Hello all,
Question regarding hookup of canon xh-a1 camera for capture/monitoring using lacie big disk firewire 400/800 and intel Imac 24" with fw 400 and 800 interface.
1. Connect HD to computer with fw800. Connect camera to HD fww400 interface? ( This is my current configuration which seems to work fine).
2. Or, is it better to connect HD to computer fw800 interface and connect camera to computer fw 400 interface?
3. Does it matter?
4. Is #1 slowing drive down to fw800

Hello all,
Question regarding hookup of canon xh-a1 camera for capture/monitoring using lacie big disk firewire 400/800 and intel Imac 24" with fw 400 and 800 interface.
1. Connect HD to computer with fw800. Connect camera to HD fww400 interface? ( This is my current configuration which seems to work fine).
2. Or, is it better to connect HD to computer fw800 interface and connect camera to computer fw 400 interface?
3. Does it matter?
4. Is #1 slowing drive down to fw800

I think it's the same FW bus with the iMacs. I've got the 17in iMac Intel. I connect a FW 400 HDD to one port and my camera to the other port on the iMac for capture (to external HDD). I've got two HDD's connected in daisy-chain and don't have any issues. I've also connected my HDD to my iBook G4, and my camera through the FW port on the HDD and captured DTD when on location with no problems.

I haven't worked with FW 800, so I can't answer about the slowdown.

Grant

Martin, If it's working, then great!
As long as tapes are capturing, then no problems, right?

But if there is a slow-down, then you just may not be getting all the efficiency of having a fast harddrive on a fast bus when moving files from the external to your internal disk.

One way to test (and the way I know it works on my G5 tower), with the setup you have now, and all devices turned on, copy a large file from the external to the internal drive (or the other way) and time it.

Then turn off and disconnect the camera. Now, copy the same file the same way and time it again. Is the transfer faster without the camera? Or is it the same? (My fingers are crossed...)

On my G5, there is a definite difference. The camera (GL2) does slow down the file transfer. Hopefully, your milage will vary.

Hello all,
Question regarding hookup of canon xh-a1 camera for capture/monitoring using lacie big disk firewire 400/800 and intel Imac 24" with fw 400 and 800 interface.
1. Connect HD to computer with fw800. Connect camera to HD fww400 interface? ( This is my current configuration which seems to work fine).
2. Or, is it better to connect HD to computer fw800 interface and connect camera to computer fw 400 interface?
3. Does it matter?
4. Is #1 slowing drive down to fw800

If you connect a fw400 device (in this case the camera) to the harddrive, which is connected to the computer via fw800, it will pull down the fw800 transfer to the fw400 protocol.
In your case, this is not really relevant, as the camera-computer is the slowest part in the setup. Nevertheless, I'd recommend having the cam and the HD on different firewire ports (for safety).
Best,
Dino

Thanks all for your input.
I would imagine then that the best work flow would be to disconnect the camera after capture and not use it to monitor out to an ntsc monitor while doing most of your editing - at least until you have to for color and final graphics composition etc. This is assuming that the fw400 camera is slowing down the fw800 hdd by dasy chaining to it.