FireStore FS-4 Tapeless Acquisition

[Suhit Gupta]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.focusinfo.com/products/firestore/fs-4.html' target='_blank'>http://www.focusinfo.com/products/firestore/fs-4.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The ultimate FireStore for hand-held camcorders is here - FireStore FS-4. Now everybody can take advantage of tapeless acquisition with true Direct To Edit™ (DTE) Technology and confidence recording using the smallest FireStore ever! Tapeless acquisition is quickly being accepted as the standard in broadcast production. Now everyone can make capturing a thing of the past with FS-4 or FS-4 Pro. Record directly from your camcorder while you shoot using Direct To Edit (DTE) Technology. When you are finished shooting, connect FS-4 to your computer and you are instantly ready to edit in the timeline! No capturing, no file transfer, no file conversion. Just shoot, then edit!"</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/firestorefs4.jpg" /><br /><br />The FS-4 records to disk as RawDV, AVI Type 1, AVI Type 2, AVI Type 2 24p, Matrox AVI, Canopus AVI, QuickTime or QuickTime 24p. It can capture over DV Video I/O, FireWire, GPI & RS-232C. It comes standard with a 40GB drive but is capable up being upgraded. You can also link multiple FS-4's together to share data or create more space. Looks like it is selling for just over $600.

[Philip Colmer]

I like it! They reckon the 40GB unit can hold 3 hours, and they do an 80GB unit for 6 hours - that would be plenty for the longest wedding (something I'm really seriously looking at getting into now) without the need to change tapes and therefore run the risk of missing something.

--Philip

[Phoenix]

This is really a great idea, but why are no manufacturers putting HDDs in their camcorders? It's going to have to progress to that at some point. Maybe it has something to do with wanting to preserve the ability to just pop out a tape and hand it off to someone, which couldn't be done with a HDD. But of course, this would be easily solved by offering CF II and SD slots in addition to the HDD.

I look at the newest Ipod with its 60GB HDD, and can't figure out why no company has done this with camcorders. I'd love to be able to record directly to disk, and by removing the tape mechanism and replacing it with a HDD, it wouldn't add any more size to DV cams at all. And considering once again that you can find 60GB in an Ipod, how much weight does anyone think a HDD would really add? Little to none most likely. You could record for longer without the fuss of having to switch out tapes. And with integrated CF II and SD slots, if you needed more room beyond that, you could pop in a card.

To play devil's advocate for a moment, I wonder how HDD-based recording would benefit those who are on extended trips and may not have the ability to offload what they've shot onto a bigger storage medium? DV tapes are common and cheap enough, and there's no need to offload anything with tape. You just pop out the tape and pop in another one. Providing you have enough tape or continue to buy them, you'd have no need to offload anything and could keep going and going, etc...

Considering both sides of the coin, I think there's room not only for traditional DV cams, but also for HDD-based units.