Live from the Panasonic NAB press conference...

bingo

bingo

k2director said:
I was about the pull the trigger on 5 64Gb cards, so I might have been a little upset! I'm obviously glad I decided to wait the extra few weeks till NAB came around. Of course, now I have another predicament. I'm getting a P2 camera now, but need cards to fill it with. But the new 64GBs won't be here until August (likely August 31, if I know Panasonic). So I might still have to pull the trigger on one or two of the old 64Gbs while I wait for the new batch to arrive. Not so excited about that...

Personally, I think Panasonic will quickly retire the A series cards (64/32GBs), once the R series starts shipping. I think Panasonic is saying those A series cards will be sold alongside of the new ones only so that A) customers of the recent 64Gb cards (shipping since only November) don't feel like they recently bought into an already-obsolete product, and B) customers who have to buy a 64GB card between now and bloody August also don't feel like they're buying an already-obsolete product.

But for all intents and purposes, I think that's what's happening. I can't imagine someone choosing to pay $2600 for a slower 64GB card with a 10+ year shelf life, when they could buy a much faster 64GB card for $1000 with a 5 year shelf life (again, conservative estimate on the shelf life).
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bingo
 
Let's face it, it's simply bussiness, Panasonic have just responded to the Market telling them that the cost of the P2 media is Just TOO HIGH, and sales are being lost to the Sony product range.
Didn't I read some time ago that they did not want to use cheap media cards inside the P2 case because the quality of P2 cards was Paramount, Hmmmm, we call this a "back flip" downunder.

Still, I will not need anymore cards for some time as I have purchased the more expensive A series to fill my five slots, plus with the economic crisis biting, budgets will be cut for some time to come I believe.

cheers
Tom K
olinevideo.com.au
 
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puredrifting said:
Tom:
What is that card reader in your sig sitting on top of your G5/Mac Pro?
Dan
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Hi dan,
That's My "Amtron" single slot P2 card reader connected to the Macpro 3gig via a PCIe to PCI adapter card.
Works great 99% of the time just like a Duel Adapter, about 2gig a min transfer, Problem with testing is that Apple keep changing the goal posts by altering their kext versions in up-grades, now 10.5.6 . fast expresscard connection is the flavour currently in Mac's OS Leopard so old PCMCIA (PC Cards) are left in the dust.
That's why I believe Pana went to USB and FW connections , with the latest pana reader PCD35 being a PCIe to PC connected box of trix.
On windows it's just so easy to connect a reader as the Amtron and your OK and away with P2, but with Current Mac it can be an expensive nightmare.

( I have not released the kexts as I believe 99% is not good enough)

If you know of any out of work "Mac driver writers" just let me know, try learning xcode tools and you'll know what I mean.

Barry Greens work around of using a windows lappy or tower connected to the Mac via ethernet gigabit is a good/cheap alternative, only hassel is that you use more office space and more power to achieve a very simple task.

Now that Pana have cut the P2 cards cost I suspect it would make sense to cut their P2 reader range accordingly that would make Pana "King of the castle".

Cheers
Tom K
olinevideo.com.au
 
I totally understand the SLC versus MLC memory.

I just bought a 32gb USB flash drive. It does up to 32-35MB/s (read), 8-15MB/s (write)
I could have purchased, from the same company, a "turbo" 4gb drive that does up to 35MB/s (read), 30MB/s (write) for $10 MORE.

Yup, slightly faster reading, twice as fast writing, 1/8th the space for $10 more.

Panasonic is not ripping you off, they are simply offering different flash memory technologies at different prices, because that's what it costs to make them.
 
strangways said:
I totally understand the SLC versus MLC memory.

I just bought a 32gb USB flash drive. It does up to 32-35MB/s (read), 8-15MB/s (write)
I could have purchased, from the same company, a "turbo" 4gb drive that does up to 35MB/s (read), 30MB/s (write) for $10 MORE.

Yup, slightly faster reading, twice as fast writing, 1/8th the space for $10 more.

