Hi,

I am looking to purchase a a couple of direct to disk hard drives and looking into the Shining HDV (http://www.shining.com) for my current Sony Z1 and maybe even the new Shining Citidisk HD for the new Panasonic HVX-200 I have on order. The pricing seems better than the Firestore from focus enhancements. From what I was able to glean off the specs it seems to be a great solution for the price. I just want to record to disk and that's it. No other special features needed.

Any suggestions for a good solution at a good price?

Thanks,
Steve Austin.

You have covered the options that I am aware of.

My 2¢ on these external drives based on a small amount of experience using the FireStore is:

Be sure you really need one!

Yes, they save you time capturing to computer but they give you more bits to carry around as you shoot and the 4 pin firewire connector to the camera is not robust enough for continuous use.

I would rather have an in-camera solution such as tape, P2 cards or equivalent.

If you are in the market for a lightly-used 40 Gig Firestore, please contact me!

Chris S