I’m not technically savy on P2 but it seems like the HVX 200 with this card is capable of doing things that cameras with tape drives can’t.
Is it still possible to build in an option to switch off image recording and just record sound with the camera? If so, the P2 recording time capacity for doing just this would be increased many times – even more if it had options to record to say on just1 or 2 channels as well as the full 4. (Maybe one of the members here will calculate how many minutes (hours?) could be recorded (uncompressed and compressed in the DV format) on an 8 GB P2 card.)
Having this feature would justify a budget minded producer like me to buy a P2 card. Why? If I’m not mistaken, to buy a decent 2 channel uncompressed recorder costs around $700.00. A 4 channel unit would be more.
There are times when I only want to record sound without image. If this camera could do this as well as a dedicated recorder, I would divert the money I would spend on a recorder to buy a P2 card. Of coarse I would then have the benefit of using it for image as well (and according to some in this forum become addicted to the P2 medium and henceforth be unable to shoot without them and make Panasonic even richer *smile*).
A few more points:
1. Going from pictures provided the level controls for sound are under the viewfinder and probably in line with my nose. They would be awkward to get at. Why not place these on the left side where they can be more easily manipulated while shooting?
2. At the risk of over stating it, streaming a hi def image directly to a hard drive (not a Firestore type device) will be a must have feature to make this camera viable for my documentary work.
Congratulations on what you’ve already done in birthing this camera Jan.
Is it still possible to build in an option to switch off image recording and just record sound with the camera? If so, the P2 recording time capacity for doing just this would be increased many times – even more if it had options to record to say on just1 or 2 channels as well as the full 4. (Maybe one of the members here will calculate how many minutes (hours?) could be recorded (uncompressed and compressed in the DV format) on an 8 GB P2 card.)
Having this feature would justify a budget minded producer like me to buy a P2 card. Why? If I’m not mistaken, to buy a decent 2 channel uncompressed recorder costs around $700.00. A 4 channel unit would be more.
There are times when I only want to record sound without image. If this camera could do this as well as a dedicated recorder, I would divert the money I would spend on a recorder to buy a P2 card. Of coarse I would then have the benefit of using it for image as well (and according to some in this forum become addicted to the P2 medium and henceforth be unable to shoot without them and make Panasonic even richer *smile*).
A few more points:
1. Going from pictures provided the level controls for sound are under the viewfinder and probably in line with my nose. They would be awkward to get at. Why not place these on the left side where they can be more easily manipulated while shooting?
2. At the risk of over stating it, streaming a hi def image directly to a hard drive (not a Firestore type device) will be a must have feature to make this camera viable for my documentary work.
Congratulations on what you’ve already done in birthing this camera Jan.