1Ds firewire connector?

[Paul_Gardner]

Looking at the specs on the 1Ds it says IEEE 1394 (with dedicated cable). Does this mean that the firewire connector on the camera body is NOT a standard firewire connector?
Paul

[Scott_Pilkington]

the camera female 1394 is a standard 6 pin, and the cable that comes with the camera is s 6 pin male to 6 pin male, which is Mac only

so if you have a PC, you will have to buy a cable that has a 4 pin 1394

[Jim_Trunck]

Paul,

The camera body accepts a standard firewire 6 pin plug. The Firewire cable with the camera is a standard 6 pin at both ends (IFC-450D6); this is what is shipped with the kit. Most desktop PC firewire cards accept the 6 pin connector, while most laptops have a 4 pin connector and would require the additional purchase of the IFC-450D4 cable (6 pin for the camera body and 4 pin for the PC). The two missing pins are for power supplied by the PC, which is typically left off laptops since they work on batteries as opposed to AC on desktops. I

Both cables are 4.5 meters long and come with a filter choke at BOTH ends of the cable (I believe this is what differentiates them from other store bought ones). "Dedicated" means it works great with the 1DS, but I think you could use that cable with any firewire products.

I would presume you could use any standard 6 pin to 6 pin or 6 pin to 4 pin firewire cable, depending on your computer firewire port, but it is the filters on the wires that make the difference (clean data passing through the cables). Nikon's firewire cables also have chokes at both ends as well.

Jim

[Paul_Gardner]

Thanks for the replies. Im trying to see how to setup the firewire from the camera to a firewire hub. After searching the web I can't believe that noone makes a firewore to USB converter. I did find a lot of requests for them though. I was also looking for an SD firewire card for a handheld which I didnt find either. Oh well maybe Canon will wake up and make the next set of cameras with USB 2.0 capability. where over 90% of the market is. Mac! Pffft!
Paul

[Paul_Caldwell]

A couple of more things to consider.

The reason Canon as everyone else is using firewire IMO is two fold. When these cameras were in development, there was only USB or Firewire and no way would standard USB work. Also I feel that the developers on most of these cameras work on the mac first. Mac has had the standard 6 pin port for a long time. Only Sony embraced the fire wire idea, with their 4 pin connection, however in most cases, this has issues.

You can easily add a PCMICA fireware card to any Intel Laptop. Most of these cards take up one slot and offer at least 2 ports, both 6 pin. Belkin and Adaptec both make such cards. If you are attaching to a desktop, then there are also PCI cards that will give you ports again most times two.

As to if we will see USB2 in future cameras, I would predict that yes you will start to see it more and more, as now firewire is 2x the speed of USB2. The issue is that as these cameras get larger and larger in the amount of data being sent down the wire, you need the largest pipe possible. Now firewire 2 is 800mb/sec and USB has only just caught the older fireware 1 standard of 400.

But the key is don't let that 6 pin issue stop you on a current Intel laptop, just get the PCMCIA card.

Paul Caldwell