Advice needed, thinking of HPX purchase

B

Blutarski

Active member
I am going Hi-def after my use of the DVX 100b for the past three years. I can get my hands on a good used HPX 170. I know nothing about P2 cards and how to transfer the footage to my computer and storage devices.
After the purchase of the camera what will I be spending on cards and storage/transfer devices? I see a 64GB card runs new for about $900. What do I need to get the footage into my computer? Is it a reader? A storage device? Can I transfer footage to my computer and then a 1 terabyte hard drive for safety purposes? Any recommendations would be appreciated.
P.S I shoot features exclusively and will be using a Redrock 35mm adapter.
 
Will you be shooting anything other than features? If you are doing long form shooting like events or docs, than you will need a number of large cards. If you are just shooting shooting features, than two smaller cards will suffice. In fact, it is more versatile to get two 16GB cards than a 32GB (or two 32s instead of a 64). That way you will be able to keep shooting while a card is transferring.

As for recording times, if you plan on shooting 1080, than you will get 1 minute per GB. If you plan on shooting 720 24PN, you can get 2.6 minutes per GB. This should be kept in mind when deciding what size cards to purchase.

As for transferring - PC laptops with a PCMCIA slot can accept a card directly and transfer to internal or external hard drive. Mac Book Pros have an Express34 slot and must be adapted with something like the Dual Adaptor. The DA is not a great idea, as it is very moody and does not work with Snow Leopard. Panasonic just came out with a single card reader that is USB ($350). It is probably your best choice because it can easily be used with any laptop or tower. You can also transfer using the camera as a card reader, but again this means that you cannot shoot simultaneously.

Going non-linear is a change in workflow: no more tapes for backup. That means that if your HDD fails and you do not have a backup, you loose everything. You should think about a RAID setup that will offer some redundancy. Having the data in a single place is not a great idea for long term peace of mind.

As for editing, it is quick and easy to work with P2 media. FCP ingests it faster than realtime (or you can use raylight to read the files directly). Other non-linear editors will work with the MXF file structure natively. This is where you will probably never look back once you make the switch from tape! It is such a breeze to work with.


Jason
 
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Thanks for response. You mentioned a RAID setup for redundancy. If I bring along my 1TB hard drive in addition to my Macbook pro can I offload the footage to my laptop and then to my hard drive? Is this a good enough safety measure?
 
discussing RAID 1 as a security measure is only partially effective. it ads added security on the original content, yes. but the RAID 1 is still a single box and if that box is stolen or destroyed, youre still screwed. i make it a habit to copy important archival footage on at least two seperate drives - be they RAID 0, RAID 1, or just a single drive

im also a mac guy and i have two methods of field capture:
- and old 17" G4 powerbook with a PCMCIA slot that accepst P2 cards
- a new macbook pro using panasonics new single slot usb reader

generally i just dump the footage straight to the internal drive. then transfer to externals when i get back to the studio.

here is a lesson you can learn from my fail. i was on a set about 8 months ago and my whole transfer station was stolen and that included a hard drive the client had brought (that had our whole day of footage and a variety of their other work on it) so i would consider it WISE to transfer cards to your internal hard drive, THEN copy that to an external then put that drive somewhere safe. so if something happens to the laptop. you have a copy of the footage elsewhere
 
STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM LACIE PRODUCTS!

they (and mybook products) have the highest failure rate of any drives out there.
now some people swear by them. but i know far more people who swear AT them!

i owned two a few years ago and they both corrupted my data on contact

a good general rule is to stay away from anything you can get at an office supply store.

i have a small squadron of these and have never had an issue:

http://eshop.macsales.com/Customized_Pages/Framework.cfm?page=mepal_splash_raid.html

and

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB

neither of these are any more expensive than lacies products. the only down side is you cant just walk into any retail store and pick one up. they have to be ordered on-line, direct from macsales.com

other popular brands to look for are promax, caldigit, and glyph.
basically any manufacturer with a focus primarily on media production and not consumer products
 
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wgzn said:
STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM LACIE PRODUCTS!

they (and mybook products) have the highest failure rate of any drives out there.
now some people swear by them. but i know far more people who swear AT them!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up wgzn. I've been wondering about my archiving workflow and what brands to use in and out of the field. I thought Lacie may be a viable option, but apparently not.
 
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