Firestore FS3 various questions

[Pete Constable]

Can the data be downloaded to any compatable Firewire enabled device or does that device have to be configured to FS3. I have a German Casablanca NLE that is neither compaible with PC or Mac systems. It's something brilliant but from another planet. PC

[Bankim Jain]

Dear Pete, Sorry but i couldnt get what excatly u mean but if i am not wrong

You mean to ask that what ever we shoot on FS3 then when we connect the unit to any NLE can we dump all the data to av hardrives for editing.

The Answer is sure we can. i have a FS3 and i shoot on it later to dump everything on my Matrox RTX100 AV drives for editing

Cheers !

[Pete Constable]

Thanks Ben. Yes I just want to load data via fierwire as though I was dumping to another deck.
India ay. What are you working on over there?
I have been filming whales for 8 years & most of that on XL1 & XL1s. Cheers thanx again, PC

[Bankim Jain]

Hey Pet,

Thts a gr8 work you do ... whles are the perhaps the most magestic mammal i would ever like to see as i havent seen them more than on movies.

Well i make documentaries, orporate videos & do make wedding movies but for high profile & high budget clients.

I use PannyDV200 & PD150 with Sony DVCAM edit recorder with RTX100 fe sheniisss cordless mics, lighitn gear from satchler...

Well in india we have more than one can think of for shoot. be it sports, culture, docus, travel...food the saga goes on.

I am planning a series on india as a travel show and onder whom should i approach with idea for commissioning in overseas market


Cheers !

[Matt McEwen]

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for you post and comments about the FS-3. Feedback such as this allows us to continually evolve the product.

To answer some of your queries, when you are recording or in playback and want to monitor EXT TC from the camcorder, press the middle soft key (DISP) when on the main screen and cycle through to the SMPTE NTSC (or PAL) display and this will display external TC from the camcorder.

I would encourage you to contact our tech support department regarding the lost files within FCP, as this is of course not correct and this should not be happening. They should be able to help track down what the issue is.

The power switch on the base of the drive is there for use when the drive is being used on a computer with only a 4-pin FireWire port (such as a Sony Vaio) which requires an optional power supply.

The issue of FCP not seeing your unit while connected is fixed in an upcoming release which is due out shortly.

Thanks,
Matt McEwen

[Matt McEwen]

Hi Pete,

I just got back from down under...had a great time!

Unfortunately, we have not officially tested the Casablanca yet for DTE compatibility. What exact model are you using and I will try and get it into our lab?

Thanks,
Matt

[Matt McEwen]

Hi Bankim,

To answer your questions...

1) It is possible to trigger record on FireStore manually and separate to camcorder control (you basically do not set it in Slave Mode). You could also use the optional wired or infrared remote controls units.

2) FS-3 ships with a 6-6 pin and 6-4 pin FireWire cable...so it should work with any DV camcorder.

3) Check it out with the Anton/Bauer Stasis...a terrific solution for PD150/170 users.

4) Boot up time is about 5 seconds for both FS-1 and FS-3.

Hope that helps,
Matt McEwen

[Pete Constable]

Thanx Bankim & Matt.
The model is KRON on an 80 gig drive with V10 software. Look forward to results. Casablanca runs VX works. Unfortunately we have no way of backing to another hard drive.
Cheers PC

[Bankim Jain]

is there any www presence of casablanca nle for us to know more on your system

[Pete Constable]

Yo Bankim, here it is;

http://www.macrosystem.de/e/index.html

but they are loathe to tell too much. I only found out about the Works VX info thru a dealer. Very secretive mob these Germans!! Cassie runs an old but reliable Motorolla chip too.The platform although limited is very reliable & fast. Do 90% of your edit on one of these & the tricky bits on a Mac or so. For outright editing, these things kill Macs & PC's

Cheers & hope all's well. Plenty de news re HDV coming thru too. Bring it on. PC

[Daniel Kohl]

I had another chance to use the JVC GY-DV5000. I was at the Ce-Bit in Hanover for the past three days, shooting for a local TV station here in Hessen.

