4 16gig p2 cards or 2 32gig p2 cards??

VideMedia

Well-known member
What do you guys think is the best option here?

I shoot alot of events and I also shoot like 30minute wakeboard sets I would say.

Ive got a 3 day shoot coming up where Ill be basically on location for 8 hours or more a day. I plan on offloading in the field also
 
It used to be an easy question to answer: four 16s beat two 32s. But now with the forthcoming E series cards, the price to gig ratio has changed; four 16s would cost $1680, versus two 32s at $1350, so it's more like 3 16s vs. two 32s, and in that case I'd go with the two 32s.
 
If you're shooting 720pn and using a Mac powerbook to dnld in field, it will take almost a half hour per full 32 gb card. Newer Intel chip mac book pro about 15min. ymmv according to your dnld device of choice.
 
Four smaller cards means more frequent offloads of a smaller duration. If you have limited opportunities to offload then you could offload one 16 where a 32 might take too long. You can swap full cards out and hand them off whilst still keeping cards in the hand which you can't do with two cards. If there is a catastrophe with a card, would you sooner it had 16minutes of footage on it or 32?

I'm sure there are good reasons other than cost to choose 32's as well but I'd want 3 cards to enable a good offload workflow. For events, offloading a 32 gig card with only 32 gigs in the camera will eventually bite you on the bum.
 
Ya richard I defiantly see the reasoning in this. I think if Possible I will buy 2 32s in the first purchase and try to buy anouther 32 down the road.

I shoot alot of action sports and alot of times a athelete wont land a trick or land it right so we try over and over to get the shot. In the old days of film you just filled the tape up with these trys.

With p2 cards how easy is it to delete clips? This would save alot of space on the cards also. Alot of times with wakeboarding a rider will fall I will have like 3 mins to go back and delete the fall clip.

Is this recommended?
 
If you're shooting 720pn and using a Mac powerbook to dnld in field, it will take almost a half hour per full 32 gb card. Newer Intel chip mac book pro about 15min. ymmv according to your dnld device of choice.

These figures are no longer accurate with the new offload speeds of the P2 "E" series cards (I may be wrong here but...). In fact, the new cards are more high tech than the more expensive "R" series cards. True solid state degrades rapidly over time just like the new "E" series. Anyway... that's the advantage of E over R... the offload time! The only limitation to the E series offload speed should be the speed of the attached drive.

I'd recommend getting three 16GB cards simply because I'd rather accidentally erase a single 16GB card than a 32GB one. I just like the security of having my footage spread across more cards in case of silly goof-ups that occasionally I'm prone to.
 
Ya joseph I never really thought of that. I think going with 3 16gig right off the bat is the best option. And then just buying 2mo 16gigs down the road. I like the option of having more cards now that I think of it. I can shoot b-roll on 1 card and designate different cards for different shots through out the day if not needing to offload.

Thankss
 
Speed of offloading is dependent on what you're offloading to. A new "E" series won't offload to an MBP's internal drive any faster than an original or "R" series card, because the MBP's drive is the bottleneck.

But an "E" series card will offload twice as fast to a 4-drive SATA RAID than an original card would.
 
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