Panasonic is not ripping you off, they are simply offering different flash memory technologies at different prices, because that's what it costs to make them.
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But wait. The E series is faster AND it costs less.
 
for_mlove said:
So, my question is when can we get pre=orders in on these new cards? I'm assuming that as soon as they're out we'll be seeing a big back log and I need one or two new P2 cards by June!
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Don't forget there's another company making both kinds of P2 cards, Fuji Film. So hopefully they wont be too back ordered! :)
 
im fairly certain it wont fail. Panasonic wouldnt sell a "professional" card if there was a shot in hell of it failing.

Its just that CF solid state memory ( the kind in the new cards) has a shorter life span.
 
its obvious that cheaper cards have a maybe shorter lifespan. I wonder if the cards used in XDCAM or AVCHD cameras even give you a life expectancy or load/unload cycle-number. I am sure the new E cards will work as well as those other cards. Unfortunately I just spent on another 16 gb card...oh well....
Anyway: thanks for this "live" coverage from NAB !!! much better and nicely condensed than what I get from the pana website.
 
timbook2 said:
its obvious that cheaper cards have a maybe shorter lifespan. I wonder if the cards used in XDCAM or AVCHD cameras even give you a life expectancy or load/unload cycle-number. I am sure the new E cards will work as well as those other cards. Unfortunately I just spent on another 16 gb card...oh well....
Anyway: thanks for this "live" coverage from NAB !!! much better and nicely condensed than what I get from the pana website.
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If Pana ever get the P2 cards to the dollar per gig that Sony has with a XDcam disc, then it's sionara to Sony...

Cheers
Tom K
olinevideo.com.au
 
Tom 4 said:
If Pana ever get the P2 cards to the dollar per gig that Sony has with a XDcam disc, then it's sionara to Sony...

Cheers
Tom K
olinevideo.com.au
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I just did that math in another thread. Luis pointed out that a 4 gig P2 card was $1700 5 years ago when introduced. They have since increased in size by 16 times while the price has been cut in half.

Going off this history in 5 years we will have a 1TB P2 card for $499, that's 50% cheaper than sony's dollar per gig XDcam disk.
 
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puredrifting said:
"We were ripped-off all the time and most of us were happy..."

We can say it again and again, P2 is made for professionals, not hobbyists. For Pros, P2 MAKES you money, For hobbyists, it costs you money so buy a 150. I just pre-ordered two of the new 64GB cards, they are going to make me so much money. Don't you charge your clients for card rentals? The $2,000.00 I spend will pay me back five or ten fold in a couple of years.

This board cracks me up. How about when the HVX200 was introduced, I was so freaking stoked to be buying a $5,000.00 camera that shared the same codec and VFR as the $70,000.00 Varicam I was renting at the time and shot to a new, amazingly cool format called P2 that allowed us to dump our freaking $25,000.00 lame AJ-HD1200 DVC ProHD deck and expensive $140.00 per tape 126 DVC ProHD tapes? That's more like the reality. P2 was and is a Godsend for me, it changed the entire way I work and saved me hundreds of thousands of dollars of camera rentals, HD decks, new heads, downtime, troubleshooting.

I did some calculations and my original HVX200 made me over $28,000.00 in camera rental profits in two and half years.

Yeah, P2 is a total ripoff.

Dan.
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Well said man well said... I just need to get my butt out there now and roll over some good profits.
 
ChipG said:
I just did that math in another thread. Luis pointed out that a 4 gig P2 card was $1700 5 years ago when introduced. They have since increased in size by 16 times while the price has been cut in half.

Going off this history in 5 years we will have a 1TB P2 card for $499, that's 50% cheaper than sony's dollar per gig XDcam disk.
Click to expand...

Don't hold your breath for that to happen Chip ... I suspect P2 will evolve into some future/faster media format connection prior to that happening.
And. Sony will no doubt have evolved XDcam into a simmillar solid state (broadcast) format if it can get to that level/quality of production.
As long as both companies advance in their R&D and prices become more affordable, we will all win.......

Cheers
Tom K
olinevideo.com.au
 
If anyone makes it by the Panasonic P2 booth can you ask them what the ETA is for a 128 gig E series P2 card.

Thanks!
 
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