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No built-in Micro P2 slots on the PX-800G - is P2 returning?

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    OTHER: No built-in Micro P2 slots on the PX-800G - is P2 returning?

    If I'm not mistaken, the PX-800G doesn't have built in Micro P2 slot(s).
    PX-270: Forget about spanning on P2. Only a single slot.
    PX-5000: Way too expensive body, but has 2 Micro P2 slots and 2 P2 slots.

    Yes you can use the adaptor but it's not fully compatible with all of their products (MSU-10).

    This is quite puzzling and odd from Panasonic that the PX-800 only uses P2. I thought P2 is slowly being phased out.
    Guess not at all. If the PX-270 successor has dual P2 slots, I'll buy the cam. Now it's
    in a very weird state that makes it very hard for certain workflows that need 2 P2 and not 2 Micro P2 slots
    (particularly for hot-swappable spanning). HPX-250 is just fine for me.

    Personally I do not like the SDHC form factor of Micro P2. They're
    extremely easy to get misplaced if you're not 100% careful to store it. At least with the credit card
    sized P2, I can put in my front pocket and feel the mass of being there.

    #2
    LoneWolf, you are mistaken, mostly. The 270 does in fact have two micro P2 slots and can span each other. It also has one full sized slot. I believe you are correct, and to the best of my knowledge, you cannot span between Micro and full sized cards. But you can record to any combination simultaneously. Further, there is the ability to record to the primary codec and a low bit rate proxy to different cards at the same time. It really is a nice cam.

    I agree with you; I prefer the full sized cards. I would have preferred to have two full sized slots and forget about the micro-cards. P2 isn't quite the buzz it was a few years ago, but has a loyal following for ENG and is still a viable recording medium especially when combined with all the available codecs options. You also have the option of HDMI or SDI out for an external recorder. But you don't need that at all for most work because of all that P2 offers. A 64Gig card gets you an hours worth of Intra recording and 2 hours worth of Long-Gop 50. And if that's not enough, if you add the wifi dongle, you can stream.

    The adapters and card readers is a messy bit of design for sure. But micro-P2 is a better option than SD cards by any measure.

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      #3
      The two Micro P2 slots on PX-270 forces the current buyers to get into Micro P2 if long-form spanning shooting scenario is needed. I do lots of those and this is making it a very expensive to have to invest even more Micro P2 media for such. There are so many cases where I need to keep the camera rolling non-stop past the 64 Gb per card limit. Maybe I'm too picky but I do not like external recorders. I'm sure they have improved since the 2006 Firestore era but generally it won't work for my shooting needs since I'm on the go all the times. They're cumbersome in terms of added separate battery, BNC, etc.. and adds a considerable amount of weight on the cam. Do lots of in-car shoots and it's extremely hard to hold the cam with the added vertical height. Have to get 3rd party mounts for on-cam LED and wireless.

      My point here is the PX-800G is going back to the classic P2 roots. Perhaps the broadcast ENG markets have not fully adopted to Micro P2 and Panasonic is adapting in order to sell the cam. It's still a puzzling thing because I thought the PX-270 will pretty much is the first step to slowly phase out P2. But it appears to be not the case. Prices for slightly used P2 series F actually have fallen into the same range as the Micro P2 64 Gb (about $300). HPX-250 is still a workhorse cam for me. I'm dreaming for saying this but if they can just put two slots for P2 and Micro P2 just like on the PX-5000 for the PX-270 then very likely they'll have more shooters willing to upgrade and keep their existing P2 media investment. We'll have to wait many more years for a dual P2 and Micro P2 on the next PX-270 model.

      They also do not have an industrial grade solution for high-volume Micro P2 workflow yet. The most is a two-slot reader (AJ-MDP1J). You can buy 3-5 of them but it severely saturate the USB3 bus. After 4 concurrent Micro P2 offloads, the system just can't handle it.. I can't imagine lost time wasted in having to babysit the card and swap it out. With the PCD-35, you can have up to two of it for a total of 10 P2 slots reader in a Mac Pro and put them all in there. It doesn't use USB3. And yes, I can offload 10 P2 cards simultaneously without choking or freezing up. Come back next morning or after half a day later it'll be all done.

      Now recording with main codec and proxy on a different cam is yet to be fully tested in the real world. Last time I checked with their previous 2/3" HPX-3100 series, you can only record up to 5 mins. Anything beyond 5 min it will write another file and name. And when relinking them to the full 1080p media, it will not match. Metadata is useless also. The main hi-res has a custom metadata of "A-cam_" but the proxy still uses P2's ###$$$.mxf or mov. Too cumbersome to relink when you have 5-8 cams shoot. Overall the main and proxy workflow need lots of improvements. It's half-baked and cripled now. And there are issues with file names matching on the main and proxy recorder. People in the Varicam 35 forum are still bringing this problem up. They haven't fully address the main and sub recorders file matching to one another.

      Originally posted by ggrantly View Post
      LoneWolf, you are mistaken, mostly. The 270 does in fact have two micro P2 slots and can span each other. It also has one full sized slot. I believe you are correct, and to the best of my knowledge, you cannot span between Micro and full sized cards. But you can record to any combination simultaneously. Further, there is the ability to record to the primary codec and a low bit rate proxy to different cards at the same time. It really is a nice cam.

      I agree with you; I prefer the full sized cards. I would have preferred to have two full sized slots and forget about the micro-cards. P2 isn't quite the buzz it was a few years ago, but has a loyal following for ENG and is still a viable recording medium especially when combined with all the available codecs options. You also have the option of HDMI or SDI out for an external recorder. But you don't need that at all for most work because of all that P2 offers. A 64Gig card gets you an hours worth of Intra recording and 2 hours worth of Long-Gop 50. And if that's not enough, if you add the wifi dongle, you can stream.

      The adapters and card readers is a messy bit of design for sure. But micro-P2 is a better option than SD cards by any measure.
      Last edited by lonewolf2koc@hotmail.com; 08-13-2015, 02:58 PM.

      Comment


        #4
        Can't argue with most of what you say, especially for long form work. That is always a problem no matter what cam you get; buy lots of memory chips, or buy a recorder; pick your poison. What other cam system would be any real improvement?

        For me, doing short form, mostly corporate type stuff, by myself, the 270 is rockin my world with a wealth of features. I put a couple of Micro P2 in the cam and will likely never remove them, and primarily shoot to my full sized cards. I agree with you, two full sized slots would be very preferential. No perfect cam right?

        I am going to pop for the wi-fi dongle and see how the iPad control app works.

        Grant

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