E-series P2 card
- Thread starter 3rd bell
- Start date
If I had the money for one R-series 16GB, I'd spend it on two E-series and a nice dinner. But, that's just me. I'm not a heavy user, so I saw no point in going with the R-series when buying a second card. I doubt I'll hit the write cycle lifetime. It has been said that during its write cycle lifetime, the E-series is just as reliable as the other cards. Perhaps for heavy users or a rental outfit, the R-series would make sense as they'd be used more frequently.
mdslammer
Well-known member
"IF" is a big word.
Sure, if you had "deep pockets" and price is no object, then of
course, buy the best. It has as lifetime guarantee. That said, I just purchased
2 32GB E-Series cards to add to my 2 16GB original P2 cards.
The projected lifespan of the E-Series cards is approximately 5 years. As fast as
technology is moving, I'd bet their will be a few more versions of this card before
the 5 years is up.
Sure, if you had "deep pockets" and price is no object, then of
course, buy the best. It has as lifetime guarantee. That said, I just purchased
2 32GB E-Series cards to add to my 2 16GB original P2 cards.
The projected lifespan of the E-Series cards is approximately 5 years. As fast as
technology is moving, I'd bet their will be a few more versions of this card before
the 5 years is up.
Steve Eisen
Well-known member
Spend the money on an E series card now. In 5 years, you'll be able to get a 1 tb P2 card for $500 (just guessing).
I own 6 R series 16 gb cards.
I own 6 R series 16 gb cards.
I keep hearing that the lifespan is shorter, How can this be true if there aren't any moving parts ?
Rob.
Spec-Comm
DVXuser Sponsor
Look for an article dealing with this in the next issue of DVXUSER magazine.
To summarize though, the new cards are lower cost because of the new type of memory they have inside. The down side is that they 10,000 read/write cycles instead of the 100,000 that the A-Series cards have.
Yes, no moving parts but the way that the memory works, they "wear-out" faster than the type of memory used in the A-Series cards.
If you haven't started subscribing to DVXUSER magazine, I would suggest you do so since there have only been two issues to the series. Not too much reading to catch up.
You can subscribe here: http://dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=133135
Look for the next issue with the related article that I mentioned above to come out any time now.
Sincerely,
Andrew Hoffman
Vice President
Specialized Communications Corp.
20940 Twin Springs Dr.
Smithsburg, MD 21783-1510 USA
800-359-1858 (US)
301-790-0103
Fax: 301-790-0173
andrewh@spec-comm.com
www.spec-comm.com
www.twitter.com/speccomm
Andrew McCarrick
Carbonite Member
So there's 10 times more read/write cycles but they're only 2.5 times more expensive for the A-Series?
Ted Spencer
Veteran
If that's what they equate with "5 years", then they're talking about some mighty busy shooters:
10K cycles/5 yrs = 2K cycles/yr = 5.5 cycles/day x 365. Even a 32 GB card holds about 84 minutes at 720/24PN, so that's 7.7 hours/day x 365. A 64 GB card doubles that to 15.4 hrs/day. Even at 1080, the 64 would yield over 6 hrs/day x 365 x 5 yrs.
So if the number of cycles is the real measure of longevity, these cards will last most folks *way* longer than 5 years. Like at least 3 or 4 times more. That oughta be enough I think :2vrolijk_08:
Curious about this question myself?
Barry_Green
Moderator
Yes.
I went back and forth with this same issue myself. The long and the short of it came down to that I know that I am not going to shoot 2 full E series P2 cards a day for the next 5 years. And even if I did, I would assume I getting paid for most of it, and after 5 years of heavy shooting if I couldn't afford to replace my E series cards, I would have to assess if I had the right career.
Nick Walters
Mentholated Member
I think if the lifespan is important, then someone shouldn't be worrying too much over a card budget...and I personally would wait til' the 64gb E-series are shipping and buy 2-4 of those.
The bigger the card, the less the read/writes.
