Is the 64Gb P2 a good investment?

EDV

EDV

Well-known member
I will be making music videos and TV commercials with it, maybe also corporate videos. My experience with really simple music videos, is that the average session is
70 minutes of footage, and sometimes twice that long. My reasoning for going with the 64Gb P2 is that, if you've hired a DP or expensive gear or actors for your show, you don't want to have them wait, or risk not finishing the job because the P2 ran out.
HPX comes with a 16GB P2 so 16 + 64 = 80 GB P2. I will also carry a mini PC with me in case we have extended sessions. I wonder if the 64Gb P2 gives you similar advantages when doing TV commercials.
 
You should never have to wait anyway, if you have two cards. Offload one while the other is still shooting. But if you want to have all the footage in one session without offloading, remember that your 16GB card already holds 42 minutes of 720/24pN, so if you wanted to use that mode, you'd only need another 16GB card to get 84 minutes of recording. If you want to use 1080p mode or 1080i mode or 720/60p, and never have to offload, then a single 64 would be the least expensive way to get that much storage.
 
Barry_Green said:
Offload one while the other is still shooting.
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I don't know of any direct way of doing this without the HPX camera. I know there are portable hard-drives than have P2 slots built in, and P2 storage bays but I don't have access to those. Not sure what type of adaptor/card would let you have P2 slots in your PC, but that would be cool.
 
A P2 card fits in, and operates from, a standard pcmcia (pccard) slot. No "P2 slots" required.
 
I would wait until Feb before buying a 64GB P2 card at current prices. I think a price reduction is in the cards pretty soon.
 
Prices for HPX cameras and P2 cards have actually gone up this January here in Australia
 
"Prices for HPX cameras and P2 cards have actually gone up this January here in Australia"

I would suggest that is because of the aussie dollar dying a few months ago. Prices now reflect this..

Ohh.. and I'm also about to buy a hpx so of course prices have gone up!:)
 
David S. said:
Why do you believe we'll see a price reduction soon?
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Because my gut and some conversations with retailers in the LA area tell me that not a lot of P2 cards are selling. This, plus the 32GB card hasn't had a price reduction in 15 months. I think Panasonic is going to have to jumpstart some sales by cutting prices...

Also, Panasonic recently announced that the tape-based Varicam is being discontinued. That leaves only the HDX-900 to cater to the tape-based HD crowd...the rest of Panasonic's camera line is centered around P2. For those cameras to be successful, Panasonic needs to convince a lot of skeptical buyers that P2 is a thriving, viable format. But current P2 prices--especially considering the plunging prices of other memory formats like SD cards, CF cards, and SSDs--don't give that impression. It's looking like P2 prices are immune to dropping component prices. That makes people think it might be better to wait for a format like SD cards or whatever else that's more susceptible to industry-wide competition.

Right now, I know of a number of LA production companies doing lots of shows for networks like History and Discovery. None of these companies have embraced P2...they're either still shooting tape, or Sony's XD-CAM, which still works with their tried-and-true tape workflow (ie, effortlessly shoot as many hours as you need out in the field, and then store the archive on a shelf). These companies aren't choosing P2 because 1) until the 64GB P2 cards, they couldn't shoot a whole day without copying the cards to hard drive (big pain), 2) five 64GB P2 cards is a very big upfront cost, 3) archiving tapeless formats like P2 requires a whole new approach to their post production workflow.

These are a lot of hurdles for people to get over before accepting P2. Panasonic can't make the workflow issues go away, but it can do something about the price of the cards. Honestly, I'm shocked that 32 GB cards haven't dropped in price in 15 months. That's just crazy. Also, what happened to those other vendors that were going to sell P2 cards? One managed to ship a 32GB card months ago (after months and months of delays), but I have yet to see the card carried by any retailer I know of.

It just feels to me like P2 is stuck, and one big way to get unstuck would be to cut prices. I know some people on these boards disagree, but that's my take.
 
64gb is a big investment, but my suggestion is to wait for march maddnes when the 64gb technology changes to the bigger and better! just like buying a car but instead of september..... will you get it!
 
P2 technology, like 2/3" Cameras, is geared towards the professional market, ie. people using $3000 tripods, cranes and 35mm adaptors. Prices at this level have never been affordable for the average videographer.
 
EDV said:
P2 technology, like 2/3" Cameras, is geared towards the professional market, ie. people using $3000 tripods, cranes and 35mm adaptors. Prices at this level have never been affordable for the average videographer.
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$3,000.00?? Try double or triple that. I have been put off buying an HPX500 for years now just because of that. I have a $2,500.00 tripod for my HPX170. Even though the HPX500 body is now on special for only $9,500.00 (a really great deal), figure...

HPX-500 body - $9,500.00
HD CAC lens - $8,000.00
Anton Bauer battery system - $2,000.00
Real tripod capable of weight - $6,000.00

$25k? And that is for the lowest end professional 2/3" camera on the market? Yes, better than the HPX170, but five times better? Not even close.

If you really want the good stuff as far as Panasonic, the 2700 would the way to go, $39k just for the body, $20k for a lens, $6k for the tripod and $2k for the AB battery system.

Really only viable if you are a large production company/network or a small company who has been lucky enough to sell a pilot or two. If you get a show order to shoot a series for a few million dollars, what is $60 or $80k for your main camera?

It's all relative I guess.

Dan
 
We just got a 64 GB card. I sometimes do all-day shoots and sometimes do them back to back and don't get time to go back to base to off load. In total, I've got 160 GB of P2 storage, so I could do all day HD if I wanted.

In retrospect, I could have instead took my MacBook Pro out with me and load as I go. The thing is though, I'm a one man show. I run camera, tinker with a sound board, adjust lighting, run videos, general tech support, and keep track of PPT slide timecode on a clip board. Plus, stay in touch with the office via email. That's enough work without adding in loading duties so I don't feel bad about putting in for it. :)
 
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