More cards or more offloading?

Noah

Noah

Well-known member
I may have a job coming up that will be documentary in style. We'd most likely be shooting 1 day a month for at least 6 months. The crew will be small - 3 or 4 people (myself directing, the DP, sound guy and probably a PA). I've been going back and forth on how I want to approach the P2 situation. This job may be the reason for new purchases, but it's not the only job that the equipment would be used on.

1. I can get a new Lenovo laptop with both pcmcia and expresscard, get an esata expresscard adapter and be able to load the cards directly into the computer and backup to two external g-tech drives. This would be around $1300. Since I only have 8gb cards, offloading would need to be a dedicated job on set and I'd probably need to hire an extra hand.

2. I can buy 2 32gb P2 cards. According to B&H prices, this would cost me $2760. I could then offload 1 card during lunch using the camera connected via firewire to my Macbook. This should get me through my day. While the equipment is more expensive, I wouldn't have to pay for another PA to handle the loading. At the end of the job, if I needed to, I feel like I could sell the P2 cards to recoup some of my cost.

Anyone have any suggestions?
 
Do you have any P2 cards now? Shooting one day per month I would just get the laptop and use the other $1460.00 to buy a couple used P2 cards to add to the cards you have already. assuming that you have at least one already. Or some other gear you may want. Or you could send me the $1460 so I can make it rain at the strip club.:Drogar-Love(DBG):
 
I've held off on the card buying for awhile, I only have 1 8gb card myself. A friend has 4 8gb cards though that I would most likely have access to in exchange for giving him access to the potential offloading laptop I would buy.
 
I'd rent- 1 or 2 8GB cards is kind of asking for a lot of downtime on a set. A couple of 16 or 32 GB cards can get you through a whole shoot day without needed to stop to transfer or anything. That's much better than stopping, offloading, etc.

Noah
 
I've worked it out and renting cards isn't as economically efficient for me. If this job was the only job I use P2 cards on, then yes, I would rent, but it isn't. I would never shoot with just 1 8gb card - for past jobs I have either borrowed or rented. The situation really comes down to using 4-5 8gb cards and buying a laptop to offload more often, or buying 2 32gb cards so I wouldn't need to offload while shooting.
 
Noah said:
I've worked it out and renting cards isn't as economically efficient for me. If this job was the only job I use P2 cards on, then yes, I would rent, but it isn't. I would never shoot with just 1 8gb card - for past jobs I have either borrowed or rented. The situation really comes down to using 4-5 8gb cards and buying a laptop to offload more often, or buying 2 32gb cards so I wouldn't need to offload while shooting.
Click to expand...

Well you asked for the advice.:) I'd get as many 16 or 32 GB cards as I could afford- whether that means renting, buying or whatever. Shuffling around 8 GBs and a laptop on a short-handed crew is kind of a nightmare that I'm happy to no longer have to endure. :beer:

Noah
 
What NoahK said.
Buy as many 16/32 gb cards as you can. Sell them when you are finished with project.
 
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