To start off positively – I was shooting with an old Sony 600 Beta SP with docked recorder on the first day. It weighs a ton, and changing tapes every 30 minutes is bothersome mostly because of all the writing that has to be done labeling the tapes. Also, when your shooting at a trade fare you do a lot of walking, it’s nice to have as little, or no tapes to have to drag around with you. On the second and third day it was a relief to shoot with the lighter and longer recording DV5000. I was shooting syncro slave – so I did have to lug around five mini DV tapes.

I’m also getting used to the view finder indicators and the FS3’s menu system, although I still find it a bit old-fashioned.

I had a problem selectively deleting files from the drive using the FS3. I made the mistake of not formatting the disc after dumping all the files to my laptop from the first day of shooting with the DV5000. I was expecting to get the two days of shooting onto the HDD. After realizing that there was more to shoot than expected, I began to delete shots that had been backed up from the previous day. This turned out to be more difficult than I expected.

There is a menu command "delete clip” – but there is no way to organize the clips, and they are not numbered chronologically so it was a mess to get rid of enough clips so that I could shoot the remainder of the day on disc.

It is also apparently necessary to delete more than one clip to remove a continuous take. Takes kept appearing even after I had deleted them several times. They eventually disappeared after several more deletions – but the whole thing gave me the uncertain feeling that I wasn’t deleting what I thought I was deleting.

I especially don’t like the fact that the clip numbering is not chronological. I read the handbook again tonight after coming back from the shoot. Focus Enhancements doesn’t recommend deleting files in the way I did - I wouldn’t either after doing it. But even checking back at clips that were shot earlier (camera in VTR mode), was aggravating, because the clips don’t seem to have a logical order. Shots that were taken the day before were between shots from earlier that day. Am I doing something wrong there?

As for the JVC GY- DV5000, I basically like it, it has almost all the functions of a professional camera plus a bunch of functions I haven’t personally needed yet.

Some things I don’t like about the JVC GY- DV5000:

The TC set is imbedded in a menu system. A function like zeroing and setting the TC, which is done often, needs to be more accessible.

The camera has only one XLR audio input at the rear, there is another XLR input at the front of the camera for the on board camera mic. But using the front XLR for the second channel in a two-channel interview is too much of a workaround for me. And I don’t understand why the GY- DV5000 doesn’t take advantage of the possibility to record four channel 16 bit, even if it were with two RCA inputs somewhere on the camera.

One last thing is that the lens, that I’m assuming comes standard with the DV5000, has a minimum focus of 1m, which has made it necessary for me to go into macro when doing over-the-shoulder type interviews. That makes changing the framing between answers to questions very difficult, since changing the focal length effects the focus, when it is in macro. It has also led to slightly out of focus shots due to my forgetting to switch the lens out of macro, in the following shot. When the macro is just slightly engaged, it’s like having a back focus problem, it’s not really apparent while shooting, but later, very.

[Daniel Kohl]

Hi Matt,

I’m happy if I can help in some way to contribute to your product. I am convinced that the FireStore concept is the future of video recording.

"To answer some of your queries, when you are recording or in playback and want to monitor EXT TC from the camcorder, press the middle soft key (DISP) when on the main screen and cycle through to the SMPTE NTSC (or PAL) display and this will display external TC from the camcorder."

The FireStore does display the time code coming from the camera but only when recording. When the camera is paused, then the FS-3 shows a TC of 00:00:00:00. It would be nice if it showed the last TC that the FS-3 recorded before being paused. Just so that the cameraman can see that everything is in sync. It’s just a suggestion.

"I would encourage you to contact our tech support department regarding the lost files within FCP, as this is of course not correct and this should not be happening. They should be able to help track down what the issue is."

If your tech support team would like to contact me for any questions they may have, they are welcome to. This problem is not really an issue for me because up till now, I have been able to find all the material that I have shot, at least needed, in spite of this "problem”.

