Opinions on FS-4

[Brian Fischer]

I just got off of the phone with support, and I'm sending the unit to them for repairs... I'll follow up later.

[Ken Castellano]

Hi,

This is a helpful breakdown of using the FS-4 with a DVX. It lists the workflow issues as well as some solutions.

http://www.235studios.com/tutorials/235FS4Test.pdf

I still haven't purchased mine yet but I plan do so soon.

Ken

[Todd Kivimaki]

Just wanted to add my experiences with the FS-4. I have 2 of them and have a love hate relationship with them. For the price they are junk. Both of mine only boot properly when they feel like it. Sometimes turn off for no reason; I have had a backlight go out. Both fs-4's have been set in and fixed.

But if I had to do it all over again, I would buy them again. The idea of DTE is such a great idea, that it doesn't even matter that the hardware is sub par. I save so much time, and also the playback feature is a handy tool.

Plan on buying an external battery; I along with many other members got ours from batteryspace.com

Focus better watch out it another company comes along with a perfected design, but until then the firestore is the way to go.

[Karl Heiner]

have my fs-4 for about a year. once send in because of the fan noise, and the second time, it would not charge the larger abtt. they fixed that and also put a new fan in (the second time) no more fan noise at all, batt charge ok. great service, e-mail/ phone and service.
i struggle a little bit in using the fs-4 more often, i guess i am used to tapes.

greetings

[Tom Bolia]

I'm a noob, so forgive me for pondering...

The FS-4 is nothing more than a modified hard drive, but an expensive one at that, correct? Has anyone figured out a way to take a "normal" external firewire hard drive (ex. lacie 80GB external drive - $100 approx. cost) and capture video the same way?

Would there be a way to format and copy the lacie drive so it is exactly like the FS-4 (80GB) model, and would perform the same way?

If so, then please share, because I don't care if it doesn't look as cool as the FS-4, it would save me a ton of money. :o)

[Brian Fischer]

Tom,

The drive inside the Firestore is really a standard Hitachi laptop drive, not modified in any way. The components that set the whole thing off are the housing and the ROM chips containing the operating system that provide the functionality of the complete system. Coupled with the rechargeable battery and LCD display, this unit provides portability and flexibility. To my knowledge, there aren't very many external firewire drives out there that are powered by a rechargeable battery and have an LCD display. You would still need an interface for the starting and stopping of recording, formatting, etc. Normaly you would need a PC to perform these functions, but the Firestore handles all of these tasks and more, all by its lonesome.

[Tom Bolia]

Thanks Brian. From what I read (since I don't own one), it will recording is automatically synched when the start/stop button is pressed on the camera. Again, if the 80GB lacie drive were formatted exactly the same as the FS-4 (duplicate hard drive), then the only other problem I see is choosing which format it saves the video as. I would imagine there is a defaulted format?

It's just an idea, and I was curious as to whether or not anyone has experimented with it previously. :o)

[Todd Kivimaki]

Tom,
It's not the way the hard drive is formatted as Brian pointed out; the FS-4 uses a typical laptop hard drive. What makes the FS-4 so expensive is when the stream of video is coming into the hard drive an interface has to decide what to do with it. The FS-4 basically acts as a mini computer and it decides what to do with the stream of video. Like converting the video, giving file names, making folders etc. The intelligence that saves the video onto the hard drive makes the FS-4 expensive. Not the format of the hard drive

[Phil Johnston]

The FS4 is a great tool appart from the batteries they cannot be removed unless I carry a small screwdriver to release them, it's a poor design that spoils a very good tool.

[Brian Fischer]

Phil,

I would recommend not removing the battery pack at all, and opt for this solution, with thanks to Jon East and Todd Kivimaki.

http://www.batteryspace.com/index.as...OD&ProdID=1261

The water bottle is kinda tacky, but this will power the unit. For more information, visit http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=43420

Hope that helps.

[Joseph Andolina]

Brian, any resolve about what you wrote of the unit not powering up? I posted the same problem on a new thread, and then came across your posting on this thread. I got to use it for a whole 5 minutes, and that was the end of it, having the same exact problem as you stated!!! Has never powerd totally back up at all, just the blue screen, and the cooling fan continiously running LOUDLY!!! Is it worth getting a replacement, or is it hopeless and i should get my hard earned $$$$ back?

Originally Posted by Brian Fischer

I see there have been ample responses to your original post, but I felt I should add my two cents.

I loved this product when I first got it (about two and a half months ago), but I've since experienced some glitches. When it is working properly, I'm in heaven, but this one major problem has thrown a wrench in the machine. And that is, that the unit doesn't power up. The backlit LCD will light, but remains blank. At first, depressing the 'on' button again (up to several times) would resolve the issue, and the unit would continue to boot. But now, 2 1/2 months later, the unit will no longer boot, and hangs with the LCD lit up, but blank. Like I said, when it was working, I was completely in love with the FS-4, but until Focus contacts me about either repairing the unit or replacing it, I'm going to have to advise you to be a little bit cautious. I haven't heard too many positive reviews of the support from Focus Enhancements. They have already ignored one of my phone messages to technical support. I will folow up on this once I have contacted and spoken with a Focus Enhancements rep.

Thanks for reading a boring post,

Brian Fischer

[Vic Owen]

Joseph--

I've had good results with the FS-4. Sounds like you got a bad one. Tech support will fix you up. Most of the units work fine -- you typically only hear from those that have had a problem.

[Joseph Andolina]

Originally Posted by Vic Owen

Joseph--

I've had good results with the FS-4. Sounds like you got a bad one. Tech support will fix you up. Most of the units work fine -- you typically only hear from those that have had a problem.

I'm supposed to be getting another one sent to me hopefully soon. But another thing that happened on the faulty unit as I was going to take a another look at it was one of the connectors on the unit where the battery goes, just fell off. And that could have been the result of how difficult the battery is to take off. Not the easiest things to change out, that's for sure. So that kind of makes me paranoid of that possibly happening on the replacement unit! But I guess we'll see.

[Nerses Papoyan]

I just got my Focus FS-4 PRO HD from Tapeworks Texas, since they promise me to send it out free of charge if I purchase the Canon Xl H1 from them, so I just got it, and I'm trying to connect to my XL H1, cant make it work, do you guys know, what I'm doing wrong? is there anything I need to change in camcorder setting, to record instead of tape on DTE?

[Matt McEwen]

Hi Nerses,

Make sure your FS-4Pro HD is set to HD Recorder mode. Also make sure that DV Control is turned ON on the camera. Connect a FireWire cable between the camera and the DV I/O port on your FS-4Pro HD. This should work fine.

Hope that helps,

Matt McEwen