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P2 Store Review (AJ-PCS060G) |
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Since the introduction of the HVX and the P2 store workflow, alot of discussion has developed on handling P2 data in the field. Alot of shooters need more then 20 minutes max of record time that a pair of 4 P2 cards offer, and the solution of purchasing a wallet (excuse the pun) full of P2 cards scares alot of people. Of course a laptop is also a viable offload option, but it doesn't make for a very portable solution. Along comes the AJ-PCS060G, better known as the P2 Store. The P2 Store is a 60GB portable P2 offloading device, which has a slot for a single P2 card, and simply operates by offloading the card to it's internal hard drive, then (if desired) formatting the card so you can pop it back into the HVX and keep shooting. Its Battery powered, and has a USB port so you can not only hook it up to your desktop or laptop to offload the drive, but you can also use it as a stand-alone P2 card reader.
Build: The P2 Store has an internal shock mounted 60gb 2.5" hard drive. Its rugged.. Very rugged. The entire case is thick alloy which doubles as a heatsink (no fans) and protects the drive from not only shock, but also keeps it incredibly silent. A unique feature that shows you how Panasonic approached the durability specifications is an integrated motion sensor in the unit. This monitors that chassis of the P2store for vibration or Tilt (like when you drop it) and immediately puts a brake on the drive platter to almost eliminate lost data in case of an "accident". You can see it work.. The 4th battery level light will illuminate when it detects motion and all data movement pauses. As long as that light is on, data is not read nor written to the drive until the sensor stops detecting movement, at which point it automatically resumes. If you are in an environment where you cannot avoid movement, it is user selectable so you can turn it off. As well, there is a temperature lock that you can set to not operate between certain temperatures, and if that wasn't enough, to top off the list of safety features is a High Altitude setting. All the buttons and doors also have moisture barriers on them, so if it does get in the rain momentarily it has a good chance of surviving. A large flip down door covers the front of the unit, to protect from any accidental button presses and to keep dust and dirt out of the P2 Slot. A clear window still lets you see what's going on inside.
Operation: The layout and operation of the P2 store is very user friendly. The common, most used buttons are large and well labeled and the non-common buttons are small to avoid accidental engagement. For example,.to format the HD in the P2, you need to use a pen as the button is a pinhole... which is a good thing. Panasonic really tried to protect against user error.. by adding second steps to criticle operations. For example, to erase a P2 card you need to press and hold the erase P2 button on the front of the unit, then within 3 seconds press the Start button on the top of the unit. Same goes with formatting the hard drive. But, on the otherside to copy a card to the P2store is very easy, you need to just press and hold the copy button for 3 seconds and it goes along automatically. While its copying a level indicator shows you a the progress of the copy. Another nice thing is that after you dump a card, and take it out and if you accidentally try and put it back in and copy it again, the P2 Store wont let you, it tells you that the cards already been copied. Avoids accidents, but you can also use that feature to quickly verify if you copied all your cards. On the back, behind the battery, is a verify switch. When you turn on verify, the card not only copies the card, it goes back and compares the date between both to make sure it copied correctly and is an exact replica of the cards. This of course ends up making the whole copy process 2x as long, but a few extra minutes is worth the added security to some users. Speed
Battery Panasonic did it right.. to power the unit they use the same back as on the DVX and the HVX, which means it take the same batteries. Fantastic. And since all it needs to power is a Hardrive and P2slot and a few little LED's, the P2 store is incredibly efficient. I transferred and formatted over 25 P2 cards with a single 5600mah battery, and that included Formatting the P2 store a couple times to make room. The battery still showed half full, so i gave up. The unit also has an auto power off mode, which you can set between never and 60 minutes. Connectivity The P2 is both Mac and PC compatible through the USB slot, although you need to "force" it into either mode. This is kinda odd, but you must hold down the HD, Batt and Cancel buttons all at the same time, and the light will change from Green to Orange. It stays in whatever mode you set it last, so you should only need to do this once unless you switch from PC to MAC often. On the Mac, you can do your ingest from the P2 store onto your Scratch disk right off the drive, and likewise if your on a PC you can just copy the folders over to wherever you need them. On both systems, each 4gb partition shows up as a separate drive, with 15 partitions. You must change settings, check disk health and do Firmware upgrades though the P2viewer software. Final Thoughts The P2 store is a solid solution for the offload of P2 cards. Its built like a tank, lasts forever on a camera battery, and is small enough to be portable (more on that below). The built in USB card reader is a great way to offload cards onto a Desktop, or on the new Macbook Pro's that decided to omit the PCMCIA slot. The safety features in the P2 store are incredible.. they really went out of their way to make sure your data is protected. There are a few things that I would like to see on an update.. First is the HD. it would be great to see a 100gb drive. I am a little on the fence about this one though.. as 60gb is a good size for 90% of the people.. that's 150 minutes of 720 24pn. The P2store isn't designed as a large storage device.. its designed as a middleman between the P2 cards and your Editing system. It makes me wonder how often in a day I would actually shoot more than 60gb of footage. It still would be nice, as when the 16gb cards do come out the P2store will only be able to hold 3 of them. The other thing that needs to change is there is no mounts, eyelets, straps, or any way to tote the P2 store around, I don't understand the concept of this for a mobile device. if there was a separate carrying sack available it would kinda make sense, but as it stands if you want to run around with the P2 store you gotta wear one hell of a fanny pack. And nobody wants to see that.
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