I have reciently purchaced a cannon XL2 I have been using XL1 pro's before this aqusition I have gone tapeless using the Focus Enhancments Fire Store
DTE Hard drive. With one Basic problem I cannot get the FS-4 to work with the XL2 ...... Any Ideas?

Go into the camera menus and make sure DV Control is set to on. This is what will enable the XL-2 to command the Firestore to start/stop when the camera does. You will see an icon in the vf that confirms when you have it turned on. It doesn't come set to the on position from the factory.

Hope this helps,

-gb-

Cheers Mate worked a treat

Greg,
Your information is interesting, although a little late for me.I bought and returned two fs4's, because there were intermittent problems with my xl2 and gl1.The main problem with the xl2 was in transfering footage already on tape to the fs4.Sometimes it worked, and some times it didn't.I found that by removing and replacing the firewire plug, I could sometimes get the thing to work.
Also, the first fs4 just stopped recording on my first shoot. The first fs4 worked well with the gl1 (after an initial glitch). The second one wouldn't work in "synchro slave ' mode( with the gl1).
I didn't think to try turning on the dv connection in the menu...maybe it would have worked.
I was really hoping that the fs4 would work, but after struggling with two of them, I felt that it was too much money for something that worked "sometimes"
Bruce S. Yarock

Bruce,

I'm not certain about XL-2 and the FS-4 being able to transfer from tape to the hard drive. Mainly because you would have to be in the camera's vcr mode and the manual (pg. 82) shows that 'EXT' and 'VCR' are not valid modes for use with the DV control function.

You might want to give the FS-4 a second chance!

-gb-

the XL2 to fs-4 relationship does have its quirks, you really have to get in there and develope an intimaterelationship between the two machines, the FS4 has to have some very specific settings in place to work well, and these settings have to be maintained. At the same time, there is the need to take time at he beginning of shoots to make sure the drives are mounted properly.

Over time it gets easier, and you can troubleshoot the connection pretty quickly. When they're working, they work good.

the XL2 to fs-4 relationship does have its quirks, you really have to get in there and develope an intimaterelationship between the two machines, the FS4 has to have some very specific settings in place to work well, and these settings have to be maintained. At the same time, there is the need to take time at he beginning of shoots to make sure the drives are mounted properly.

Over time it gets easier, and you can troubleshoot the connection pretty quickly. When they're working, they work good.
I hear ya, Stefan, but when I pay that much for equipment, I don't expect to have to futz around with making them work together.

Jay

Greg,
That would be a THIRD chance...
Bruce Yarock

You guys are lucky you got that far with your fs4. After waiting for months and paying so much money, mine arrived faulty from the factory. They got me to send it back and fixed the firmware only to send it back to me with the same fault. I haven't even used it once. I have shipped it back again and I have been promised a new unit. I am so scared to turn it on. I want to believe this technology and I pray it has to work.

I've recently started using an FS-4 Pro with my XL2. It definitely has it's quirks but so far nothing that makes me want to return it. I would say it's a device that is definitely worth having. Although it didn't save me as much time as I had hoped on my last project, it did shave about half the time off that it would have normally taken me to get the video into my computer. I did have to upgrade the firmware by downloading the latest firmware from Focus Enhancements website. The tech was sort of helpful but didn't want to say for sure what exactly the firmware was going to and not going to resolve.