Hi,

I just wanted some advice on shooting to a hard drive... can anyone recommend one?

I have a Canon XLH1 (PAL) and will be editing with Premier but cant really find a hard drive that jumps out at me. One I have been looking at is the ‘FS-C FireStore 60GB’ for about £1,000 but that seems like a lot of cash... Im sure someone mentioned the ‘FS-4HD 80GB’ for around £800... Im confused.

Is anyone using an XLH1 and FS-C/FS-4H together that can comment?
And what is the difference (apart from obviously the capacity)?

Thanks in advance,
Dom Ricioppo

Dear Dom,

Disclaimer: I work for Convergent Designs and we make the Flash XDR and the nanoFlash.

Dom, you have the choice of two paths.

1. You can record via a Firewire connected device.

The Firewire data is already compressed and is always 4:2:0 so you lose some quality.

2. You can record via the HD-SDI output, which is before compression and it is always 4:2:2, which is much higher in quality.

Our Flash XDR's and nanoFlashes record from the HD-SDI output.

(This is a more expensive solution but you achieve a much higher quality image.)

I don't work for Convergent Designs, but if you can afford it I'd go for the Nanoflash. This is a slightly more expensive option than Firestores and the like but it'll take your camera into a different realm entirely - bypassing the horrible HDV compression. I think Firestore-type devices are well well behind the times now, I mean 80gb on a hard drive for instance, you can get 32gb on a tiny compact flash card today!
Steve

Thanks for the replies guys. However, im the first to admit it, but im an impatient person so iv already gone out and bought myself a ‘FireStore FS-4 PRO HD 80GB’, i got it for £500 though so i dont think i did too bad.

The XDR sounds like a pretty neat piece of kit... but at around £4,800 its out of my price range, as is the NanoFlash ... atleast for now anyway. The FireStore will have to do.

Cheers lads.
-Dom

I don't work for Convergent Designs, but if you can afford it I'd go for the Nanoflash. This is a slightly more expensive option than Firestores and the like but it'll take your camera into a different realm entirely - bypassing the horrible HDV compression. I think Firestore-type devices are well well behind the times now, I mean 80gb on a hard drive for instance, you can get 32gb on a tiny compact flash card today!
Steve....I'm sorry but I couldn't let this comment go - "the horrible HDV compression." There is absolutely nothing *horrible* about the spectacular quality HDV compression the Canon XL H1 camera produces to either tape or via FireWire to a Firestore or computer hard drive. Allow me to point out that HDV has the same resolution as HDCAM and although it receives a high degree of compression, I challenge anyone to give me an example of artifacting in regards to the HDV hardware in camera compressor of the XL H1. I think the HDV format has received somewhat of a bad rap, so to speak. In Canada, many TV productions are shooting in HDV now (Some in HDV 24F and posted on the new version of Avid Media Composer) and are broadcast on cable & satellite TV.

Dan is quite correct in pointing out that the HD SDI output is superior to compressed 4:2:0 color space formats (Such as HDV), but please understand HDV is not a low quality format per se. The secret to getting prestine results shooting HDV, is to post it in an editing app which will not *recompress* your source material. Unfortunately, FCP and Vegas (As far as I last checked) will not accept HDV 24F for direct fast import. So far, only Avid Media Composer offers both non recompression of the HDV files and 24F import and edit. I have edited several productions shot in HDV on Avid MC and can confirm prestine quality results.

Mark