Firestore FS-4 - from what I can gather...

OK, I've been reading the Forum because I am considering investing in a Firestore FS-4 and here is what I've been able to determine so far (feel free to correct any thing that I got wrong or am overlooking):

1. Continue to use the DV tape as a backup

2. Transfer the Quicktime clips to a local drive as opposed to editing from the Firestore itself. (This is the ideal, it may still be possible to edit from the Firestore.)

3. Use a corded power supply when possible as the battery only lasts 90 minutes.

All in all its beginning to seem like the only real benefit I would be getting is the ability to copy the generated QT files to my HD at "up to four times real-time" or am I missing something?

Thanks, Sean

Firestore is good if you need very quick turn around and want to spend time moving tape to HD in real time.

We've rented them a few times for when we needed to turn around a shoot to finished edit in under three hours. It worked like a charm ...we did NOT edit off that drive (not fast enough RPM for sustained editing with out hickups and dropped frames) but simply copied (dragged) the files from firestore to faster hard drive...opened and edited....in far less time than "real time" DV tape to hard drive dubbing....

If we didn't need that quick turn around function...we would have stuck with tape (which we ran simultaniously for backup and archive)

Andy

1. Using the tape as a backup means that your backup footage is miniDV.

2. Yes, you always do this. FCP cannot edit the MXF files directly. It needs to wrap a Quicktime wrapper around it and the only way it can do that is if you import to FCP via P2 Import and transfer to your media drive.

3. Being attached to a cord, in a field situation, isn't always possible. Get extra batteries...just like you would for your camera.

yep, youve pretty much covered everything - i agree with shane about the extra batteries though - power cords are no fun!