Something happened on this last shoot with the JVC GY-DV5000. While setting the camera up on the morning of the second day of shooting, the camera went dead. I don’t know what the source of the problem was but the camera and FS-3 lost power, but not while recording. I tried powering up a few times by turning the camera on and off. I’m not sure if the camera went on directly after I pushed the breaker button on the base of the camera, or after an additional few tries to turn it on with the on/off switch, and taking the batteries out and putting them back in. In any case, after the JVC came back to life, the FS-3 had trouble booting. I tried several new starts by turning the camera power off and then on again, waiting a long while and then turning the unit off again. I also tried turning the JVC on with the FS-3 off and then turned the FS-3 on after the JVC was fully powered. That didn’t help either. I finally just let the camera sit for a while without power and then turned it on, the FS-3 booted, and worked fine for the rest of the day. Luckily this happened in a situation where there was no time pressure, but this could have led to a bit of stress – especially if I had decided to go tapeless.

Why did this happen? How can I prevent it in the future? Why did letting the FS-3 rest help it to recover? – Probably questions for your tech support, I suppose.

Thanks

[Matt McEwen]

Hi Daniel,

Thanks again for your great feedback.

The FireStore booting problem you had puzzles me. It almost sounds like a power issue. I assume your batteries were OK. I also assume that the connections were all OK. The fact that both camcorder and FireStore had an issue initially certainly points to a power issue.

When connected to a GY-DV5000 series, the camcorder kind of takes over the DR-DV5000's power management (this is to prevent the camcorder being switched off before a disk recording session is complete and all files are properly closed).

I will report this to our test engineering department.

Thanks again Daniel,

Matt McEwen

[George Bean]

I have been researching the fs-3 and have a few questions, hoping someone can answer.

I record with the xl1 and will use the fs-3 mainly for weddings.

What is the best way to mount the fs-3 to the camera? Need something for both handheld and tripod use. I did see the dolgin brace mentioned in another thread. How is the balance when on the tripod and how quick/easy is it to transition from tripod to hand held? I want to continue using the batteries I already have to power the camera, so I will need an alternate source of power for the fs-3. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

How is the fs-3 affected by pausing the tape or powering down the camera? Many times at the reception I either turn off the camera or place it in standby. Will I need to do the same for the fs3 and if so are there any precautions?

What happens when I change tapes? Typically I record one tape for pre-ceremony events, one tape for the ceremony and two tapes for post ceremony and reception. How is the video logged to the fs3? I intend to transfer the files from the fs-3 to my av drive for editing with the matrox x100. Wondering how the data will be labeled from each tape.

Last question. I usually record two channel audio up until the reception when I switch to four channel. Does the fs-3 allow for both audio formats on the same project?

I know these are many questions and I have researched through the internet, reviews and this forum. If anyone can provide furhter details it would be most helpful.


Thanks

[Ken Tanaka]

Welcome George,
I am just finishing-up a detailed article on the FS-3 / XL1S partnership which I think will answer most of your questions. Meanwhile, here are some briefs.

• The FS-3 requires 12v power and mounts to a 3rd-party 12v power adapter plate (typically an Anton/Bauer QR-XL1-C). This plate must be mounted to an MA-100 or MA-200. A compatible Anton/Bauer battery (ex: Dionic, Hytronic, et.al.) is then mounted to the FS-3 to complete the power chain.
• A Firewire cable (6 pin-to-4 pin) connects the FS-3 to the XL1S.
• The FS-3 powers up/down separately from the camera.
• The FS-3 can be set to operate independently or in synchronization with the camera's tape transport. If you reach end of tape while recording, the FS-3 will continue to record until you eject the tape.
• The FS-3 basically takes whatever DV stream you send it.
• The FS-3 and associated power system does add quite a bit of weight to the camera and can make it challenging to balance on lightweight tripod heads. It will also take some time to get used to hand-holding.

Watch for my article on the main DVInfo.net site soon.