Any experiences?Was thinking about the Hyperdeck Shuttle, because its way cheaper than the FMU for backup purposes... And the quality of the image?

The Blackmagic shuttle works very well for what it is. The quality is very high, and depends more on the camera you are recording from than the shuttle itself. Remember that your signal will only be 8-bit, even though you will get 4:2:2 and a higher bitrate.

The biggest problem, really, is that you can't change any settings without hooking it up to a computer. Also, the mini DIN connecters are very weak and easy to break off. But if you are recording HDMI, that won't bother you.

I use the Atomos Ninja, picked one up for cheap before it was discontinued. I prefer it to the shuttle for the following reasons:

1. You can use traditional spinning HDDs or SSDs
2. It has a built in screen for monitoring
3. It uses Sony batteries of which I have many

It records all flavors of ProRes which is what I need so it works great for me.

Finally decided to take the Hyperdeck because of cost reasons.
I really only want it fort backup purposes.
In fact the quality doesnt improve for me... At a glance for now.

Also i dont get the 1080p signal to the hyperdeck. it only accepts 1080i in 25fps
although i film in 1080p/50... Strange

And the resulting file (Prores or Avid) dont load in PremiereCS5... what the heck...???

because its way cheaper than the FMU for backup purposes

The FMU is overpriced, but it attaches directly to the camera and it takes power from the camera battery, you don't even notice it is there as it becomes a part of the camera, something you can't say about all other external recorders.

True
that is a big advantage, but i will not use the recorder everytime. only if its a shot that is a must not to loose...
on the other hand the recorder has the ability to convert SDI<->HDMI and lets you record such data if its one day required...
the atomos would indeed be better, but its almost double the price. that money can be spend elsewhere.

Hi Michael,

My experience has been that most camcorders will always output via HDMI as 1080i even when the camera is set to some 1080p format. This is done for compatibility with all monitors, as some don't accept 24p and such. Check the camera manual, this should be covered.

Regarding the CS5 issues, do you have the free QuickTime player installed on your machine? That provides the ProRes codec. You may also have to install AVID codecs manually, I have no experience with DNxHD myself.

Please note that older versions of Premiere have an issue and cannot accept ProRes with 4-channel audio! I believe this was fixed in a later update to CS5.5. No issue with CS6 or CC. If you set the recorder to only record 2-channel audio, then you should be ok.

Hope this helps

Thanks

Hi

how can i set the recorder to 2-channels?? The Hyperdeck Utility hasnt got that option..
In fact is has only very very few options....

The FMU is overpriced, but it attaches directly to the camera and it takes power from the camera battery, you don't even notice it is there as it becomes a part of the camera, something you can't say about all other external recorders.

Agree to all of the above - I use the FMU along with a 64GB SD card and I can last all day at a wedding without worrying about running out of space or a card failure - peace of mind!

Hi Pete

I do agree, overpriced a bit? absolutely! However it's integral and almost foolproof and becomes part of the camera ... an external recorder can easily be forgotten to press record and you could have connection faults, battery failure and more. They say peace of mind has no fixed price so really it's a lot cheaper to pay the price rather than have to refund the bride when you didn't record her ceremony cos the card failed!

Just for interest when do you use the card and when do you use the FMU ?? I would think that the ceremony and speeches are unrepeatable but the rest could easily be staged if you had an issue??

Chris

Chris I always record to both simultaneously during the day for peace of mind and never give it a second thought. When I had my old HDV tape sony Z1 I used to use a Datavideo CF recorder that cost about £400 - It sat on the hot shoe and took a feed from the camera firewire to record to CompactFlash cards for backup - well it worked but what a pain - bulky and relied on AA batteries that would only last a couple of hours - usually just enough for ceremony/speeches but I had to keep an eye on it.

These days I'm all for anything that will make filming on the day easier and less stressful :)

Thanks for that

I must really get my butt out of gear and buy one!! Now I use Cam A just for the ceremony and audio and my B-Cam shoots the cutaways. Then at the reception A -Cam is for speeches and B-Cam does all the rest!

If I run the FMU in the A Cam for ceremony then can I switch it to the B-Cam until speeches and then back to the A-Cam and finally back into the B-Cam ....I'm cheap so don't want to buy two units for each of the EA-50's ... being identical cameras I presume swopping the FMU will work that way??

Chris

ermm it should do Chris - it clips on in a second and you don't have to think about it. You'll just have to get your head around having footage from 2 cameras on the same device!

well the recorder can also be attached/mounted at the cam. short hdmi cable will do...so no big hasszle either.

I've ordered the new $250 Atomos Ninja 'Star' announced at NAB. 8bit 4:2:2 uncompressed HDMI is recorded to CFast cards at up to 60i. The Star is small and ultra lightweight as it has no monitor which suits me as I find all field monitors an unnecessary distraction.

Also i dont get the 1080p signal to the hyperdeck. it only accepts 1080i in 25fps although i film in 1080p/50... Strange

Not 'strange' but normal. 50P is twice the data of 50i and only one external recorder will do 50/60P and it's very, very expensive compared to the recorders discussed here.

Well recently I had to do a screencapture from a IPad for a client, so the Hyperdeck was at least usefull therefore... The usage on the EA50 has not been very frequently to be honest...