Bruce A. Johnson

A 1981 graduate of the Boston University College of Communication, Bruce A. Johnson got his first job in broadcast television at WFTV, an ABC affiliate in Orlando, FL. While there, he rose through the ranks from teleprompter operator to videographer, editor, producer and director of many different types of programming. It was in the early 1980's that he bought his first computer - a Timex/Sinclair 1000 - a device he hated so much, he promptly exchanged it for an Atari 400. But the bug had bitten hard.

In 1987, Johnson joined Wisconsin Public Television in Madison as a videographer/editor, and still works there to the present day. His responsibilities have grown, however, and now include research and presentations on the issues surrounding the digital television transition, new consumer technology and the use of public television spectrum in homeland security. He freelances through his company Painted Post MultiMedia, and has written extensively for magazines including DV and Studio Monthly.
Monday, June 01, 2009

Solid State Recording For The Masses!

Focus Enhancements Goes Compact Flash

Y’know, I’m getting very quickly sold on using flash memory for a recording medium.  My experiences testing the Sony EX-1 and EX-3 cameras have really made me a believer.  Problem is, I already have a raft of cameras (Canon XL-series, mostly) that I still love and still make great pictures.  And in the current economy, pouring over $12K into an EX3 and wide angle lens just isn’t going to happen too soon.  What to do?

Focus Enhancements has been hitting the ball out of the park with hard drive recorders for several years now, and the big brains there have just made another leap.  Enter the FS-H200, which at first glance looks like an FS-5 hard disc recorder.  However, when you turn it on it’s side, you will find a Compact Flash slot instead of an internal hard drive.  Using HV and HDV’s 13-gigs-per-hour data rate, it’s an easy calculation that a 16Gb compact flash card will record over an hour of footage, and a 32Gb over 2 hours.  (Of course, CF cards are still much more expensive than an equivalent DV/HDV tape, but if you have ever had a tape dropout spoil your edit, you can easily see that double-recording with CF and tape is a very inexpensive insurance policy, and one that can drastically speed up your workflow to boot.)

Other features of the FS-H200 include silent operation (no moving parts!), a long-lasting removable internal battery, and native recording in many codecs and wrappers including AVI type 1 and 2, Quicktime, RawDV, M2T, and the Canopus and Matrox AVI formats.  And while the FS-H200 looks a lot like the FS-5, it doesn’t share some of the FS-5’s coolest features, like video on the monitor screen or remote logging via WiFi (with an iPod Touch or a laptop.)  Still, at a list price of $1195, it is a good bit less expensive than the FS-5.  (I recently upgraded my FS-5 to the new 2.0 software - watch for a review of that soon.)

I hope to have an FS-H200 in hand to test soon.  The units should be shipping this month, so check out www.focusinfo.com and watch your favorite retailer for the chance to bring your trusty old tape-based camcorders into the brave new world of solid-state recording!

(8) Comments • Most recent comments by: IEBA, Jay Friesen, Adam Wilt, cpelham, Mezigue, Bruce A Johnson, Adam Wilt, Mezigue, • Permalink


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