Multiple P2 cards to multiple locations

F

funtasticrich

Member
Hi all,

I'm about to embark on a big shoot in southern france. 4 cameras, 4x32GB P2 cards each and a hell of a lot of data!

The thing I would like to know is is it possible, and what is the best way to offload multiple p2 cards at once to multiple folders i.e. card 1 goes in the card 1 folder, card 2 will go to the card 2 folder etc.

If this can be done, it will save a hell of alot of time.

Thanks
 
Are you planning on using 4 laptops and are you going to be shooting HD non stop for the entire shoot? Are you using the cameras to offload the data? There is a program, shotputt pro, that will do a lot of what you are wanting automatically but I think it will be more trouble than it's worth if you are trying to dump from multiple cameras at once. If it were me I would assign a laptop to each computer and just do them one at a time if possible. Fumbling with 4 cameras, 4 sets of cards, and 1 laptop is just asking for a mistake to happen. Also you are going to want to offload to at least 2 locations whether that be 2 external hard drives, 1 external 1 internal etc...
 
full HD the whole time. 5 day shoot

i've figured if each camera shoots for 4 hrs that would be a total of 1TB of data generated a day. production is talking about giving each camera 8 32gb cards so they can shoot for a further 2hrs whilst i'm offloading the first 2hr set.

ideally would like to keep the number of laptops down

I had thought off having two laptops each with a 2-slot P2 reader, and each laptop with 2 4TB hardrives. 2 cameras assigned to a laptop and set of drives.

I was hoping to offload 2 cards at once to seperate folders on one of the drives, and then use the other drive as a back-up (everyone is paranoid about losing footage). Luckily no converting is needed until we're back in London

This way I should be able to offload all the footage in half the time if I did it one by one. And if production stagger the cameras that are recording, I can hopefully keep up.
 
Sorry, may I ask what it is theyre shooting?

I use shot put pro, and it does work very well, but sadly you cant purchase stand alone anymore. Only as part of The Executive Producer, but thats another program I love.
 
Hmm if shotput can only transfer one card at a time, might not be suitable. doing the backup isn't such an issue as that can be done overnight. its the inital offload that i need to get through quickly and safely.

How long roughly would it take me to offload one 32gb through a p2 reader connected to a macbookpro via usb to a firewire800 connected 4tb drive? if its fairly speedy then only being able to do one card at a time may not be too much of a problem.

just dont want to be in a situation where i get the first set of cards from all 4 cameras and am still offloading when the second set comes in.
 
P2CMS is one card at a time, yes. Finder drag 'n' drop is not something I recommend, because a few people report glitches happen to their footage when using that workflow. However, I'll simultaneously say that many folks do that every day and have no problems whatsoever, so it depends on what your risk level is.

But that wasn't the "Rapid Writer". That's a device that gets past the Duel's problems and gives you five individual slots. The Rapid Writer is a self-contained computer with its own five-slot reader and two interchangeable hard drives, and it's an all-automated system with verification and multiple card copying and everything. Seems like it'd be the most foolproof way to go.
 
unless I'm being totally stupid/blind the rapidwriter offloads to its own internal HDD's. considering how much we are going to be shooting, i'll be swapping out drives every day and then have even more kit to take with me and back again.

could i possibly hook it up to an 8tb NAS drive and get it to off load to that? i cant find very much info on the actual workflow of the drive. panasonics user guide pdf's are refusing to open for me.
 
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