The future of 8gb p2

[arrestthisman]

Hey all. I saw the press release on studiodaily about the 32gb cards being "about" 1000$ by the end of the year.

For me, I like to backup each card to dual layer optical for 8gb cards, and single layer DVDfor 4gb. It's a workflow I've come to love very much, and I would like to stay that way given I don't need the long record times of a 32gb card.

I also don't want to pay a premium for this... In other words...

By years end with the 8GB P2 be discontined with 16gb in its place, or with the 8gigs stay around for a while at a greatly reduced price?

So the 32GB cards will be about 31 dollars per gigabyte (unless my math is WAY off) by the end of the year, which would make the 8gb card equivalent 250$.

Does anyone know how this is going to pan out. any ideas?

I just want to know when to stock up on 8s, while waiting long enough to get the best possible price, and I'm sure there are a lot of people in the same boat.

It would be cool if they let you partition the 16gig ones into two volumes, that way you do could just drag and drop two full 8 gig folders, each to a seperate DVD.

[Richard Sutcliffe]

Its inevitable that the 8gb will be phased out, perhaps not as fast as the 4's were, its a very useable size.

I think we will all be looking towards blue laser storage/holographic and the 8gb size becomes less convenient. A larger archive medium with a better shelf life is essential anyway, DVD just won't cut it if you need that footage to stay accesible for years rather than months.

Stock up once the 32GB get announced.

[Neil Rowe]

..im not sure that blue laser is the future though. right now im stocking up on 5 and 1/4" floppies. I really think they are going to make a comeback. well, anyways, one things for certain, I would love the longer record times of a 32 GB card.

[David Saraceno]

Two 8 Gbs give about 40 minutes 720/24pn and are easily backed up.

I see a solid market for those and the 4Gbs for a while.

[arrestthisman]

Interesting.

But I have to disagree with Richard on this one. DVDs have a long term archival shelf life of 15 to 99 years depending on the media. It's hard drives that aren't rated for long term storage.

That said, if someone disagrees with me and can produce some proof, I'd LOVE to be proven wrong on the Hard Drive issue. It would be 10 thousand times easier to off load to a backup drive, and put it offsite in an water-fire-explosion-proof safe (the way I store my tapes right now... I'm paranoid of a terrorist attack or a flood ruining my ability to re-edit projects I haven't worked on in years).

[Ted Spencer]

IMHO there's no doubt that hard drives of any kind are unsuited to long term archiving. The simple fact that they're electomechanical devices makes them inherently fallible in too many ways even when optimally stored. I have personally seen a number of hard drives wake up with damaged data after being stored on a shelf in my relatively climate-neutral home for only a year or so.

By contrast, I have yet to encounter a single optical disc stored similarly that wasn't fully intact after any length of time, which in my case is about 15 years by now. I know, anecdotally, that others have had optical discs fail over time, but most of the accounts of this I've read about have involved some kind of compromised (usually extreme) environment, like direct sunlight exposure or huge temperature/humidity variations.

Hopefully, blue laser media will do as well. I'm really looking forward to 50 GB Blu-Ray disc archives becoming commonplace.

[Richard Sutcliffe]

Well I guess its just me then because in my experience archived DVD data has become unreadable on a large number of Discs in less than 12months. I've had so much bad luck with data dvd's that I only use them for data I might need in the short term and if its gone in 6months so be it.

That was back in my PC days when I used nero and branded DVD's. they have all been stored in normal living conditions on spindles, in cases and in paper sleeves. Not what I would call mishandling. Cheap drives and software? Maybe.

[TimurCivan]

I think the 16 gigs will be perfect. 80 min, 720p, and 32 min 1080. But im not complaining about hte 8's. i shoot a whole day on two, and worst comes to worst, just dump them to a Fire wire drive.

[Beat Takeshi]

Yeah we shot for 12 hours today and only dumped once. Well twice counting the end of the day. 8 gigs is great for shorts, 16 gigs will feel like a life time of recording when they come out.

[heavyG]

Shot a tv commercial on Friday, 12 hours of shooting for a :30 second spot. Used 2 - 4Gb cards and one 8Gb card in rotation; never ran out of space, or felt pressured to offload faster. In fact the pressure to offload was to ensure that set-ups could be changed ie: we had the footage and could move on...

Funny how a year ago shooting on film, we took it for granted that the footage was good--> even though we couldn't see it untill the next day.

Today I work on a Doc, and man do I wish that the 16Gb card was here already! I need the room for longer interview takes---> each type of project has different needs.

I would hope that the 8's stick around for a while at lower prices, even if just to give an affordable entry level to those who blew the budget just to get the camera. (Although I suppose that is the role of the 4Gb now).

[Jason Ramsey]

4's will be available in the second hand market. They are being discontinued with the announcement of 8's and 16's. But, if 8 giggers hang around the 700-800 price point, I don't think we can expect too much of a price drop from what is already out there in the 2nd hand 4 gig market.
700 list for 8
900 list for 16gig.