Spot - If you had your druthers / tapeless

MUTTLEY wrote on 10/6/2004, 2:39 AM
Man I hate to single you out but doing my digging around in my desire to one day go tapless and I noticed that you've written articles and reviews of both nNovia and Firestore. Was torn enough after reading both as you seemed to be pretty thrilled with both. Then I stumble on info about the forthcoming FS-4. Gotta say, I'm a little overwhelmed.

While I'm aware that there are risks with going tapeless and there is something to be said about running tape simultaneous, most of us run tape and trust it ( as fallible as it is ) with our shots all the time. That said, for me I'd like tapeless to be the goal ( okay, maybe not all the time but at least some of the time ! ). Got my XL2 and would love to run a little less tape through the thing.

So with all that babble, which way would you go ? They all seem to have their share of pluses, the nNovia just seems solid, the FS-3 removable drives, and the FS-4 .... well, its the newest ! Considering price, dependability, convenience, weight, can ya give a brief showdown and what your pick of the littler would be.

And btw, how do you keep up ? Honestly man, I don't know how ya do it with little newbs like me pestering ya on twenty different forums about a 100 different things while writing, making DVDs, touring, the music, not to mention family ... amazing man. Can't tell ya how much respect I have for ya.

- Ray

www.undergroundplanet.com

Comments

Grazie wrote on 10/6/2004, 2:49 AM
Mutts .. how many Spots are there on a Dalmation? . . . See!

But yes . .don't yah just Luv 'im!

. .Oh just heard thatIMperial College here in London is working on a TeraBITE! DVD . . . oooeerrr . .


Grazie
Spot|DSE wrote on 10/6/2004, 4:02 AM
Geez Grazie, have you gotta bone to pick with me lately? :-)

Muttley,
I'd be torn too. I AM using the Nnovia pretty much most of the time. It saves me a lot of time. It's built like a brick, not too heavy, and has a variety of tools unlike the FS. However, the FS4 looks to be pretty sweet too. We bought the Nnovia after the review, couldn't afford the cost of the FS, not once you considered batteries, etc.

I drink lots of coffee. (not really)
PeterWright wrote on 10/6/2004, 4:13 AM
What are Nnovia battery lives/recharge times like Spot?

I love the idea of not having to capture ...

looming .... Sony HDV cam into Nnovia .....
goshep wrote on 10/6/2004, 7:00 AM
From the nNOVIA website.....

"Dual media recording: User always records to both tape and QuickCapture A2D."

No worries. :)

richard-courtney wrote on 10/6/2004, 7:08 AM
Dalmation...spots...bone to pick

I hope that was a pun because it was worse than MY jokes.

I do run a tape and firewire so not to capture later to computer.
It takes a fifth the time to copy drive to drive than playback/capture.
The tape is suspenders and a belt confidence.
Grazie wrote on 10/6/2004, 7:34 AM
. . and now "suspenders" ? . . ppphoooarrghhh . .. . Grazie
MUTTLEY wrote on 10/6/2004, 1:28 PM

Grazie ... I just dont know. Is this like the jelly beans in a jar contest ?

Spot, thanks, your words gold and that would probably be the way I'll go.

So has anyone who has used one ever had to fall back to the taped copy ? The both make some pretty lofty claims. And again I cite the fact that thusfar, we use tape without backup.

- Ray

www.undergroundplanet.com
apit34356 wrote on 10/6/2004, 1:39 PM
Muttley, I would consider using DX rack also with a mobile HD solution. one or two cameras can be run with DV Rack and your mobile camera can use the HD solution, like Spot's recommendation. DV Rack is a lot cheaper than a second unit and can save post time.