Laptops with PCMCIA slots

Thanks Chip,

anyone out there used the Duel Systems adapter on a new PC? How well does it work?
 
cmus said:
Thanks Chip,

anyone out there used the Duel Systems adapter on a new PC? How well does it work?
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Some guys here report no problems, I do a lot of stuff in the field in fast run n gun situations and have had 3 fail on me in 30 days so I quit usng them.

We would have a laptop stand in the SUV so the dual adapter would dangle off to the side, if it gets unpugged (on a PC) whle it is downloading or not inserted first then the P2 card second the laptop would lock up (driver problem) and we would have to reboot. It made me go out and buy the pcmcia laptop that I did. I'll never use a duel adapter again. Actually I'll sell t to you if you want it for cheap. PM me if you want it but be warned. If your on a shoot with a table or in a studio it might work for you but out on a boat doing your scuba stuff I'd try to swing a laptop with a pcmcia slot and add a 500 gig drive to it if need be.
 
cmus said:
I just got off a chat with an HP rep who told me there are no new HP laptops available with PCMCIA slots. Also spoke with a Lenovo rep who told me none of their new computers have these slots. The first post here should be edited.
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I can personally confirm that all Lenovo X61 and T61 come with one PCMCIA slot and also an express card slot.
I have both these Lenovo laptops and they work great for P2 work! Also all older T and X series also have PCMCIA slots. These are really cheap and indestructible laptops for field work.

Oh and they are durable and cheap ;)

Kris
 
Sorry guys, but Lenovo does not have any new computers for sale with PCMCIA slots. Even the R400 and R500 Barry mentioned do not have these. I just got off the phone again with them and they confirmed with their technical department that these computers only have PCI express card slots. The configuration page on their website is apparently outdated and wrong. And Newsbykko - the X61 and T61 are no longer offered by them. If anyone can guide me towards a new, relatively powerful laptop that has a PCMCIA slot I would be forever grateful.

Aloha,
Craig
 
I can now also confirm neither HP or Sony offer any new laptops with PCMCIA card slots.

The Dell M6400 is the only computer I have found that ships with the slot. Bummer.

The first post here should be modified.
 
Now we can add Gateway to the list that also has no current model laptops with PCMCIA slots.
 
cmus said:
If anyone can guide me towards a new, relatively powerful laptop that has a PCMCIA slot I would be forever grateful.

Aloha,
Craig
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Most of the Acer Travel Mates still do.

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Acer_TravelMate_Laptops/cat.asp

Not to be confused with the Acer Aspire range which increasingly don't.

I got this one : http://www.oyyy.co.uk/product.php/6...ta-hp--ati-radeon-hd-2600-?CAWELAID=243006243

2x320 Hard drives, T8300 2.4GHZ, 4GB ram.

It's getting difficult to find this model now thoug.
 
Hi..
Anyone has a Dell STUDIO 15?? does it work well with P2 card and the Express?? thank you for your help!!!!!
 
cmus said:
Sorry guys, but Lenovo does not have any new computers for sale with PCMCIA slots. Even the R400 and R500 Barry mentioned do not have these. I just got off the phone again with them and they confirmed with their technical department that these computers only have PCI express card slots. The configuration page on their website is apparently outdated and wrong. And Newsbykko - the X61 and T61 are no longer offered by them. If anyone can guide me towards a new, relatively powerful laptop that has a PCMCIA slot I would be forever grateful.

Aloha,
Craig
Click to expand...

Well, I don't know about the Lenovo R series, but I just bought (after a LOT of reading - days and days on several threads) a used Lenovo T400 I saw on Craigslist from a physics grad student (transaction made in a Walmart parking lot - you can trust an academic right?) who bought it in October. And yes, it has a single PCMCIA slot (along with an ExpressCard slot). So I can't vouch that currently available T400s ordered from Lenovo direct are still shipping with a PCMCIA slot, but it is mentioned on their web site as the default option (although there are two other configurations that could also be ordered that would not include the PCMCIA slot).

Now, the former owner reformatted the HD (that was originally Vista Home Basic) with XP Professional which seemed like a better deal for me since I was planning on using this PC laptop primarily for off-loading P2 cards and the P2 viewer DL info indicated that the preferred systems were XP Professional and Vista Business. But it became clear pretty early on that this person had installed XP Professional for his native language, Chinese, which was generating mild to extreme panic for me as I was trying to instal the P2 viewer software (which was, as you can imagine, displayed in Chinese) at 11 PM and had a shoot 7 AM the next morning, and this T400 was the only thing standing between me acting like a professional with decades of experience, or, having to tell a producer I had never worked with before that although I could shoot 1 hour of footage using the 2, 8 GB P2 cards I had, we'd have to quit after that and go home. Right...

