Looking for a prof. camcorder with inbuilt harddisk

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Hello all,

I am currently working in Mali, West-Africa. The land where heat and dust ruins a lot of equipment of any kind ;-)

For this reason, I am doing research for a good, quality prof. camcorder with inbuilt harddisk. I saw one of Sony a couple of months ago, but am not able to track this info down again.

Is there any one at this forum using a type of camcorder right now, that is willing to share some information on brand, places to find more info (on the Web) and users experiences?

Thanks a lot!

[edDV]

Pro cams use external hard drives.

Focus Drives can be used with DV/DVCAM/DVCPro formats.
http://www.focusinfo.com/solutions/catalog.asp?id=3

The Panasonic HDX-200 can use P2 Flash Ram but media is very expensive.

Sony makes a hard drive device for it's HDV line.

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@edDV

Thanks for your reply... the FS - 4 40 GB looks like the one we could very well use...

[B-Twien Bytes]

@ edDV and others...

Thanks for your advice in the whole hard drive matter....

I ordered the FS-4 HD 40GB, but did not know their was a separate PAL and NTSC version ;-( I now have a NTSC version in my hand, while I have a PAL videocamera....

We read the whole focus website and manual BEFORE buying the HD, but could not find a clear remark to make attention to PAL or NTSC. For this reason I did not think the HD would not support both systems.

It there anyone out there that who knows IF and HOW we can reflash this unit to PAL?

I am working and living in Mali, West-Africa where there are a lot of PAL and NTSC cameras due to Americans and Europeans both bringing in their stuff.

It is for us NOT at all easy to send and receive (air/post)mail...for this reason I would ask anyone: Please HELP us out if you can...

Thanks in advance...

[edDV]

@ edDV and others...

Thanks for your advice in the whole hard drive matter....

I ordered the FS-4 HD 40GB, but did not know their was a separate PAL and NTSC version ;-( I now have a NTSC version in my hand, while I have a PAL videocamera....

We read the whole focus website and manual BEFORE buying the HD, but could not find a clear remark to make attention to PAL or NTSC. For this reason I did not think the HD would not support both systems.

It there anyone out there that who knows IF and HOW we can reflash this unit to PAL?

I am working and living in Mali, West-Africa where there are a lot of PAL and NTSC cameras due to Americans and Europeans both bringing in their stuff.

It is for us NOT at all easy to send and receive (air/post)mail...for this reason I would ask anyone: Please HELP us out if you can...

Thanks in advance...

I'm very surprised at this. Most DV format equipment is NTSC/PAL dual standard especially digital equipment. That was the main goal of CCIR-601 (ITU Rec-601).

I can only conclude that they do this to force a separate pricing structure for PAL regions. I don't have one but if I did, I would expect it to work in PAL as I carry it around the world. I often carry my Canopus ADVC to record PAL to my laptop while travelling.

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Thanks for your support....

Are there more people out there with an opinion about this matter? It all is a software/firmware matter anyhow ....

[edDV]

I'd complain to Focus and in every forum that discusses the product.

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This is their reply:

The Firestores that are engineered by FOCUS Enhancements are engineered in either "NTSC" or "PAL". I'm sorry but you should have been informed of this information before you purchased the unit.

The price range for the Firestores that are "NTSC" are lower than the "PAL" units. Meaning the "PAL" units price range are slightly higher.

No software update or upgrade is available to make an NTSC switch over to a PAL or visa versa.

It is highly recommended to contact the dealer/reseller and inform them of your situation, in hopes of them switching your "NTSC" unit out for a "PAL".

[edDV]

This is their reply:

The Firestores that are engineered by FOCUS Enhancements are engineered in either "NTSC" or "PAL". I'm sorry but you should have been informed of this information before you purchased the unit.

The price range for the Firestores that are "NTSC" are lower than the "PAL" units. Meaning the "PAL" units price range are slightly higher.

No software update or upgrade is available to make an NTSC switch over to a PAL or visa versa.

It is highly recommended to contact the dealer/reseller and inform them of your situation, in hopes of them switching your "NTSC" unit out for a "PAL".

Yes it is a pricing not technical issue.

If you take the Focus side of the argument, it costs them more to set up distribution/support in Europe, Africa and the Pacific Rim due to import restrictions, tax policy and the cost of hiring an employee in those regions. So they want to pass those costs to the local consumer and close the "escape path" of direct ordering from a US or a gray market distributor that doesn't incur or offset these additional costs.

Is this fair to the Euro/Africa consumer? Focus would say your votes establish these policies and add these costs to doing business there and therefore you need to pay for your votes. Your government has added the import restrictions and VAT that drives local prices sky high.

To counter that, I would say to Focus that you should control your distribution better and punish USA resellers that void their contract by selling outside the USA. You Focus should not be degrading your product for both USA and other customers by locking it to NTSC or PAL. That makes it a NO BUY for me here in the USA.

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Hello to all and edDV especially

Just want to let you know that I got "a special deal" out of it...and a German company of Focus E. sells me the PAL version of the FS-4 HD 40 GB for the same price as a NTSC-unit...

I did interact with them a lot and used some of your good and well-written arguments edDV !!

Way to go...It does not solve the whole issue on a macro level though, but today I am more than happy that they did come up with "a solution" to let us not spend more money and time on getting the right unit to West-Africa, Mali.