Focus Enhancements FS-5 Pro HD 100GB Portable DTE Hard Disc Recorder FS-5

When I got my first FS-5 I was in Heaven. 11 hours of HD recording capability, no more swapping tapes, no more downloading tapes, and more "oohs" and "ahs" as people watched the videographer (me) show up with his fancy equipment. I liked it so much that I bought a second FS-5, and productivity went way up. Then 2.25 years ago I had a mystery fail where one of my units didn't record anything.Support is via a company named VITEC, who had me send in the unit, and they returned it in a timely fashion saying "It worked fine for us, it had been set to DV". I thought they were full of it but was happy that my unit was working again, for the next gig. For the following gig it didn't work at all. I sent it back to VITEC, they returned it and said it worked fine, but it had again been set to DV. Ya right. Two gigs later it didn't work and the support guy phoned in the trick: delete all clips before formatting, since formatting alone will not free up the disc space. (That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard, I wonder how many times they did this delete-and-format trick while claiming the device had been set to DV.)Anyhow their trick worked for a couple seasons, but now it's not working at all.BTW, this unit has a hard drive, which is vulnerable to shock. When I realized the unit was dead I tried replacing the hard drive (since it's the only moving part, everything else is solid state). No luck. Vitec finally said that I could turn the thing in with a check for $550 and they'd send me a new FS-H200 Pro.DO NOT BUY A FS-5. IF YOU SEE ONE, RUN AWAY!!! The FS-H200 seems good for now, I have two of them and they work great. My one FS-5 is still working great, for now.Also, I only have two of these things and one of them is a brick. That's a 50% failure rate. Do you want that?

I have had my FS-5 since 2009 and it has traveled the world with me. I haven't had an issues with it other than the codex not working after FCP did an upgrade. Fortunately the company now supporting it has created a converter for the .mov files so everything works like a charm. I can't even imagine who many hours of tape ingesting I saved. Also cause it's solid state it can take a beating. I've traveled it on 250,000 miles so I'd say that's good.So I would definitely recommend this for anyone using a HDV camcorder that want's to avoid tapes.-Paul

This thing is horrible!! I used it for a few gigs and then for some reason the USB port stopped working. I called in and Support said they'd send me an RMA to ship it in for repairs which I never got. Now I have video stuck on the device I can't get off. You're better off sourcing a different solution!!