I recently bought two fs-4's, upgraded to hd, from the classified section. last night I used them on a 2 cam shoot. One on my Canon XL2 , and the other on a new Sony FX1 , shooting in hdv (fs4 also set to hd).The one on the Canon worked fine all night, but the one on the FX1, stopped working after 35 minutes.
I powered down the fX1 to change tape between band sets, and figured I sould also shut down the fs4. When I powered everything up, I set up the fs 4 as it should be, and put it in "synchro-slave". But when I hit record on the FX1, the fs 4 wouldn't budge. I tried changing cables, shutting down, praying...nothing worked (thank god for good old tape).
Before I start trouble shooting the unit (on both cameras, in sd rather than hd, cables,etc.), I wanted to see if anyone else has had this problem, or has any advice.
Thanks
Bruce Yarock

what did the camera viewfinder say when you hit the record button?

Dan,
I don't think the cam viewfinder displyed anything different,and the camera kept recording for the rest of the night.I just couldn't get the fs4 to start again. When I troubleshoot it tommorrow, I'll try it in free record (as opposed to synchro slave) and see if that works. But there's still a problem aomewhere.
Bruce S. Yarock

Small point, but is there a chance you powered up the camera before powering up the FS4?

Rob,
I think I powered up the fs 4 first, but I don't think it should matter. The problem was in the firewire port of theFX1, and after one week of use, the cam is now at Sony repair.
Bruce Yarock

Hope that solves your problem. The only reason I mentioned starting up the FS4 first, is that I had the problem of hit and miss recording until I finally started powering up the FS4 before the camera. Since I've done that, touch wood, I've never head a problem. Anyway, hope you've worked things out.
Rob

Rob,
by trial and error,I figured out that I had to power up my FS4 BEFORe powering my Canon XL2. I'll do the same with the FX1 when I get it back.
thanks
Bruce S. Yarock

Hi Bruce,

Sometimes, you may need to remove and reinsert the FireWire cable into FS-4. On some occasions, the camera does not hand shake with the camera. Also, is there a possibility that the camera FS-4 was switched to DV mode? IF the cam is in HD mode and FS in SD, it will not record.

Did you also contact Focus tech support support at focusinfo.com?

Hope that helps,

Matt McEwen

Matt,
The problem wasn't in the FS4, but in the Sony FX1.the firewire port was not functioning, and I sent it off to Sony.
I've been using both of my fs4's with the Canon XL2 (always power up the FS4 first) in synchro slave mode with no trouble at all.
Bruce Yarock

"Matt,
The problem wasn't in the FS4, but in the Sony FX1.the firewire port was not functioning, and I sent it off to Sony.
I've been using both of my fs4's with the Canon XL2 --> (always power up the FS4 first) <-- in synchro slave mode with no trouble at all.
Bruce Yarock"



From the FS4 manual:

"Step 3: Connect the other end of the FireWire cable to your video
camera.
Step 4: Turn on the video camera.
Step 5: Turn on the FS-4."


Question:

Wich one should be powered up first? The camera or the FS4?
Does it matter?

Best regards,
Arnaldo

Arnaldo,
I found (by trial and error) that with my Canon XL2, I have to power up the FS4 first. I do the same thing on my Sony FX1.

Matt,
Last night I did a wedding, and the FS4 failed on me once.I think it was when I powered down to change lenses. To get it to work again, I had to power down everything twice, the second time unpluging both ends of the firewire cable first.
Is there any special proceedure when powering down the XL2? Sould I also power down the FS4? Is the order important?
Also, is there a short cut to make "synchro slave" a default? I hate having to go through the whole menu each time I power up the FS4.
Other than an occasional misscommunication with thecamera, I'm pretty happy with the FS4.
Bruce S. Yarock

Hi Bruce.

I'm in the same boat. Very happy with the FS4 , except in those moments when the #$&# thing does'nt want to comunicate with the camera.

So, any procedure that can garantee us a trouble free power up, is more than welcome.

Best regards,
Arnaldo

Arnaldo,
What camera are you using?
I think that firewire is a LAME technology. In addition to crashes, the plug can be touched and fall out without you realizing it. last night I lost 5 minutes on the FS4 that way!All I can say is "thank god for tape".
I have a mobile audio recording rig (Motu Traveller, lap top with Nuendo) that connects by firewire.If you don't power it up using a strict ritual, it won't work. 20 years from now they'll look back and think we were crazy...

Bruce Yarock

Bruce.

Mine is a XL1-s. I'v devise a way for the firewire cable not to come lose from the camera, using cable ties.

Samsung is talking now of 1.8" flash drives with up to 32Gb, but I guess we still have to wait a couple of years before we can have cameras with solid state memory; no tape, onboard DTE, no transport mechanism to give you the sweats (and bills) and, above all, within a price point as the ones we have today.
Untill then, the FS4 (with all its shortcomings) its the best we'v got.

Best regards,
Arnaldo

If the firewire is broken on your FX1 how much does that cost to repair?

Arnaldo,
My FS 4 has yet to work well for a complete gig. If I do anything with the XL2 (change tape, standby, power down, etc.), the FS4 will not work again without going through the RITUAL. The ritual is 1-power down both 2- unplug and re plug the fire cable, then 3- power up XL2, 4- Cross your fingers and say a prayer.
And at two weddings, it failed to capture sections, even though the led looked like it was recording.....

Betsy,
The firewire repair on my ONE WEEK OLD fx1, cost me $511 plus freight!!!. Sony wouldn't cover it because I bought it NEW from a guy off ebay, not a "Sony Authorized Dealer".
Bruce S. Yarock

I'm on my 2nd FS-4, this one upgraded to HD. I use this on my XL2 and FX1. I was told when I got my 2nd FS-4, by my dealer, to plug in camera then FS-4, and to boot the camera first, and the FS-4 secondly, and to power down the FS-4 first, then the camera. So I've been doing this for about 5 months on my XL2 and now about 3 months on my FX1 and XL2. No problems at all this time around. (a couple times the FS-4 didn't respond to camera record, so I had to initiate the startup sequence over again)

Bruce, The longest I have attempted to capture was 80min on the XL2 and about 60min on the FX1. Those went fine, but I haven't shot any more than that at one time.

Brian,
When I spoke to the support at Videonics, they told me to power up the FS4 first. That works until you want to shut down the XL2. I haven't tried a long shoot with the FX1, but I'll test it out at home.
The problem is that the FS4 somehow loses sink, or communication, with the XL2 when you deviate from jsut shooting. it's really frustrating because the last thing I want to do at a long wedding shoot is constantly babysit a hard drive.
Bruce S. Yarock

Most times, simply unplugging and re-plugging the FireWire cable will solve the issue. For some FS-4, does loose sync with the Canon camcorders from time to time.

Matt-

Matt,.
It makes it hard to do a wedding when you have to worry about your fs4 the whole time. Btw, is the fs4 more stable on manual than synchro-slave?
Thanks
Bruce S. Yarock

Bruce,

Yes, well, now that you mention it, and thinking carefully about it, everytime I've used the FS-4, even on the longer shoots, It's mostly recording straight through with only a couple of brief pauses, the cams never went long enough to go into standby, and I've never tried shutting the cam down, or in standby, or changing the tape, or even going into the menu. So I don't know how my unit would respond in a similar situation as you've experienced.