Cinematography : Video Direct to Hard Drive by Joe Becker

http://sounddevices.com/products/pix.htm

do you know anyone who's used this drive?

Curious on why you would want to record onto hardrive? For higher resolution?

SD, CF and P2 cards are limited in size, 8, 16, 32, 64GB and they are expensive per gig. you can use Adobe OnLocation software and record directly to your hard drive. if 16GB gives you 30 minutes of footage at 720p, 120 will give you hours and hours of footage. the Canon DSLRs have an approximate 15 minute clip limit because the SD cards overheat. if you record to a hard drive, you bypass the card and can shoot all night long. you can shoot at higher resolution and still shoot for long lengths of time without having to stop to switch cards. if you're shooting a concert, a wedding, or some event where you don't want to stop and start every 15 minutes, or whenever a card runs out of space, then recording to a hard drive makes a lot of sense. some companies make hard drives specifically for video. Focus Enhancements makes the Firestore series of hard drives specifically for video. they are larger than your cell phone, but smaller than most hard drives and they attach to your camera via firewire. one real nice thing about recording to a hard drive is, every time you start and stop, you create a clip. those clips are ready to be brought into your editing software. you don't have to download the footage and convert it. you have edit ready clips. that saves a ton of time. http://www.focusinfo.com/main.asp so, there are multiple reasons to record to a hard drive.

I'm amazed how few people seem to know about direct to disc. I used the FS-100 back in 2002 with great results. that was before HD. we were using digital SD cams. the company has progressed and has solid state drives, and drives for specific cameras, like the Canon DSLRs. I think it's something worth looking into.

I used the Focus Enhancements FS-100 over the weekend it takes a little getting used to, but you record direct to the hard drive no cards to worry about and no loading later you can hook the drive up to your computer and import the files into your NLE this made it easy to share the files between hard drives as well the drive gives you 111 minutes of footage overall, it was simple and made my life much easier it's not the only drive available, but it's a good one a friend had one and hadn't used it in a while, so I borrowed it shot in 1080p 30fps I filled the drive and shot about 50 gigs on P2 cards imported the footage into FCP and it's ready to edit you can choose which file format you want your files I chose quicktime I was very happy with the performance and ease of use of the FS-100

Well it sounds like you've already got it figured out Joe, but just wanted to throw one out there: I just got the Pix240i and it's a great little recorder! Records straight to Quicktime Apple Pro-Res 422 format so you can just drag it right into your editor without conversion. Good luck!

Thanks! I used the FS-100 back in the early 2000s. was wondering about new products. using the FS-100 again was ok. but, I really wanted to know what else was out there, pricing, ease of use, portability... I can google the product and check out reviews on youtube. thanks for the info. wouldn't mind hearing your review on the product

Of course! Well I haven't used the FS100, but from what you've said I guess it's pretty similar. With the Sound Devices Pix240 you can record directly to QuickTime Apple ProRes 422 HQ, at different bitrates (220, 145, 100, or 36). I've been recording to CF cards and it's pretty simple. The menus are very easy to navigate, and it's got a beautiful LCD screen built in so I use it as my on board camera monitor. The LCD has features like false-color, peaking, and zebra bars so it really provides as a great little monitor AND recorder which, to me, makes it worth the price. Definitely check it out.

a hard drive is just what it says. you have one in your computer. it is not a card. you can get cards of different types up to 32 or 64 GB. you can get hard drives up to several TB. a 120 GB HD will allow you to record for a long time without stopping. even with hot swappable cards, it's easier if you don't have to swap anything. Adobe's OnLocation software allows you to record directly to a hard drive and to use your laptop screen as a monitor. this is extremely convenient. plus, if you have a DSLR with cards that overheat, giving you 12 minute clips max, you cannot shoot live events. recording to a hard drive eliminates that problem. you can shoot all day as long as you have power. if you are running on batteries, keep spares and chargers on hand. if you can, plug into an outlet. then you can shoot all day and all night without stopping. if you're shooting a film, short clips are fine. scenes don't last 12 minutes. but, a TV show or live event doesn't allow you to stop and start. the FS-100 allows for 110 minutes of continuous shooting. using OnLocation, I can use any size hard drive I can afford. I have a 6 TB drive. that's enough space for 100 hours of video, non stop. and I don't have to load the footage from a card later. the files are ready to import and lay on a timeline in any NLE system.

