New $350.00 Single Slot P2 Reader?!?! Finally!

This is great! Especially since I've been using my 3-year old Sony VAIO laptop with a PCMCIA card slot without a backup! Now, (at a reasonable price) I can use any laptop if mine goes on the blink on location! About time, but thanks Panasonic.
 
Someone on another board mentioned something about 1GB per minute for this unit. I asked them where they obtained that figure but they have not replied back yet. If that is true, then this unit will not be a very viable choice for those who need to download cards as they shoot because they don't have enough cards. It will functionally work well I am sure but since I need to have two copies of a card before I delete the material off of it that this will be too slow for my needs unless it is closer to 2 GB per minute. Time will tell I guess.

Dan
 
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Brad Neal said:
So as for speed, I assume it will be about the same as my PCD20?
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No real way to know; all we can do is assume or guess until we test one.

My guess would be that it will be the same speed when using the PCD20 attached via USB. But it will probably not be as fast as the PCD20 when the PCD20 is attached via FW800.
 
kingwo said:
The two USB cables are to ensure enough bus power. I have a Glyph Portagig harddrive that uses this type of interface.

Yes, now I can use my macbook!
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That is the correct. Many USB ports on a motherboard are underpowered. Though I suspect the reason for the two port is that it has a design that will branch the device as a hub then as a drive. That seems to be typical with a lot of WIN/MAC devices I have been running in to.
 
puredrifting said:
Grant:

Have you ever tried this? If I recall, I think I clocked in about 45 minutes per 8GB card using the P2 Store as an external reader, it was much faster to dump to the P2 Store's drive, but then you had to double that time to transfer that file to an external drive. Incredibly slow. Definitely works but impractical.

D
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Dan,

I hadn't tried the P2 drive but was aware it was an option as a card reader. I was needing to buy more P2 or get a better download option. With the price of used or, old stock new P2 drives falling, it was becoming a viable option and still is. I saw a new one the other day for $500.

I did purchase one of the new Maxell iDVR drives, just before the Panny announcement. Which by the way, inspite of the weird marketing klitch, works really well for cam direct download. You do need power.

Grant
 
Does anyone know around when in april this is supposed to be available? I swear I am gonna pick one up the day it is available. I have been waiting for this ever since I have been working with P2!

That said, I kinda wish it was firewire 800, had a way to use another power supply and only use 1 USB port (and leave me with one on my macbook) and had a second slot, it would be perfect. Oh well, this covers my current needs, and no need to lug around a second laptop anymore!!!!!
 
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But the Toughbook doesn't run Mac OS, right? I think the Mac Book users are scared that they could never figure out such a complicated machine. :cheesy:
 
You laugh, but I agree. I have been on Macs since about 1998 and when I try to do the simplest things on a newer Windows machine, I am clueless about how to work it. I think a Toughbook would be a pretty kick ass P2 downloading device, rugged enough to take on shoots without having to baby it. The guy who installed my Verizon FIOS system used one of these for setting up and configuring my fiber Internet connection. If I was to buy a PC, these are supposed to be pretty good.

Barry? Any other PC people can weigh-in on this deal?

Dan
 
So, does this reader mount a card as an external file system? Does not seem that it does, judging by this: "the PCD2 supports all P2 card sizes, P2 formats and frame rates in HD and SD". What sort of access does it provide then? Is it like iPod, which does not allow simply copying files onto/off it, but needs clunky iTunes for "management"?

If a P2 card is inserted into PCMCIA slot, is it mounted as a file system?
 
It's mounted as a volume at least on a Mac.

I believe these questions will be fleshed out once the product is released.
 
Never used a toughbook, but I did find it entertaining last time I went to NZ, in the Auckland airport they had a toughbook display set up. It was a big glass case, and they had a toughbook in it, and you could push buttons to punish it. I don't remember all the options, but one of 'em was rain, you could make it rain on the poor hapless computer, and it just kept running.

So yeah, for field offloading, it sounds like it'd be pretty much ideal. Get an automated file copy program for offloading like P2 Forge, and you wouldn't have to know how to operate it; just turn it on, plug in the card, and you're done.
 
Cranky said:
If a P2 card is inserted into PCMCIA slot, is it mounted as a file system?
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It shows up as an external removable storage device. You can access it just like a hard drive, you can copy files from it or copy files onto it, you can use it just like a big ol' thumb drive.
 
Barry_Green said:
It shows up as an external removable storage device. You can access it just like a hard drive, you can copy files from it or copy files onto it, you can use it just like a big ol' thumb drive.
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So, there is no protection of any kind in P2 cards that prevents from mounting the cards as an external drive in a standard PCMCIA slot? In this case, will something like this work:

Quatech PCD-B/UPCI-E PCMCIA Card Drive For Universal PCI Bus (rear) -- $115
Digigear PCI Panasonic P2 Card Reader ; Supports all PC PCMCIA Cardbus card in 8/16/32 bit -- $96
Addonics Desktop PC Card drive -- $95

cbrdr_caseview.jpg


Addonics makes a PC Card-to-USB reader, but it does not read 32-bit Cardbus devices.
 
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Of course those will work. Just not in Apple computers, for some reason, but yes, Windows users can use $79 slot readers like that.
 
Hello All,

We're now taking preorders on the AJ-PCD2. A couple things to keep in mind:

Right now it's at list because that's the only pricing information available now. It will be adjusted once we figure out what the street price will be.

When you place a preorder, we will not charge your card until your order is ready to ship.

Estimated delivery is just that: estimated. The trend we've seen for new releases is they usually ship in limited quantities around the end of that month. We will be filling orders in the order they were received, and updating everyone with preorders as we get more solid dates from Panasonic.

Best,

Jasmine Moore
Administrative Assistant
Specialized Communications / Noventri
20940 Twin Springs Dr.
Smithsburg, MD 21783-1510 USA
800-359-1858 (US)
301-790-0103
Fax: 301-790-0173
jasminem@spec-comm.com
www.spec-comm.com
www.noventri.com
 
USB, are you @$%* kidding???? I don't know why this isn't a big deal to anyone here, but it's a big deal to me that it only transfers at USB Speed. Panasonic, we have 64 gb cards now, moving on to 128 gb cards soon, why can't you make a faster reader? We shoot all day and then stay up all night transfering. This doesn't work out in the field. USB speed is TOOOOO SLOW!!! Yes I know about the 5 slot reader, I rent it, it's expensive, I'd like to buy this. Yes I know, adding eSata is a headache to the Panasonic Tech people and you might be losing money on it... but sometimes you have to give away the razors in order to sell the razor blades. I own two 64 gb cards. I'm not suggesting they take a loss, but don't discount something that is sorely needed because of profit margin. Run-of-the-mill, HD enclosures have eSata & USB as a standard connection, why can't the new card reader have eSata??? (this is rhetorical question, please don't retort). It is 2010, not 2006.
 
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They do make faster readers. They make the PCD20 which operates at FW800, and they make the PCD35 which uses PCI Express for 3gigabit/sec transfer speeds.

I think it's nice of them to bring out a product that's 1/5 the cost of the others. If I had a complaint about it, I wish it would be USB 3.0 instead of USB 2.0, with backwards compatibility to 2.0. That would seem to be the ideal, universal option.
 
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