What's your choice of p2 workflow solutions when shooting in the field?

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dalethompson

Well-known member
I'm trying to read every post on these forums about workflow with the HVX200 & P2 card while shooting out in the field. I've seen more than a few workflow solutions and I'm wondering what people really prefer to work with in terms of storing/transferring their raw footage.

Do you prefer the following?:

1). Using multiple P2 cards and uploading them when you get back to a studio (and then transferring them to a computer for editing)?

2). Using P2 cards and uploading them to a Panasonic P2 store drive?

3). Using P2 cards and uploading them to an external HD? If so, an external HD hooked into a laptop or HD that's hooked into the camera via firewire?

4). Using a firestore unit and shooting all your footage to that (I'm assuming you are capturing everything on these units due to the size, 100GB+, of them)?

5). Using P2 cards and then uploading footage via PCMCIA slots on your laptop?


Am I forgetting other methods (probably as I'm a newbie lol) here? If so, and you use a different method, please tell me how you are uploading all your footage.

I'm just trying to decide which method is best for me at this particular point in time. I'm considering uploading everything to an external HD (so I can then dump it on my imac at home). However, my powerbook has an 80GB HD and perhaps I can dump smaller files on it too. I have no idea though, I'm confused at this point lol.

TIA,
Dale
 
I normally go 1 or 5 depending on how much footage is being shot and how many high capacity P2 cards I have. In general I trust the cards implicitly so the only time I transfer in the field is when I need to recycle cards. With a handful on 32GB P2 cards you should be able to get through most standard shoots without the need to download until you get home.

Noah
 
Yep, 1 or 5 just depends on how much footage I'm shooting. When I do use method #5 though its goes to two internal hard drives on the laptop for safety.
 
ive done them all except 2. i think the p2store is too small and too slow to justify its pricetag.

i typically use 2 16 gig cards and have an assistant copy one to an old mac powerbook G4 while i shoot to the other. pretty fast, efficient, and in over a year totally problem free.
 
I recently shot three shows of a musical theatre performance with four cards: 2 8's and 2 16's, at 720/30p. The show was in two acts, and ran about 90 minutes, so each card set (loaded as 8/16 pairs) was enough for a whole act (I had about 52 minutes of recording time per set IIRC), so for the first show I brought the cards home and dumped later.

On the second day there were two shows, so I bought a Powerbook G4 and a firewire HD to dump show one before the second started, which I was able to do easily in the time between.

On a narrative film shoot, even at 1080P I'd have about 48 minutes of shooting time with the same 4-card set, so it's pretty unlikely I'd need to do any on-set dumping until the day ended. If so, I'd use the Powerbook/firewire as described above.
 
1, 4 & 5 for me. i will either shoot and then offload at the office, shoot and offload to macbook pro using dual adapter or shoot to my firestore and offload at office.
 
As others have said, it depends on your shoot. If you need to shoot A LOT, but will have downtime to offload, then a laptop/external HD solution would be adequate. If you don't have any downtime, then a firestore still reigns king for me.


If I can manage to do #1, i always go for it. Even when a client pleads for me to leave them with the footage... if they aren't paying me a bit extra to stick around post-shoot and transfer via-laptop to an external, I take it home and do it the next day.

I recently did #3 (setting external FW drive to 1394 host connected to HVX) as I had a lot of footage to shoot and only 2x8 and 3x16 cards available, shooting at 1080i/60. It was a little scary at first, wiping my cards, but everything worked out fine.

#4 - I had a firestore for about a year and used it a lot. Great solution if you can be tethered to a hard drive and handle the workflow (it's not too hard)

#5 - I find effective when I have an assistant offloading while I keep shooting. Works fast and well.
 
I do all P2 store transfers

I do all P2 store transfers

I bought all my P2 gear when an 8 Gb card was the biggest available. The P2 store goes on nearly all my shoots. With three cards and typically one camera shoots, I just switch out the full card transfer and then hold it until the next card fills.

Bigger cards have made the P2 store less relevant. A two camera shoot would also change things. So far though, using the P2 store in the field has been FAR more convenient than taking along a laptop and an ext HDD. Knock on wood, after 4 feature length movies, I have had no problems with my workflow using #2.
Jeff
 
Very interesting replies indeed from everyone. I'm thinking of either #1 or #5 right now but I have no idea how it will go until I actually start shooting. I have 30GB free on my powerbook but I think I can get it to 40GB if I start purging files or applications I don't need on there anymore. If I do that, then I'll try #5 and see how that goes.

I'd love to get the firestore too but I don't think I can afford it right now unless there's a really good deal on it.

I suppose for what I really need at this moment is probably another 16GB card... again, if I can find a good deal then I'll get one. I'm hoping that will solve my workflow issue(s) for the time being.

I like the idea of using an external HD but the though of shooting something and then somehow getting it mangled in the transfer scares me. I doubt this would happen but you never know.
 
I only have two 16GB cards, so its #5 for me, with the dual adaptor. WP the card, dump to HDD, mount virtual card on P2viewer and verify the content, then back into the camera and format.
 
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