I've read most of the posts in this forum and also spoke to someone at BH. I'm thinking about getting one for a music video on Wednesday, for which the producer was planning on renting an Aja ki pro mini ( which I have used). I'd have to get it for Tuesday am delivery, to give me time to play with it.
Here are my questions:
1- We edit in Premier 5.0, but some clients use fcp.What are my setting and bit rate options for shooting for both platforms? I assume the HD quiktime files are easily imported into Cs5, just like clips from a Canon 7d. Is that correct?

2- One of the reccomended drives is the vertex oc3 240 gig drive. How would I figure out the recording time for the different rates on this drive?

3- When I read the specs on the Vertex oc3 240, it said that the drive had to be formatted to use on a pc, and that a specific software was needed. Can anyone clarify this?
Thanks for any information.
Bruce Yarock
Yarock Productions (http://www.yarockvideo.com)

@Bruce.
Answer to 1- Yes, Quicktime files are easily ingested into Premiere 5, if Quicktime 7 Pro is installed on your pc.

2- Depending on the bitrate your camera is outputting, you will use approx 10Gb/minute for uncompressed HD 1080p 25fps, and approx 2Gb/minute for DNxHD 185 1080p 25 compressed, Qt or MXF.
So about 24 minutes for UC and 2hrs for DNxHD, slightly less for 30p.
I have found that it is better not to completely fill a drive.
I'm guessing it's good to leave 20% empty.
I began to get dropped frames near the end of a drive's capacity on the one occassion I filled it.

3- I use Mac Drive 8 on my pc to format the SSD's in apple hfs+. It is relatively easy to do this via a USB/eSATA dock.

p.s. I tried the Lightworks beta and it opens and edits the Shuttle Qt UC files no problems, but not the DNxHD.
Apparently the new Lightworks (http://www.lightworksbeta.com/) open source release due on May 28 has an upgrade which will include DNxHD, Prores and many other codecs for an extra $60.

Paul,
Thanks for the info.
What is "lightworhs" btw?
Bruce Yarock
Yarock Productions (http://www.yarockvideo.com)

@Bruce.
I only rediscovered it myself yesterday, though I remember it from a long time ago.
It is a non linear editor that was originally for film and is now free with more features.

Thanks, Paul
Bruce Yarock