Today, I'm a happy camper because after I finally installed the P2 Card Bus driver & Viewer (matching up the position of the Chinese labeled instal buttons with their English equivalents listed in the Instal doc .pdf) and did a little experimenting, P2 Viewer running on this basic model T400 (Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8400 (2.26 GHz), 2 GB memory, integrated graphics) played DV and DVCPRO HD files just fine.

I was about ready to pop a cold one and relax for the first time in days, when it became clear that although I could successfully use P2 Viewer to view, as well as transfer footage quickly to the HD via "P2 Ingester", when I tried to then format the P2 card via the P2 Card Property menu item in "Tools" - Disaster!!

Houston, we have a problem.

It not only cleared out the footage (as it was supposed to), it also destroyed the formatting of the P2 card and made it unusable - even using Panasonic's Card Formatter software created the same I/O error message - it was unreadable by the PC, all Panasonic apps, as well as back in the 170.

After I unfroze, maybe after 15 minutes or so (and decided I still wanted to be a shooter when I grow up), I had a (very) stiff margarita out on the patio, sat and thought for a bit, and then remembered that a 170 had a card format function in it's playback mode. So I quickly finished my drink (downed it actually), put the P2 back into the camera, pressed Slot 1 format, and voila, I had a clean, formatted working card again.

So there are several morals to this story - pick one, any one - but if you're risk averse, buy a NEW T400, probably order the Vista Business upgrade (how would I know - I'm a Mac person), and make sure it is formatted in a language you either understand...or have the time to learn. Cheers.
 
Jason Ramsey said:
And perhaps don't get drunk while working with p2 for the first time :)

later,
jason
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Hey now - remember that it was AFTER that first icey, frosty, puckery marg, consumed sometime AFTER 12 midnight (that IS still considered part of Happy Hour, yes? - hmmmm - except maybe, by then, it is considered the NEXT day and in which case I was waaay too early for HH) that the big 'ole Brainstorm started staring me in the face, that marvelous moment that literally, saved the shoot. When the focus ring gets tough, the tough get focused.

And it was by no means first time on a P2 - it was just first time on my OWN gear, not rentals, and I can't afford Panny offload gear in this economy. This was just a short story I guess, on trying to figure all this tech stuff out (for about the 5th time in my lifetime), and on the risks of working without a net, in this case, a 24/7 rental house by my side. Cheers again - 15 minutes till the next HH!
 
I have a G4 Powerbook that's about four years old. It has a PCMCIA slot, but won't read P2 cards. Any ideas why and how I can fix it?
 
I'm not sure if this will help anyone else, but after alot of time off and on looking at the best solutions for P2 workflow, and workflow in general I came up with the following:

Lenovo Thinkpad T61p/w500/perhaps others*(1920x1200 res screen laptops,PCMCIA AND Expresscard)
Thinkpad Advanced Dock(half length PCI express)
Black Magic Design Intensity capture card(PCI express)
2 - 256gb G.Skill SSD falcon drives(one in system, one in dock)

If neccesary one can upgrade a lower end Lenovo which is compatible with the advanced dock, altough I would always stick to systems with atleast a 720p viewable area, DDR2 technology(DDR3 if you can{w500}), and I personally like to have the option of both a PCMCIA and an expresscard slot. You can slap in more memory(I reccomend 4gb), upgrade the CPU, put in those 256gb ssd drives, attach external drives, 64-bit vista, editing suite, etc. etc

With a system like this you can be portable, ingest P2 or those funky expresscard things:)huh:), capture raw 4:2:2 footage, edit in real time(well maybe not 4k).

The skies the limit

*For reference on which laptops are compatible with the Thinkpad Advanced Dock see this page:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-61232
 
can anyone recommend an out of the box pc laptop that can do simple edits on CS4 (nothing crazy in after effects or anything), allow me to use On Location scopes reliably, and has a pcmcia slot, all for under 1.5k? =D
 
Lenovo R series. Has PCMCIA, firewire, and costs under $1,000. If you're going to go with AVCHD, be sure to get the one with "discrete graphics".
 
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