Of course we also have to ask ourselves: How often will we shoot in 1080 24pa now that media is getting lower in cost?
I almost primarily stick to 720 24pn due not only to the wonderful look, but also the ability to save space. If somewhere down the road I end up with a couple 64gb cards, I could definitely see a strong argument for switching to 1080 24pa.
At the moment I run two 16gb cards and can only get 32 minutes of 1080....If I had 2 64gb's I'd have an amazing 136 minutes of recording time at 1080 24pa! It's definitely alot of data to deal with, but the jump in quality would probably be worth it....supplement it with my two 16 cards and my total run time is 168 minutes! If I were to run the 16's first, and have them being dumped in some way or another, I can easily see them being able to be finished by the time the 64's are full, even if I only have a couple seconds to deal with dumping while one-man-banding it(leave the camera on the tripod at some point and run to the computer). That means that even in a worst case scenario I could prolly get 200 minutes of non-stop 1080 24pa recording...that's 3 hours!
I myself don't really do much live event recording, and I've never had to roll non-stop for over two hours...so it's really a non-issue, but I realize theres some people here that like to think worst case scenario with best case results, so there you go....although I realize a card dump doesn't fit into a worst case scenario...so worst case with best results is 136 minutes, or two hours and 16 minutes of non-stop rolling at 1080 24pa.....thems not bad numbers :laugh:
Now about variable frame rates......Personally if I need variable frame rates, I don't see a huge deal with filmin 720 and up-rezz'in to 1080....sure the footage won't be perfect, but I don't do variable frame rates often.
In short, don't worry about read/write cycles if you're planning on keeping the same workflow, cause you'll be able to afford amazingly larger amounts of media.....If your still unsure about E-series, but you're like me and a nut for more Rez, then don't overlook it, cause you could be filmin your next gig at 1080 instead of 720.....and I don't know about ya'll, but that gets me excited!
The bigger the card, the less the read/writes.
Of course we also have to ask ourselves: How often will we shoot in 1080 24pa now that media is getting lower in cost?
I almost primarily stick to 720 24pn due not only to the wonderful look, but also the ability to save space. If somewhere down the road I end up with a couple 64gb cards, I could definitely see a strong argument for switching to 1080 24pa.
At the moment I run two 16gb cards and can only get 32 minutes of 1080....If I had 2 64gb's I'd have an amazing 136 minutes of recording time at 1080 24pa! It's definitely alot of data to deal with, but the jump in quality would probably be worth it....supplement it with my two 16 cards and my total run time is 168 minutes! If I were to run the 16's first, and have them being dumped in some way or another, I can easily see them being able to be finished by the time the 64's are full, even if I only have a couple seconds to deal with dumping while one-man-banding it(leave the camera on the tripod at some point and run to the computer). That means that even in a worst case scenario I could prolly get 200 minutes of non-stop 1080 24pa recording...that's 3 hours!
I myself don't really do much live event recording, and I've never had to roll non-stop for over two hours...so it's really a non-issue, but I realize theres some people here that like to think worst case scenario with best case results, so there you go....although I realize a card dump doesn't fit into a worst case scenario...so worst case with best results is 136 minutes, or two hours and 16 minutes of non-stop rolling at 1080 24pa.....thems not bad numbers :laugh:
Now about variable frame rates......Personally if I need variable frame rates, I don't see a huge deal with filmin 720 and up-rezz'in to 1080....sure the footage won't be perfect, but I don't do variable frame rates often.
In short, don't worry about read/write cycles if you're planning on keeping the same workflow, cause you'll be able to afford amazingly larger amounts of media.....If your still unsure about E-series, but you're like me and a nut for more Rez, then don't overlook it, cause you could be filmin your next gig at 1080 instead of 720.....and I don't know about ya'll, but that gets me excited!
Nick Walters
Mentholated Member
Oh, and for those who want more numbers.....two 64gb E-series cards could roll non-stop for 5 hours and 40 minutes at 720 24pn.