Canon And Focus Enhancements Announce FS-CF And FS-CF Pro Portable Compact Flash DTE Recorders

Canon, a leader in digital imaging, and Focus Enhancements, a worldwide leader in media management and digital audio technology, today announce the Focus Enhancements FS-CF and FS-CF Pro portable Compact Flash DTE recorders offering HD video recording to Compact Flash (CF) cards for Canon's line of HDV¹ camcorders² and Mini-DV³ camcorders. The new Focus Enhancements FS-CF units support 1080 24F, 25F and 30F, 50i and 60i frame rates in both QuickTime and M2T file formats. Additionally, 1080i 60 and 50 are supported in the MXF OP Atom format⁴.

FS-CF Pro

The new FS-CF Pro DTE recorder provides additional features such as video playback on the unit's color LCD, MPEG-4 proxy file generation, wireless metadata logging, and much more. The Focus Enhancements FS-CF and FS-CF Pro DTE recorders are ideal for professional cinematographers and videographers looking to upgrade their existing Canon HDV equipment to a seamless file-based workflow. By utilizing solid state recording, ingest time into NLE systems is eliminated – saving time for busy professionals. Additionally, dual-recording onto tape and CF cards provides valuable backup footage on separate media.

Both the FS-CF and FS-CF Pro units feature a single card slot for recording to industry standard Type 1 CF solid-state media. Once video footage has been recorded to user-supplied CF cards, the FS-CF units are easily connected to both Windows and Mac systems via USB 2.0 from the FS-CF unit itself or the CF card can be read via standard memory card readers for a seamless workflow with popular NLE systems.

Highlights of Focus Enhancements FS-CF Pro and FS-CF units include:

• Create custom, NLE compatible (Final Cut Pro and Avid), clip and time code based metadata
• Dynamically log metadata wirelessly during recording (FS-CF Pro)
• Playback recorded content on the color LCD (FS-CF Pro)
• Easily browse thumbnails and details of recorded content on the LCD or the web interface (FS-CF Pro)
• Support of popular DTE formats such as QuickTime (1080 24F, 25F and 30F, 50i, 60i) MXF (1080 50i and 60i) (FS-CF Pro) and M2T (1080 24F, 25F and 30F, 50i, 60i) for HDV and RawDV, AVI Type 1, AVI Type 2, Matrox AVI, MXF (Pro Only) and Canopus AVI for DV
• Timelapse and single frame record (DV only) as well as retro-disk recording (FS-CF Pro)
• Side located, removable Compact Flash slot that accepts standard Type 1, minimum 30MB/s Compact Flash Cards (currently available up to 64GB)
• Polymer dust cover for shock and moisture protection
• Record over 2.2 hours of 1080i HDV on a single 32GB card
• 6-pin IEEE1394 interface to DV or HDV cameras
• Fast USB 2.0 interface to Mac or Windows based NLE systems
• Supports large file sizes with UDF disk format on CF cards
• Ultra compact design weighs only 12 oz and features silent fanless operation
• Color back-lit LCD for menu navigation and status
• Back-lit scroll wheel for easy menu navigation
• Removable 3-hour (record time) Li-Ion battery pack
• 12V power input and supplied AC adapter

Pricing and Availability

FS-CF and FS-CF Pro are expected to be available through Canon authorized dealers in late April for an estimated retail price of $995 and $1,295 respectively.

1. "HDV" and the "HDV" logo are trademarks of Sony Corporation and Victor Company of Japan, Limited (JVC)
2. All Canon HDV tape-based video cameras with IEEE1394 are supported. This includes but is not limited to the following models: VIXIA HV40, VIXIA HV30, VIXIA HV20, Canon XH A1, Canon XH A1S, Canon XH G1, Canon XH G1S, Canon XL H1, Canon XL H1A and Canon XL H1S.
3. All Canon Mini-DV tape-based video cameras with IEEE1394 are supported. This includes but is not limited to the following models: Canon XL2 and Canon GL2
4. All frame rates (24F, 25F and 30F, 50i and 60i) may not be available on all Canon HDV camcorder models.