P2. Why bother with 16 GIG cards?

Steve Shovlar

Steve Shovlar

DVXuser Sponsor
I am pretty sceptical now about whether Panasonic will even bother to stick to its P2 timetable. The reason?

Well I have 2 4 GIG P2 cards. They work fine for me. Yes, the capacity is low. Yes, I have to download the footage after shooting 4 minutes. It's a pain in the butt!

But to be honest, the cards do their job. If I am out shooting, I have my laptop with me and the cards are emptied and wiped in just under 3 minutes. No real hardship.

They cost me £530 each. Bloody expensive for what they are. An 8 GIG card costs around £1100. Sod that. And what benefit would I have with 8 GIG cards over 4? Not a lot other than a more empty bank account, and have to wait a further 3 minutes to download it to the laptop.

16 GIG? It just doesn't tempt me. 32 GIG? Perhaps but the price will be through the roof at first and cost more than the camera!!! For what benefit? I suppose 2 X 32 gig cards would be a consideration when shooting a wedding, as I would need at least an hour to shoot the ceremony, non stop. But other than that? Hell if you are shooting a indie feature, 4 GIG cards are fine, as no scene lasts more than 4 minutes, so it works perfectly.

I think Panasonic have overestimated the demand for P2 cards. Yes, they sell quickly when they come in. But if I have managed to get by with 2 x 4 GIG P2 cards without any problems, whey should I fork out for a 16 GIG card which will not give me too much more time without emptying my wallet? And if I am thinking this, then so are many others.

Not until Panasonic get to 64 GIG cards, at a price similar to todays 4 GIG cards will I consider letting my 4 GIG cards clutter up the back of my drawer. And in that lies Panasonics problem with P2. For although it is a fantastic new recording medium, a 16 GIG or 32 GIG card has not many benefits over a 4 GIG card.

Just my opinion of course and I would welcome others thought on this.

Cheers
Mr Tightass.
 
Would kill for a 32 GB card

Would kill for a 32 GB card

I would kill for a 32 GB card, or hell even a 16 GB card, would pay the price for it. If you have the amazing luxury of being on a shoot where you can constantly dump the footage the hard drive, well then sure the 4 GB cards are fine. But documentary world doesn't quite work like that. Specially for certain subject matters. Two 8 GB cards at 720pN give us 20 minutes of footage, and well we so could use 60 minutes, and well even more than that frankly. Larger cards like 32 GB, that could then allow us to shoot at 1080 and still have loads of time, well that would be even more amazing.

Using the camera in a pure Indie stream, and being the costs of the cards, I can see where you're coming from. But if you're using it as a secondary camera, or tertiary in our case, then you want more juice from it so you can actually justify using it at all. The guys shooting certain materials for us (in places we can't go) are all over it too. They want to upgrade to the HVX 200 and want 16 GB cards minimum (they'd prefer 32 I know).

So while the camera may have taken the indie world by storm and some of the costs of the cards might not fit that world, there is a bigger budget crowd that would still be interested in such.

cheers.
 
If I can have a card that will allow me to shoot all day without worrying about taking it out till I get back to hotel, is worth it for me. Documentaries or run-n-gun operations don't have that luxury to transfer every 10 minutes, or you might miss the shot. And you certainly cannot stop a interview mid speech to ingest footage if it is not staged. For me....I welcome the day. Problem is, in a few years everything will be different. Who knows what technology will be out there in a few years.
 
There are very few situtions where I can't see 4 or 8 gig cards being enough, I've been shooting a feature length doc on the HVX since literally the day it became available, on 3 4 gig cards. Some interviews have lasted over 4 hours and I never stopped recording. This is where I am the only crew member, handling lighting, sound, and transdfer while shooting. Is it the best situation? No... does it work... absolutely and once you've done it a few times, it is actually easy. You could do it with 2 cards, but the third lets me choose the right moment to divert a very small part of my attention to pushing the 3 buttons it takes to cycle a card through the P2 store. For long interviews, I have a second store on standby.

I don't think a single card solution (which is likely to be the case with a single 32 gig card that costs more than the camera) is practical in any circumstance. Don't forget, the larger the card, the longer the transfer time. At a certain point the benifits of a larger card just aren't there.

filmstox
 
And herein lies (hopefully? finally?) the death of the "razors and blades" argument.

I also have two 4gb cards. That's it. No big rush to have 8's. Would I rather have 8's than 4's? Sure, but I have no need for them since the 4's get the job done.

Maybe I'd consider 16's since I really do like 1080 mode. With two 16's I'd have 32 minutes in-camera, which would be plenty to make it through just about any dramatic/narrative production without having to swap or offload -- ever. Especially in 720/24pN mode, then you're talking about 80 minutes in-camera, longer than just about any tape load.

I said way back before the camera was even on the market -- owners aren't going to be constantly buying cards, they'll buy two (or maybe three) EVER. You just don't need more than that (unless you're shooting something very different, like Marc Singer is doing).

As far as "overestimating demand", I don't think that's accurate at all. Having talked with several Panasonic reps I've found that for the most part they've underestimated demand. They figured most cameras would go out with a single 4gb card or maybe two, but instead it's like everyone wants two 8gb's. That's why 8's are so hard to find.

But I'd bet heavily that people aren't buying four and five and six 8gb cards, they're sticking with two or, at the most, three.

With that said, 16's are supposed to be out before the end of the year. And they'll probably be introduced at about what the 8's were introduced at ($2200). And the 8's will probably be around $900 by the end of this year. And the 4's will probably be around $400.
 
I have 4 8's, and so far it's been OK during interviews, although sometimes, I'm anxiously awaiting the p2genie to offload the cards before the ones in camera run out. I've been really happy with most of the footage, although it can be hard to get focus spot on. 4 32's would be a welcome addition, that's for sure for doc work. At the same time, we're also limited by Laptop hard drives. I put a 160G in my Laptop, and I have to offload every couple days.
 
I wouldn't expect a huge price drop, considering the HVX is still the only P2 camcorder on the market.
 
bballplaya283 said:
I wouldn't expect a huge price drop, considering the HVX is still the only P2 camcorder on the market.
Click to expand...
Besides the AJ-SPX800 and AJ-SPC700...
 
I have three 4gb cards. This allows me to shoot constantly, without stopping, even by myself. Sure, I'd like to go longer without having to swap out cards, but it isn't a must. I'll probably buy some 8gb cards once they've dropped to the 4gb price, and will get som 16's when they've reached the 8gb price level.

Honestly, I would only be buying more cards to make life easier -- I really don't have a need for any more than the three 4gb cards I have now.
 
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