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Portable Hard Drive For FCP?

P

pcm128

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 5, 2008
18
0
Hi all,

I do a lot of field work with Final Cut Pro using a variety of different camera systems - many of them with tape-based HDV. Rather than go back and import these tapes later, I usually capture realtime into FCP via FireWire, so I can begin editing on set as soon as possible.

Until now, I've been capturing to my MacBook Pro's internal drive, and I'm considering buying a portable USB hard drive for video capture and editing. Is this a good idea, or should I just get a regular external drive?

Any tips here would be appreciated.
 
Buy your own enclosure and make your own Firewire 800 or e-sata portable drive.

USB2 is not great, even for DV.


If not check out G-Technology, or Lacie.
 
Take a look at the new FireStore drives.
http://www.focusinfo.com/

I used an older one a few weeks ago and fell in love with the little sucker.

No computer required. Plug the Drive into the camera via firewire. It has it's own battery and display (for settings, not viewing...)

They are pricey but IMHO well worth it for location work. I'm not sure what the new ones cost... searching....
 
rjphoto said:
Take a look at the new FireStore drives.
http://www.focusinfo.com/

I used an older one a few seeks ago and fell in love with the little sucker.

No computer required. Plug the Drive into the camera via firewire. It has it's own battery and display (for settings, not viewing...)

They are pricey but IMHO well worth it for location work. I'm not sure what the new ones cost... searching....
Click to expand...

I had recently gotten a Canon XH A1 before it got damaged in our house fire back in late October. I was thinking of replacing it soon with a Canon XH A1s. From what I understand, it's supposed to be easier to work w/ an external hard drive so you can record to both the minidv tape AND external hard drive at the same time. The firestore would be what I would have to use? or could I/should I use something else?
 
Rizvi1 said:
I had recently gotten a Canon XH A1 before it got damaged in our house fire back in late October. I was thinking of replacing it soon with a Canon XH A1s. From what I understand, it's supposed to be easier to work w/ an external hard drive so you can record to both the minidv tape AND external hard drive at the same time. The firestore would be what I would have to use? or could I/should I use something else?
Click to expand...

there may be some other alternatives, but a new firestore should work fine.

work flow was great.

Of course there are built in alternatives with some of the higher end cameras now. I saw a Sony with 2 Express Card memory card slots built in. I know I can't afford one right now so I haven't even tried to price it yet... but it was one sweet camera.
 
tivoli2 said:
THAT is a nice looking little drive... the fact that it's FW800-powered isn't to be glossed-over...
Click to expand...

agreed. it's $199 on western digital's store and bestbuy.com, but $159 on amazon and $154 on buy.com. I think I'll grab it from buy.com since I have some credit I can use up.

I'm wondering what I could and should do with the Western Digital Passport 320GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive (Model number: WDXMS3200TN | SKU: 8621397) I purchased back in March, 2008 from Best Buy. I'd really like to open it up and take the hard drive and put in my 15" 2.2ghz MacBook Pro, but maybe that's a waste of a portable? Maybe I could get the comparable portable hard drive that's in this unit for cheaper? I paid I think $140ish for it.
 
Bus powered drives are slower drives, typically laptop drives, and that makes them less than idea for editing. Also, the cases are designed for compactness not cooling which also makes them less than ideal for editing.


Lethal
 
LethalWolfe said:
Bus powered drives are slower drives, typically laptop drives, and that makes them less than idea for editing. Also, the cases are designed for compactness not cooling which also makes them less than ideal for editing.


Lethal
Click to expand...

Not ideal, but I've been using a Hitachi Deskstar 7200RPM 160GB 2.5" PATA drive in a FW800 powered enclosure for about 4 years now editing a variety of formats without any issues. So it's usable and works great, but not optimally ideal.
 
sl1200mk2 said:
This Lacie has pretty much every single connection on it and is very nicely priced. I'd like to get one myself.

http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-301371-...TF8&coliid=I2TN48JV8JYKG6&colid=3KBLUTAA8BVIW
Click to expand...

What would be better - this Lacie? or the Western Digital portable 500gb one w/ Firewire 800? I think Amazon has that for $5 more at $160.

LethalWolfe said:
Bus powered drives are slower drives, typically laptop drives, and that makes them less than idea for editing. Also, the cases are designed for compactness not cooling which also makes them less than ideal for editing.


Lethal
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll avoid using the portable for editing then.
 
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Don't buy LaCie

Never ever buy a LaCie drive. I can't say that strong enough. Plus, the heat of that drive from editing in that rugged enclosure is going to shorten the life of that drive. Might be good for cooking eggs though?
 
surfmadison said:
Never ever buy a LaCie drive. I can't say that strong enough. Plus, the heat of that drive from editing in that rugged enclosure is going to shorten the life of that drive. Might be good for cooking eggs though?
Click to expand...

Can you explain why?

I have 2 LaCies and have had good results from them. One is an 80GB and the other is a 500GB, both Porsche design.

Of all the external drives I have owned, they are the top performers.

I even use the 80GB as a field recorder with my laptop and it is 4 or 5 years old.
 
Why I don't recommend LaCie

The only reason is that they sell what they call hot swappable RAID enclosures. However, you must buy overpriced drives from them if you want additional drives as they won't sell you the drive trays alone. They don't really mention that when you buy them, but unless you want to unscrew 4 screws for each drive everytime you want to switch drives you are out of luck.

I had hoped to just swap out drives, which would be very easy to do. But, LaCie won't sell you the trays alone. They force you to pay $200 for a $100 drive. Therefore, along with other problems that have been posted on this site, I will never recommend them to anyone.

I am currently using FirmTek enclosures. Highly rated and you can use any drive you want. Maybe overkill for the portable solution the OP wanted, but since it is my goal to never recommend LaCie I had to chime in.
 
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