Reduction In Costs Of 4gb P2 Cards (uk)

majormorgan

majormorgan

Well-known member
Hiya guys,

I've got my HVX and I've been waiting for my 4GB card to arrive.

The good news is that the company I ordered from have said that they are waiting for the final confirmation next week of the reduction in cost for the 4GB and 8GB cards. I know someone posted about the 8 GB but its good to say if you're gonna buy some wait until then.

I'm quite lucky in that the company I ordered from have offered me the reduced price as long as I wait until next week for the card even though I have already ordered and paid for it on the old price. I said to them if they could order two of the 4GB cards and I'll pay the difference.

I was told that the 4GB card is about £200 cheaper [TBC] which means that they should be around £305 and that the 8GB should be around £600-£700 [TBC].

When I have the final costs I'll post them up to this thread and will let you know where in the UK I got them. That way you can either order from them or get another company to beat the price!

For my purposes its better to have two 4GB cards to rotate and back up as I shoot.

Thanks,

Richard M.
 
UK and US costs are incredibly different and aren't only based on the exchange rate.

UK costs are affected by the government adding 17.5% Value Added Tax [V.A.T] to everything which they take and also for some reason manufacturers prices in Europe are significantly higher than in the US.

You only have to take examples of the HVX itself which typically retails here in the UK for £4,500 which would equate to roughly $8,493 US. I see that companies like Cineabel are selling it in the US for $5,495.00 so there is a massive difference. I managed to buy my HVX in the UK at a matched price of £3,600 which equates to almost $7,000 US, still $1,500 above what you can pay.

Prices before the planned drop in the UK were:
4GB = £505
8 GB = £1150

After the drop they plan to be
4GB = £305
8 GB = £600-£700
But we have to wait to find out for sure.

If you look at it that way the costs may come down up to 40% so if the US follows suit then you should see a reduction like this.

It may be as they are about to release a 16GB card, but lets see.

Strange how Europe has inflated prices even before they add V.A.T

Thanks Richard M.
 
Strangely enough i have been quoted (possibally) a very good deal on HVX 200 i'l have to see if its legit though, Richard if you dont mind me asking was that £3600 Inc VAT for you? if so i'd appreciate if you can tell me where you bought it from as almost all the local resellers are listing it at about £4050 inc VAT.
 
Hiya Razamalik,

Are you in the UK as well?

It was actually £3638 including VAT and delivery.

I did a search online and found a company that was selling it for £3638 including VAT and delivery and instead of using them I decided to see if an authorised Panasonic dealer would match that. They did and they did finance solutions as well.

The company I bought with was H Preston Media [www.hpreston.co.uk] who are a reputable and very knowledgable company. They were helpful in my purchasing decisions and I even got 12 months interest free finance through them.

I just this second did a search and found this:
http://www.dealtime.co.uk/xPC-Panasonic_AG_HVX200

On that link I see H-Preston now appear to be selling it for £3609 including VAT and delivery. I bought mine 2 weeks ago.

I'd recommend them. as the delivery was next working day guaranteed. If you finance through them you'll get your finance approved or not on the phone and if you are approved then they email you the documents and you post the printed and signed copies back to them. Then after they get it they send it next day guaranteed delivery.

Good luck and remember whoever you get it from, to get it from a reputable place incase the camera goes wrong.

Richard M.
 
Yes i am from the UK and im gonna need an HVX for a few upcoming projects i thought i could wait for the Red but thats too far & at that price with the finance i cant afford not to get one soon... thanks a lot for the info.
 
H Prestons are a super company. Use them a lot and they are safe and reliable. They have a shop in Malvern. You can go along and pick it up.
 
I second that about prestons, always got time for you and good customr service. Got my HVX from them and will get another one from them shortly.
 
I came by H Preston purely by chance and its from them I have the P2 card info.

The nice thing is two weeks ago when I ordered my HVX kit from them, the 4GB P2 card was not in stock and would be a week away and was going for £505, but I added it to the order anyway.

After talking to them yesterday he said would I like to hold on for next week when the price should come down and he'll refund the difference. Which then worked better when I said can I pay another £100 and get a second 4GB card.

Brilliant !

ROne, how are you finding raylight and premiere with the HVX? Does it work quickly to convert the files?

Thanks!

Majormorgan
 
Hiya,
I'm in the UK as well.
Looking to buy my own HVX200 sometime in December.
I have found this company based in Dundee called http://www.digital-4-u.co.uk/ . They sell through eBay store and their current price is £3,400 -- unbelievably low.
Has anybody bought from them? Are they trustworthy?

The 4GB SD cards are out, which means that the 16GB P2 card is just round the corner.
I have also bumped into a 8GB SD card... wow... 32GB P2??? is that like 80mins of Cinema-like recording
 
majormorgan said:
I came by H Preston purely by chance and its from them I have the P2 card info.

ROne, how are you finding raylight and premiere with the HVX? Does it work quickly to convert the files?

Thanks!

Majormorgan
Click to expand...


Raylight is great, done a few projects on it - no problems.

Although I've recently purchased edius broadcast which works so well with P2, just a shame that it appears to quirky when compared to premiere.

But the workflow and stability and realtime element is miles ahead.
 
