I've got 2 FS4HD drives. They're unreliable. For long( > 1 HR) recordings, they tend to randomly dropout. I beleive it's due to a loose firewire connection, but, I'm not sure. Both drives exhibit this problem. The control menu dropdowns are somewhat unclear. I would also advise getting the Pro version.

If you plan to record tapeless, you won't get any timecode with HDv.

I've recently changed over to nNovia drives. While slightly larger, they have more features and haven't failed me, yet.

i wouldnt touch em if my life depended on it...

i returned 4 FS4 pros, and those that we sold at the shop, abut half of them were returned

Thanks a lot for this info - it is better to wait than to get burned - it cost aprox. $1.200 in Denmark, I can buy a lot of pro tapes for this money.

I looked at nNovia, but they are not sold in Denmark as of yet, but I will look out for them later maybe, and save the money for now.

I think I'll try my 'on location' - have notinstalled it yet, but will to see how it is.

Thanks again for this advice, guy - I really apreciate all the good info and help I always get here.

/Ulf

I would save your money most new cameras will be Tapless now so you can upgrade and get rid of tapes at the same time.

Do not get an FS-4 with a Canon HDV camcorder. If you want a firestore, get the FS-C instead. It's a modified version of the FS-4 that's designed to work with Canon's 24F and 30F modes. The regular FS-4 does not support those modes, only the FS-C fully supports the Canon implementation of HDV.

Thanks Barry and Zcheema.

/Ulf

This may or may not be relevant, depending on the kind of shooting you do, but...

We do a lot of shoots in theatres, where the cameras are on tripods. When there's enough room to do this, I take along my laptop computer, and connect it via firewire to my camera. Then I launch my capture program (I use Scenalyzer Live), and happily capture to hard disk while the camera is simultaneously recording to tape.

This brilliant (ahem) setup occurred to me a while ago when I was considering a Firestore, but decided not to buy one. It occurred to me in the middle of the night one night that if the Firestore could be fed by the Firewire connection, so could my laptop.

Thanks Ernie - I have Scenalyzer too so I might try that one too besides my On Location.

I read the manual to OL in the train today (always good to read manuals and stuff like that in trains) and it looks quite cool - love to try it.

/Ulf

I capture through a laptop also when there's time/space but I use Vegas. Are there advantages to using Scenalyzer over Sony's vidcap?
TIA,
Randy

I can recommend On Location wholeheartedly - I use the previous incarnation - DV Rack - whenever I can, and it's a great help, not only in terms of Direct-To-Disk recording, but in shot analysis, framing and also quickly showing the talent what they look like.
Vegas Capture works fine for D2D too, but without the analysis and monitor functions of DV Rack/OL.

We do have a couple of FS-4s, but to be honest, I really don't like them.
The build quality is appalling, the fan is noisy, the display mediocre... but the biggest drawback is the firewire connection - no fault of the FS-4, but it's awful for use in the field. I always use tape as well as FS-4, and most times I end up capturing anyway 'cos there's been a dropout due to a firewire cable coming loose on the camera. That, and if you're recording several hours per day, logging FS-4 clips is terrible as the clips are identified just by a string of numbers.

Firestores and similar devices are an intermediary technology on the road to a true tapeless workflow - sticking plasters at best ;-]

Andy

Randy Brown:
I've been using Scenalyzer for several years, so I'm not really "up" on the latest incarnations of Vegas' own vidcap. It may well be every bit as good as Scenalyzer for this purpose.