I am an Glidecam user evaluating Disk Recorders for the field. I am impressed by the functionality of the FS-3. But for the pricetag, what are the advantages of the FS-3 over using a laptop to capture directly? The laptop would be a decent processor (1.5+), high RAM (1gig), decent hard drive (60 gig) dell with XP Pro with more than one battery attached through a long firewire cable to the camera (cost ~$1700).

Some advantages I can think of for the FS-3 are:

1. power feed direct from camera battery
2. true portability; no cables between the camera and the FS-3
3. slave to camera for recording
4. straightforward VTR interface

Some advantages I can think of for a laptop are:

1. large playback monitor
2. weight savings for a steadicam/glidecam system as it can be detached from the camera
3. in field editing

Thanks in advance to any advice,
Will

JVC gy dv500u
Glidecam V-20
Anton-Bauer
Avid DV Xpress

Normally you are moving the camera around quite a lot on a days
work and that didn't work too good for me when I was recording
on my laptop (was recording on tape at the same time as well).

It has some advantages, but you just cannot beat the harddisk
recorders at portability.