I'm working out whether to go for the EX-1 or the S7 or S270, and looking for solutions for recording long chunks of conference material (other than a deck of SxS cards). Recording to XDCAM optical disk is out due to the very high cost.

Is it possible to hook up something like the HVR-M15 tape deck to the EX-1 and record either HDV or DV/DVCAM to tape? (I think it's the Deck that has to do the downconvert)

Which reminds me... If I understand correctly, the EX-1 can be switched between two 'Regions' - 'NTSC Area' and 'PAL Area' which defines 60/30/24 or 50/25 rates. I'm guessing that the M-15 is switchable between PAL and NTSC, so I can feed it 60/30/24 HDV for downconverting to NTSC, and 50/25 for PAL.

Or is this little 'back door' locked too?

Matt,

I think a much cheaper and lighter option would be use a laptop as the recording device.

If you use the component or AV out the camera can be set to downconvert automatically (not the best quality I would agree), but you would need an analogue capture input on the laptop (I can't think of one off hand, but the others guys probably can).

You can possibly even go SDI out off the heads if you can find a laptop adaptor that takes SDI in, as SDI output can also be set to SD in the camera menus. This however may be slightly more expensive than the deck, but I am not sure on that. Would have to check current prices. Just an idea.

Surely, the M15 and M25 will record the HDV data stream which the EX1 outputs when in 1440x1080 mode. This will give you 3 hours HDV record on a standard large shell 184 min cassette, via firewire, perfect for a conference or concert.

correct me if I am mistaken.

Paul

Yes, they will, and it works perfectly, giving the 3 hours on the large cassette, and they are not heavy to carry around, at all.

Yes, they will, and it works perfectly, giving the 3 hours on the large cassette, and they are not heavy to carry around, at all.

Minor point but it's 4.5 hours on a 184min DVCAM cassette.
The M15 does 50/60Hz, DV,DVCAM and HDV.

I think a much cheaper and lighter option would be use a laptop as the recording device... you would need an analogue capture input on the laptop... you can possibly even go SDI out off the heads if you can find a laptop adaptor that takes SDI in...

When situations permit, I currently use FireWire to attach my Z1 to my MacBook Pro running FCP, so I can record 'indefinately' at DV. I have to say, though, that an M-15 is cheaper, smaller and infinitely less desirable (in terms of the inevitable restroom breaks).

There used to the the original FireStore - a box which you plugged a DV Camcorder in one hole and connected a FireWire drive (almost any FireWire drive) in another, and away you went. In these days of cheap high capacity 7200 rpm drives, that's far more appealing than solutions where the drive is built-in. High capacity carries a huge premium in the FireStore/CitiDisk/QuickStream class of products.

But I can't shrug off the feeling that having a deck to hand, especially if I'm shooting on SxS cards and the client wants tapes or I want backup, seems to make an EX-1 and M-15 sufficiently usable in these situations over a S270.