KRONSTADT films said:
Hiya,
I'm in the UK as well.
Looking to buy my own HVX200 sometime in December.
I have found this company based in Dundee called http://www.digital-4-u.co.uk/ . They sell through eBay store and their current price is £3,400 -- unbelievably low.
Has anybody bought from them? Are they trustworthy?

The 4GB SD cards are out, which means that the 16GB P2 card is just round the corner.
I have also bumped into a 8GB SD card... wow... 32GB P2??? is that like 80mins of Cinema-like recording
Click to expand...

They also sell 8 GIG P2 cards at £899 inc VAT. Best bet is to contact them and ask if you can pickup afrom them direct and pay cash. If they say yes, I would imagine they are kosher. They have a good feedback rating and have been selling on Ebay for a while.
 
Hi i just recieved my HVX from digital 4 u. I had a few problems as they didnt send me a uk plug but they were very good about it and sorted it out quick. Apart from this there service very good and I would recomend them. They sent it next day delivery and the service was really quick and the comunication was very good. However, they import the pal model from Japan, but they provide a warranty service so you are covered from manufacturer defects for a year. After that they provide a extra 2 year extended warranty with Mack and if theres a problem Mack will pay for Panasonic UK to do the repairs. Purely Gadgets does the HVX for £3599 so check them out too if you dont want a Japanese import although it will only have a one year warranty.
 
Bit of an update, at least from prestons about the UK P2 situation.

Today I got my second HVX and was hoping to get some more P2 cards, trouble is that apparently the price reduction for the UK is unconfirmed yet and we are in the facile situation where the panasonic representative wouldn't tell prestons the price of the cards, and were told to supply them at the full price in lieu of the price falling! (also we don't have a definite in stock date for the cards) How bad is this!

Further to that panasonic weren't returning any of their calls or helping them to resolve the situation (I sat and watch the head guy ring loads of different people at panny, he said he's been leaving message for two days with increasing frustration). I think this is pretty bad, I've bought two DVXs and now two HVXs - we are constantly told to use authorised dealers for all the benefits - and with this situation I may as well get my backside to the nearest grey importer, at least they will have stock and give me a good price.

Really annoyed at this situation as I need the cards for this weekend and myself and preston have been waiting on panasonic since last friday.

P2 cards in the UK have been a joke in terms of availabilty ...

Don't normally rant in these forums, but I feel annoyed by supporting the authorised path and getting rough treatment.
 
Yeah man i ran H preston today too as i need a p2 card and they said the same thing. I hope this reduction is still on as i havent got £500 for the full price card.
 
ROne,

It totally frustrates me as well. HPrestons are excellent and they've helped me to get the camera and all my gear together, but its the waiting on Panasonic to drop the price and supply the cards. We all know that the 16Gb card is on the horizon.

The sales pitch we've been given is that cards drop in price as the newer ones with more capacity are due out. It would be nice to see this as I'm sure a lot of people will be unforgiving of Panasonic if they buy lower capacity cards at the same price only to see the prices drop days or weeks or a month later. Will there be a backwards rebate if thats the case?

I either have to choke and get them to send me the one card I ordered or wait and see if I can get two at £100 more than I paid for one.

I've had the camera for three weeks now and not been able to shoot anything but some standard mini DV.

In Europe we seem to have a lack of support. Jan Crittenden [I hope that is the right spelling or name even] is the Panasonic HVX, DVX and DVCPRO representative for the US and she's on these boards all the time. She's very helpful, supportive and listens to what people need. She's probably behind Panasonic offering US purchasers of the camera Barry's HVX book for free [highly commendable].

All we've seen in Europe was a couple of hundred HVX bags which were snapped up pretty quickly.

The nearest support telephone number for Europe is Germany which doesn't help the rest of us around Europe.

I'd be nice to have a support network or representative here in the UK or a european marketing manager listen to what the European HVX users want.

Sorry to rant, but after purchasing such an excellent camera, I can't see why it shouldn't be backed up in Europe with what the US have.

Kindest regards,
Richard Morgan
Majormorgan
 
Last edited:
~In fact:
http://panasonic.broadcastnewsroom.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=39860

"Panasonic emphasized that its 4GB P2 cards now cost $550"

Which is about £300 so why haven't we seen this drop yet? P2 cards are still around £505 here. Thats about $952 US. Almost DOUBLE the price.

This is something that angers me a lot with electronics, Europe is always last to get something and is always paying for it at a premium. US prices are extremely cheap in comparisson.

Look at Sony and the Playstation 3. They said a global launch this year and what happens - they run out of components to make a full global delivery. So instead of reducing the numbers of the machines to sell in the US and Japan, they said I know the Europeans are used to getting everything late so we'll exclude them from the worldwide launch.

Funny how Microsoft could do a world wide launch with the XBOX 360 though.

Perhaps there's something to learn there.

I have now written to Panasonic-broadcast.com who are the European arm and hope to hear back as to the reason for the delay.

Kindest regards,
Richard Morgan
 
Too right ...

I feel I have been to loyal to panasonic while the loyalty they have show has been awful.

I have invested (as many have) loads of cash into this technology because it works for me, and it's a superb product.

But I'm only going to run so far with it - the reasons are stacking up to go grey for me, I may has well save the money and risk the lack of non-existent support.

If a dealer who turns over so much panasonic kit can't get in touch - what hope does a lone production company have.

Every time I've rang someone about getting P2 cards, they have struggled to give me a price or stock availability ...
 
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