FS4 upgrades and improvments - roadmap please?
 

As this forum is monitored by Focus, perhaps they could give us a roadmap for some of the improvments and upgrades that we 'early adoptors' have been waiting for.

How about:

Larger capacity battery?

Standalone battery charger?

HDV firmware upgrade?

'Correct colours for battery indicator' firmware upgrade?

Ray Liffen

I'm sure someone form Focus will chime in, but here is what we know:

Larger battery - working on it. Batteries have been a big problem for Focus. Shortages and mechanical errors. They are looking to get a longer running battery, but the form factor has to work with the FS-4. It can't be too bulky or awkward.

Stand Alone Charger - in the works.

HDV Firmware - no new news on releasse date

Battery color error - I think this will be rolled into the next firmware update -probably when HDV is released.

Availablitiy - Still difficult. We'll have more FS-4 Pro 80Gb & 40GB units on Wed 6/15. Won't have standard FS-4 till next week. Extra Batteries are back ordered at least 2 more weeks. So field kits are back ordered as well.

Gary
Videoguys.com

Hi,

Thanks Gary for jumping in with the update. Here is some additional comments...

Long Life Battery - Currently expected to be available in the middle of July. I will update when I have more information.

Stand Alone Charger - We are currently looking into a solution.

HDV Firmware - The beta software is currently in beta. As this is quite new ground for FireStore technology, we are currently putting the firmware through extensive testing before release. I will post when we have more information on a release date.

Battery LED Fix - Expect new firmware (not part of the HDV release) hopefully this week.

Hope that helps,

Matt McEwen

Gary and Matt - thanks for your replies.

Matt, regarding the standalone charger the temptation will be to design some sort of cradle into which the battery fits. The cradle would then be fed from a power unit which plugged into the wall socket.

My plea is - don't do it! the whole point of the FS4 is portability. To have to carry a cradle around in the camera bag (for on-site charging) is simply more unnecessary weight and space. All that is needed is a clip on the end of the power lead with an edge connector. The clip could use spring pressure or a velcro strap to hold it in place.

So please - no cradle!

Regarding the ac power lead into the power unit for the charger, please could you use the lighter-weight two core 'figure of eight' cable and plug rather than the heavy three core cable and three pin 'euro' plug'? The FS4 has a heavy cable and euro plug and it's just more weight and bulk to carry around. The design of the FS4 power unit is double-insulated with no exposed metal so there is no need for the earthed lead and plug.

With studio equipment the weight of cables and power units and cradles is of no consequence, but the FS4 is designed for 'on the road' use and on the road we need to keep the weight and bulk down.

Thanks

Ray Liffen

Matt

Will you be coming back with comments on my thoughts about the standalone charger? Or is it too late, because a large clunky cradle with big heavy cable has already been designed and you can't make changes now?

Ray Liffen

Matt,

Will the new firmware address the fan noise or is there another plan for the issue?

Thanks

Matt please read
 

I have a future feature request: The ability to record 4 channels in 12 bit mode.
I use an XL1s and edit on a Matrox RTX100.

(See this post http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=44240)

Although Premiere Pro doesn't seem to be able to do it, Matrox has a plugin that lets you choose channels 3 & 4 when capturing. This is then written to tape as a .wav file with the same name as the .avi. The avi file contains channels 1 & 2.

So I'm guessing the data (channels 3 & 4) are all there, it is just a matter of wrapping it correctly, ie, creating another wave file. Yes?

If this isn't possible, I will try the FS4 in AV/C mode and see if the RTX thinks its a VTR. Then I can capture those files that way.

I'll start a separate thread with my findings.

Very happy with the FS-4 so far. Great work Matt et al.

Mark

My Findings