Hey all,
In November, I purchased a new laptop at Best Buy to augment the desktop and allow me some flexibility. Specifically, I want to use On Location in the field as I'm sick of capturing tapes and I'd like to speed up my turnaround. I gave the Best Buy associate my requirements and (although he looked at me like I was crazy when I said firewire) he set out to find me the perfect match. After some debate we narrowed it down to two models. The model I ended up with (a Dell) had a larger screen and typical keyboard (the other had chiclet style keys) but no firewire port. The associate advised me to add a firewire card as there were very few laptops with firewire ports available these days. I took his advice and went with the Dell.
Yesterday, I finally got around to buying a card for it. I got home to install it and discovered there is no card slot. ARRRG! I took it back and went round and round with a manager about my experience. She finally agreed to allow me to exchange it for a Sony that has both a firewire port AND a card slot but it's going to cost me an additional $300.
I've looked everywhere online and cannot find any type of firewire to USB adapter. What amazes me is that firewire is being abandoned. There must be a boatload of cameras out there that still use it and it doesn't have the maximum length limitations of USB (that I'm aware of). What gives? Has anyone else faced this predicament? Or am I just stuck in the tape age?
Shep
In November, I purchased a new laptop at Best Buy to augment the desktop and allow me some flexibility. Specifically, I want to use On Location in the field as I'm sick of capturing tapes and I'd like to speed up my turnaround. I gave the Best Buy associate my requirements and (although he looked at me like I was crazy when I said firewire) he set out to find me the perfect match. After some debate we narrowed it down to two models. The model I ended up with (a Dell) had a larger screen and typical keyboard (the other had chiclet style keys) but no firewire port. The associate advised me to add a firewire card as there were very few laptops with firewire ports available these days. I took his advice and went with the Dell.
Yesterday, I finally got around to buying a card for it. I got home to install it and discovered there is no card slot. ARRRG! I took it back and went round and round with a manager about my experience. She finally agreed to allow me to exchange it for a Sony that has both a firewire port AND a card slot but it's going to cost me an additional $300.
I've looked everywhere online and cannot find any type of firewire to USB adapter. What amazes me is that firewire is being abandoned. There must be a boatload of cameras out there that still use it and it doesn't have the maximum length limitations of USB (that I'm aware of). What gives? Has anyone else faced this predicament? Or am I just stuck in the tape age?
Shep