John Vanderpoel

Gentlemen,

I’ve got a two-camera shoot beginning next weekend that will end up creating 144 hrs of HDV video. My worst nightmare is to have to capture all of this off of HDV tapes into Final Cut. I’m looking closely at Focus Enhancement’s FireStore FS-C HD100 (100 GB, 7 1/2 hours that mount on the back of my Canon XL H1 camera.
I am concerned about the FireStore drive being robust enough to not lose files. In fact, one of the DVInfo members suggested that I should purchase nNovia’s new portable drive the QCHD DEC, but it is only capable of m2t files and I need mov files to import natively and quickly into Finalcut…correct?
Before I bite the bullet and purchase Focus Enhancement’s FireStore, I’d like feedback from any of you concerning these three questions:
1) Is Focus Enhancements FireStore capable of giving me mov files that will quickly import into FinalCut?
2) Is the FireStore now battle tested? What is the likelihood of losing files?
3) How well does it work with the Canon XL H1?
Your input will be greatly appreciated.