thanks for the link btw. I'll check it out. I have so many accounts already that I can't keep up with them all. but, this looks comprehensive, so I may just get another

not sure why you want to argue with me on this but, there is a 12 minute limit on many of the DSLRs because the SD cards overheat. I have experienced it many times on set, including when shooting a TV show friday. I don't use a DSLR, but we had a second camera person who was using one. I have never reached a file size limit while recording directly to a hard drive. we shot a live TV show for hours with cameras connected to laptops using OnLocation software. if that 4GB limit exists, then the software splits it up seamlessly. I wasn't involved in post on that project so, I can't say for sure. but, we have done it more than once. so I know it works

the only problem with explaining why my information is wrong is that you're talking to someone who's done what you're telling them cannot be done. it doesn't even make sense. I don't care what type of engineer you are, you are wrong. you are answering questions I didn't ask. I said I was looking for the best way to record directly to a hard drive in the field. you have not answered that. instead you told me that what I did do is impossible. I will continue to do what is impossible in your eyes, without wasting any money. so far, you haven't given me a better way to record than what I already have. you only told me I cannot do what i am doing

I didn't look at older comments to see who'd given me info on products. I have lots of friends using the DSLRs. I have no idea if they are hacked. we did what we did and it worked fine. and the cams do overheat. I've heard about it, read about it, and seen it happen on set over and over. I guess you can believe what you read, or believe real world experience. my friends have used OnLocation numerous times with great success for years. so, we do the impossible. you should be proud of us

Hi guys, just to clear things up a bit, the 4GB limit on FAT32 cards exists. Fact. But it also depends on what you film. If your material does not involve a lot of movement or light changes, you can actually go past 12 minutes before the 4GB limit is hit, because the bit range is a liiiiitle bit lower. But we are talking about 10-15 seconds here. If the camera is hacked with magic lantern, you can lower the bitrate and max out the recording time. The T4i is said to have a recording time of 22 minutes in 1080, but I am not sure about that. I´ve used my Canon DSLR a lot and never had issues with overheating. Nor did anyone I know. So, the whole issue is a bit complicated.

I used a firewire connection on my camera. like I said, I do not use a DSLR. not sure what the others were using but, firewire makes sense

first, we all have macs so, apparently, we were all using mac formatted hard drives. that clears up the 4GB question. second, I do not know how they connected their cameras to the laptops, but they did and got great footage - definitely not 480. next, I never said anything about DSLRs. I don't use one so, why does that matter to me? my cam has firewire and hooks directly to a computer via firewire, which allows me to use the OnLocation or Firestore solutions just fine. I will probably switch to thunderbolt and/or USB3 eventually. firewire was awesome, but thunderbolt is killer. it has it's problems, as do all the different connection possibilities. but, it much faster than USB3 or firewire. until then, the system I'm using now, with the discontinued OnLocation software, or the first generation firestore system (the FS-100), and FCP 7, is working just fine. I wondered what others were doing. I'm amazed more people aren't going this route. if you're doing a lot of hand-held, it can be cumbersome, and cards may be the best way to go. but, if you're on sticks, this gives you a nice monitor, and allows you to shoot for a long, long time, without having to change cards, mark cards, document what takes are on the cards, and then load the cards before importing to your NLE. you just shoot, import to the NLE and start editing. a much simpler process. I'd like someone to tell me about the systems that are out there and their experiences with them. then, if they want to add some info on DSLRs, that's ok. but, that is not my main concern.

Do not use a spinning hard drive. You'd want to look into something like a Hyperdeck Shuttle with SSDs. Movement on spinning hard-drive platters is a recipe for disaster. The SSDs may be more expensive (now) but they are far far far more robust.

I agree, solid state is the way to go.