New Storage item: Citydisk CFR - who knows about it?
 

Who knows more about this new item?

Shining Technology, Inc. - CitiDISK CFR - CitiDISK CFR

I'm not familiar with this particular unit, but I am interested in it. I used some of the older Citidisk recorders in 2009 for a conference. Some people reported having problems with theirs, but mine worked fine. Afterward, we discovered that there were several different models which worked only with specific camcorder models, so that may have accounted for some of the issues.

Nevertheless, I too would be interested in hearing if anyone has used one, and if it will record Canon's 24p HDV format...

Thanks!

Jay

I have one
 

I recently purchased the Citidisk CFR and so far am pleased. I'm using it with my XL2 with no trouble and can shoot approx. 2 hours on a 32 gb card. There are some things I'm not happy with though.

1. When recording, it cuts the video into 4 minute individual clips. So for a two hour shoot, you end up with about 30 clips you have to combine before editing.

2. The manual was not very helpful. Better information is available from their website. It took about two hours and several tries to format the card using the manual. After reading the FAQ's on the website, it was as simple as poking a paper clip in the hole.

Those are just a couple of annoyances.

It works well with the XL2. With a tape in the camera, the Citidisk starts and stops with the record button on the camera. When the tape ends, the Citidisk will continue to record.

With no tape in the camera, you have to control the start/start record with the buttons on the Citidisk unit.

The internal battery has lasted for the 2 hour record time with no problems. Citidisk claims 4.5 hours on the internal battery but haven't tried it out that long ( can't afford to get a 64 GB card just yet).

I've used it about 4 times now without any issues. I hope it holds up.

Rob

recorder
 

Now that another 10 days have passed, do you have any more comments about the recorder? What happens if your shots are under 4 minutes each? Are they broken up into smaller segments?

Haven't made up my mind yet. I like it and I don't.

A 4 minute clip would be contained in one file, but longer clips are split into several files. As it records, it splits clips about every 2GB or so. When I'm shooting a church service, I end up with about 10 - 13 small clips. That's what I don't like about it. I'm trying to find a way to combine the clips before importing into Final Cut but am not having much luck. The manufacturer, Shining Technologies suggests using MPEG StreamClip to combine files. It's a free download. Last night I was able to combine files with no problem but today I keep getting an error message. Waiting to hear back on that one.

Over all, the quality of the imported files are great and it really speeds up editing time. The battery life is decent, about 2 hours max on the internal battery. I purchased the external battery that should extend about another 2.5 hours. Moving files over to the computer is straight forward drag and drop. You do, however, have to go into the CF card from the Citidisk and erase the files. If you just delete the clips while connected to the computer, it doesn't work.

If I can figure out how to combine all the clips before editing, it will be a keeper.