EX1 - Recording on Hard-Disk?

[John Peterson]

I use a separate power supply to power mine. I didn't want to use the camera for the USB power. Are you doing that? The maximum (regardless of hard drive size) is 84GB per slot on the EX1 when you format them. I have firmware 1.20.

John

[Thomas Nibler]

I tried both Hard Discs using external Power supply and USB-Powered ones.... none of them worked :(
I also tried BC268 from different online-shops (Including the ones from Trailtech Wolfgang recommended)

And I tried to format the HardDiscs i tested before plugging them in my EX1 in several ways: FAT32, no partitions, one FAT32 partition with only 84 GB, leaving the rest of the HD unformated, one FAT32 partition with just 60 GB (rest of the HD unformated) .... nothing worked.

It cant be that i try so many different Hard-Discs and none of them works... everyone else just plugged in a random HD/USB-Stick and it worked......?!

Can anyone recommend a HD known to work? I had no luck just looking for a specific chipset...

Or is there something so simple to do i just forgot?? Do i have to change any settings in the menu? Do i have to unlock this feature somehow?

Wolfgang, vielleicht komme ich echt auf dein Angebot zurück!! Aber wie gesagt, ich hab mir jetzt auch einen Adapter von Trailtech bestellt... mit dem klappts auch nicht... is doch zum Mäusemelken.....

[John Peterson]

Well then if that's the case I would suggest that the problem is the enclosure itself. I used two really cheap enclosures and both of them worked flawlessly. They are a little flimsy, but I leave the hard drives in them and have them velcroed together:

$15.70 - 2.5" SATA/eSATA USB 2.0 HDD Enclosure with USB and eSATA Cables - HDD & Enclosures

It is now discontinued here in the states:

Newegg.com - KINGWIN JT-25EU-BK Aluminum 2.5" Black USB 2.0 & eSATA External Enclosure

However, this statement of your is troubling:

And I tried to format the HardDiscs i tested before plugging them in my EX1 in several ways

You don't format the hard drives first. You let the camera format them just as if they were SxS cards. You probably have a MBR on the discs now that the camera won't accept. But you did say earlier that you were unable to use the camera to format it so I still suspect the enclosure. Reformat the hard drives as one big partition.

John

[Thomas Nibler]

You don't format the hard drives first. You let the camera format them just as if they were SxS cards.

I know, but my EX1 can't access the hard-disc in the first place, so i tried different ways of formatting, so that the EX will recognize the HD. I know i got to format the disc in the EX again...
I've also tried to have no partitions at all on the disc, only free memory, so there was no MBR. But that didnt work either....

I'll try another Enclosure, BUT i allready tried 3 different ones and none of them worked. That cant be by chance i gues....?!

Did any of you had to try different HDs or enclosures for this to work? I feel like everyone just used a random HD and it worked?

Reformat the hard drives as one big partition.

So no size-limit for a partition? (84GB or 60GB like the Sony-Harddisc-Recorder has?)

[John Peterson]

So no size-limit for a partition? (84GB or 60GB like the Sony-Harddisc-Recorder has?)
=================================
If you pre-format a 2.5 inch 120GB drive the EX1 will format it at 84GB. If you pre-format a 2.5 inch 320GB drive the EX1 will format it at 84GB.

John

[Wolfgang Winne]

>Wolfgang, vielleicht komme ich echt auf dein Angebot zurück!! Aber wie gesagt, ich hab mir jetzt auch einen Adapter von Trailtech bestellt... mit dem klappts auch nicht... is doch zum Mäusemelken.....

...schon mal das USB Kabel ausgetauscht?

[Thomas Nibler]

>...schon mal das USB Kabel ausgetauscht?

Ja, hab schon verschiedene ausprobiert....... :(

[George Strother]

Originally Posted by John Peterson

So no size-limit for a partition? (84GB or 60GB like the Sony-Harddisc-Recorder has?)
=================================
If you pre-format a 2.5 inch 120GB drive the EX1 will format it at 84GB. If you pre-format a 2.5 inch 320GB drive the EX1 will format it at 84GB.

John

EX1r on Firmware 1.1 formats a 500GB Seagate ST905004EXA101-RK drive to 499.1GB. EX1r shows 29.43 hours capacity.
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Expans.../ref=pd_cp_e_2
So far the drive seems to work fine. It's quiet, very light and doesn't seem to mind being shaken hard while recording. I have recorded for 2.5 hrs uninterrupted without trouble.

Runs on a single USB to the camera, no additional power needed. I don't think I can do better for $50. Cheap enough to hand to the client after a long shoot. Only has USB port, USB and eSATA would be nice.

[Dean Sensui]

Is there a compelling reason to record to a hard drive?

There are very good reasons not to do this, number one being the risk of experiencing a "hard crash" when writing to a spinning HDD platter. The head of the HDD is not supposed to make contact with the platters. The separation distance is the equivalent of a Boeing 747 flying 4" off the surface of the ocean.

Doesn't take much to foul up that critical relationship.

I used an HDD recorder while shooting aerials in a helicopter: fail. The vibrations and acoustic impulses of helicopter flight messed that up.

Also, the HDD can spew RF noise that will interfere with wireless mic systems. I've had that experience, too.

Take a look at the MxM Express adapters, and Lexar 32-gigabyte SDHC cards. Each 32-GB will give you nearly 2 hours of uninterrupted recording time. With two in the camera, that's almost 4 hours. I've been using that combination without any problems.

[Marcus Durham]

Originally Posted by Dean Sensui

Is there a compelling reason to record to a hard drive?

There are very good reasons not to do this, number one being the risk of experiencing a "hard crash" when writing to a spinning HDD platter. The head of the HDD is not supposed to make contact with the platters. The separation distance is the equivalent of a Boeing 747 flying 4" off the surface of the ocean.

Doesn't take much to foul up that critical relationship.

The MxM SSD unit is the best way to go and is the solution I use myself. Fantastic for conferences as you don't need to worry about card management. No it isn't quite as small and neat as a card but it's sturdy and you get a huge capacity on ultra reliable disks. For total hassle free operation you can run the camera from the mains and you are pretty much set up for the day. Then when the time to transfer comes you plug it into an ESATA port on your Mac* or PC and you ingest the lot in one go at super speed.

Downside if of course that it's really only suitable for tripod based shoots such as conferences. No HD solution is ideal for run and gun due to the extra weight and bulk IMO.

I wrote an article a while back about using platter based HD's and even disassembled an HD to show the mechanism. If anyone thinks platter based disks are designed to be thrown or placed on top of a camera they are mad!

With an SSD you get the benefit of long recording times and no worries about vibrations or movement fouling the disk.

In short, I wouldn't be without the SSD for long form recording on a tripod, but for run and gun cards rule.




* Obviously some Macs can't do this. However adding a ESATA card to a Mac Pro is trivial and there must surely be expresscard solutions for the laptops.