Sony already uses a CD burner in several of their still cameras. The problem is space -- you'd need a lot of CDs to record even a relaltively small amount of video.

The big issue I see is the reliabilty. Tape is a pretty mature and simple technology. Based on recent experiences with the Firestore, I'm still not too trusting of tapeless recording. On a couple of occasions, I got only empty files on the HD. Hopefully, that problem will go away when I get the unit back after the EPROM upgrade.

I expect tape will still be around, at least in a backup mode, for awhile.

Vic:

What other kinds of problems have you had with the Firestore?

Can you roll tape and record with the Firestore at the same time? And if so, is there any way to continue recording to the Firestore while changing a tape?

Thanks!

There is one camera which I know burns straight onto DVDRAM, its made by Hitachi. Brilliant picture but don't try to pan/ tilt or move the camera - It would tend to Jerk - Neat idea though.

Retail's at about £1000

Ed Smith

Howdy from Texas,

<< Can you roll tape and record with the Firestore at the same time? >>

Yes.

<< is there any way to continue recording to the Firestore while changing a tape? >>

Hmm. I don't *think* so.

Chris is correct -- if you anticipate running longer than the tape length, I'd leave the tape out of the camera (and put up with the flashing icon on the XL-1), if you can't tolerate the break in footage.

As far as the problems, an example is recording a live performance. The first act went onto the HD normally -- about an hours worth of data. The second act had all the files, with 9 minute breakpoints, but they were all empty (0KB). That's happened more than once. I reformatted the HD with the Firestore, and the one time I used it everything was OK. But, then I could no longer read the disk with OS-10. The V 2.0 upgrade apparently comes with a patch to fix that.

Hopefully, the upgrade will take care of these issues.

Ed, you say that the DVDRAM Hitachi has a "brilliant picture", but in a review I recently saw (somewhere on pcpro.co.uk) they said that the image was quite the opposite (they gave the cam something like 1/5).
Have you seen it yourself; and is the picture a bit improvement over the traditional tape?

Thanks.

Dan, I have not seen one myself. That was the understanding I got from talking to people, and remembering seeing it on 'Tomorrow's World'. Maybe not brilliant picture, but an improvement on 8mm, Hi8, VHS, VHS-C and S-VHS - if you don't mind the 'jerk'.

DVDRAM camcorder
 

A bit more about the resolution of the cameras as quoted from Hitachi's website, press release:

"For video recording a 1.1 million pixel, ¼ inch CCD with an effective area of 720,000 pixels is used. In still mode the effective area is one million pixels.

It has optical 12x zoom lens system. The multi-coated aspherical lens system is a high performance type designed specially for megapixel applications. Hitachi's DSP6 digital signal processor uses MPEG-2 compression technology for optimum image quality. The camcorder also has a 48x digital zoom mode."

To learn more visit:

http://www.hitachidigitalmedia.com/productFinder.jsp

If any one was wondering, I am *not* a salesman from Hitachi.

Hope this helps,
All the best

Ed

I would opt for a common drive connection.
 

Tapeless is just around the corner. Heck with P3s/P4s notebooks you really could use them in a tapeless system albeit a little unwieldy.

Whatever gets devised, it better use generic drives! I would not buy any system that was proprietary. I hate to be locked in on one manufacturer's design and suddenly that drive no longer available.

The draw back about add on drives is the user i/f. It would be nicer to have that i/f part of the cam. On the other hand, if the drive had a simple i/f it would make shot logging a breeze. Besides, with firewire, you could just pop out a drive and pop in a new one. The used drive could be dispatched to the editing station (Apple or PC) for editing.

Nathan Gifford

NAB 2002 Any News?
 

Okay, I'm probably jumping the gun on this one. I'm sure Chris Hurd is partying with the big boys with little thought to the Watchdog. Who can blame him?

So, if you've got some scoop on anything NAB please post it! We all want to live vicariously through your NAB eyes...

NAB
 

I didnt see anything too special, besides the panasonic 24 prototype and
the sony hi-def's. Did get a peak at the digital cinema projectors and the
mini35mm XL1 camera at the cannon booth, that was neat.

Gonna be down there today and peak at the Adobe booth and hopefully
catch a good deal at the "swap meet" sales booths for some cranes and
tripods.

If anyone wants me to scope anything out for them ill be happy to do so..

Per the note I left on the MAC NLE board, please take a look at the various FCP dedicated keyboards if you have a chance.
Thanks.....

NLE
 

hmm...FCP boards, ill have to look around for it at the apple booth.

but yeah ill let you know what i find!

Both the Logic & EZ keyboards say they're at NAB, per 2-pop.com.

Thanks.

MacCentral: IEEE Licenses Apple Logo for Firewire
 

Interesting news item at MacCentral.

http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0205/29.firewire.php