see it that is hard (besides your actors, crew, and relatives).” The best advice I can give you is to get the best contract written up, signed and in place before a single person sets foot on set and the camera starts rolling. You will regret it down the line if you don’t.

Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
Nehalem Octocore 12 GB Ram, Nvidia card, MBP, MXO, MXO2 mini, Windows Vista Adobe Studio CS4, Vegas 9.0, Lightwave 9.6, Sound Forge 9, Acid Pro 7, Continuum 6, Boris Red 4, Combustion 2008, Sapphire Effects

[Christopher Wright]

What Rich and Joel said…
The only problems I have ever had with upgrade installs are older 3rd party filters and hardware drivers. Knowing that, you just have to go in prepared by making a system clone on another drive before jumping in. Then you are covered either way…

Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
Nehalem Octocore 12 GB Ram, Nvidia card, MBP, MXO, MXO2 mini, Windows Vista Adobe Studio CS4, Vegas 9.0, Lightwave 9.6, Sound Forge 9, Acid Pro 7, Continuum 6, Boris Red 4, Combustion 2008, Sapphire Effects

[Christopher Wright]

Dave,

I really think the point here is that this DSLR camera is just one tool in the arsenal. And especially with the 7D now, a VERY inexpensive one at that. I paid for mine twice over on the first shoot. Not to mention it is a great still camera. I am doing a heavy amount of posting with clients who are shooting spots with the 5D and now the 7D. They are truly awesome in every respect and have some of the best looking images I have ever seen, especially for 30 and 60 second television spots. They look and feel like they were shot with a 35mm film camera. The DOF possibilities, the low light capabilities, the small, inobtrusive form factor and awesome color reproduction are all deal breakers. I think the purpose of this thread was to point to the demise of Prosumer camcorders, and I believe that day has come. I feel sorry for the people still buying 20K to 50K video cameras. As you state, Canon could own the world by putting the same 35mm chip in a real camcorder that could accept all forms of Canon lenses. RED has dallied way too long in coming out with the next generation of their product line. But yes, I think the day of the camcorder is just about over.

Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
Nehalem Octocore 12 GB Ram, Nvidia card, MBP, MXO, MXO2 mini, Windows Vista Adobe Studio CS4, Vegas 9.0, Lightwave 9.6, Sound Forge 9, Acid Pro 7, Continuum 6, Boris Red 4, Combustion 2008, Sapphire Effects

[Christopher Wright]

Excellent Vimeo clip!
And finally someone who does the testing right;
all cameras are tweaked for the optimal settings they can achieve under one lighting set-up,
and all of the footage is actually color-corrected so you can focus on the image and gamma detail, DOF etc. versus the different casts inherent in each format. I was amazed at how well the HVX-200 stood up (especially with the adapters added) and I was kind of disappointed in the 5D footage, as I have seen much better work come from those, but that again could be attributable to the quality of lens used and operator. Much better effort than the early “film versus digital” shootouts, where a seasoned DP would tweak the settings on the film camera, and the HD camera was used with default settings right out of the box.

Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
Nehalem Octocore 12 GB Ram, Nvidia card, MBP, MXO, MXO2 mini, Windows Vista Adobe Studio CS4, Vegas 9.0, Lightwave 9.6, Sound Forge 9, Acid Pro 7, Continuum 6, Boris Red 4, Combustion 2008, Sapphire Effects

[Christopher Wright]

Looks like FCP 7.01 update, and the just released AJA IO HD update 7.1 are joined at the hip.

Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
Nehalem Octocore 12 GB Ram, Nvidia card, MBP, MXO, MXO2 mini, Windows Vista Adobe Studio CS4, Vegas 9.0, Lightwave 9.6, Sound Forge 9, Acid Pro 7, Continuum 6, Boris Red 4, Combustion 2008, Sapphire Effects

[Christopher Wright]

I have actually had great success with Boris Continuum’s Chroma Key plug-in.
Especially with the blue you are trying to key out.

Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
Nehalem Octocore 12 GB Ram, Nvidia card, MBP, MXO, MXO2 mini, Windows Vista Adobe Studio CS4, Vegas 9.0, Lightwave 9.6, Sound Forge 9, Acid Pro 7, Continuum 6, Boris Red 4, Combustion 2008, Sapphire Effects

[Christopher Wright]

If you are working on Snow Leopard, then many of the eSata drivers are not working yet.
I was fortunate that the GspeedEs drivers were updated for SN and my Raid array finally is working fine again.

Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
Nehalem Octocore 12 GB Ram, Nvidia card, MBP, MXO, MXO2 mini, Windows Vista Adobe Studio CS4, Vegas 9.0, Lightwave 9.6, Sound Forge 9, Acid Pro 7, Continuum 6, Boris Red 4, Combustion 2008, Sapphire Effects

[Christopher Wright]

Even at 50% off, this camera will be a doorstop in two years.
For anything this expensive it is definitely better to just rent the camera when you need it for jobs that demand it. It will lose value two months after you have bought it and used it anyway.

Dual 2.5 G5, IO, Kona LH, IO, Medea Raid, UL4D, NVidia 6800, 4Gig RAM
Nehalem Octocore 12 GB Ram, Nvidia card, MBP, MXO, MXO2 mini, Windows Vista Adobe Studio CS4, Vegas 9.0, Lightwave 9.6, Sound Forge 9, Acid Pro 7, Continuum 6, Boris Red 4, Combustion 2008, Sapphire Effects