P2 E Series - In Stock Yet?

That's good news!
With the availability of the 64's E series for under $1K the recording of 1080 on P2 cards becomes an accessible reality for all styles of filmmaking.
Almost there...
 
I find p2 so slow in production. Why are we still on 64? When will they release the 128. I want to sell my firestore to get one of these babies; but there is no way I’m giving up 110 min for 64min that's just not practical. Panasonic has to seriously keep up with the competition or they will definitely loose the battle. Even for 1k if it's not 128 I just don’t see what all the hype is about to rush to get this thing. Hope Panasonic ups there game and fast.
 
P2 is very fast when it's used properly. An inexpensive laptop (I use a Powerbook G4) can transfer cards to firewire 800 drives as fast as you can shoot them, even at the highest quality settings (1080p). So a 2 card setup will allow you to shoot uninterrupted, indefinitely.

If you're talking about stopping and transferring cards one by one after they're filled, particularly with the dog-slow P2 store (but even if not), you're not using the technology correctly.

Compared to HDV, Mini-DV tapes can be exchanged and shot pretty efficiently, but then you have to transfer them in realtime to a computer to edit, which is much slower than a proper P2 workflow.
 
vortex677 said:
I find p2 so slow in production. Why are we still on 64? When will they release the 128. I want to sell my firestore to get one of these babies; but there is no way I’m giving up 110 min for 64min that's just not practical. Panasonic has to seriously keep up with the competition or they will definitely loose the battle. Even for 1k if it's not 128 I just don’t see what all the hype is about to rush to get this thing. Hope Panasonic ups there game and fast.
Click to expand...

With the smallest option right now for the Firestore being the 160GB at $1495.95 and two 64GB P2 cards for just under $2000 it makes much more sense to go with P2. For less than $500 more you're not tethered, completely solid state, it's a win-win so I think that Panasonic is keeping up just fine in this case. The Firestore has the onboard QT encoding and things like that which makes it still a usefull piece if you need that.

Sincerely,

Andrew Hoffman
 
Firestores

Firestores

Firestores had a price drop recently; 160s and 250s are more reasonable now.

I don't recommend them over a P2 card but alot of productions run on them without any issues.
 
With the 64's (and even the 32 E series) under $1K it doesn't make sense to use anything else, unless you have already invested in something like a Firestore.
 
I find p2 so slow in production. Why are we still on 64? When will they release the 128. I want to sell my firestore to get one of these babies; but there is no way I’m giving up 110 min for 64min that's just not practical. Panasonic has to seriously keep up with the competition or they will definitely loose the battle. Even for 1k if it's not 128 I just don’t see what all the hype is about to rush to get this thing. Hope Panasonic ups there game and fast.
Click to expand...

Respectfully disagree.

P2 is very fast. I shoot dv to p2 cards all the time just because I like the workflow so much. When this thing started we did all our stuff with two 4 gig cards and never had a problem or slow down. I card in cam one card downloading. Have an AC switch out and we shoot all day long.

Panasonic has the best solid state solution to date. It been widely excepted by Indi's and major networks and the format is robust enough to support future codecs in the same capture medium. You can shoot DVCPRO DVCPRO50 DVCPROHD in 720 and 1080 and now AVC-intra and AVC-ultra to come. It was not that long ago that when you changed formats you changed cameras, and decks.

I think panny is doing just fine.
 
Been shooting with the DVX100 for five years.
Now have the HPX 170 with a 16 GB P2 card.
Waiting for release of E cards.
Big learning curve from tape to memory cards.
Have a shoot this afternoon. But am so unfamiliar with the new camera I will likely just use the DVX.
Have tried to ingest knowledge through Barry Green's HVX Camera OP DVD, but likely today is not the day to experiment. Good information, but I have to actually use it to learn.
Anyway, questions, questions.
As I understand it shooting at 480i or SD should give me about an hour's room on a P2 card.
So, until I get a second card, do I take along a laptop make a folder and drag the contents of the card in, then format the card in the camera and keep shooting?
That sound right?
Sorry, new at this.
 
Make sure you grab ALL the contents on the card, yes it should work fine and it will take about 8 minutes or so to copy.
Programs like P2CMS which is free from the Panasonic site will help you with your transfer, checking the clips and eventually selecting scenes, trimming, etc.
Keep using your camera and referring to the book and you'll learn quick. Good luck!
 
Peabody said:
Have a shoot this afternoon. But am so unfamiliar with the new camera I will likely just use the DVX.
Sorry, new at this.
Click to expand...

Peabody, first let me praise you for doing your client and yourself right by NOT learning your new camera on a paid gig. I can't tell you how many people come here looking for help after ruining a clients footage.

It is definately a new process, but after you do a couple dozen gigs you'll embrace and love it.
Practice often ane soon you'll be as smart as Barry....well....you'll get pretty good. :)
Dont' be sorry for asking questions from this fantastic community. :beer:
 
I'm a little hesitant about these E-Series cards... How long will they actually last? Is the quality compromised? Normally, I would rather spend the extra cash and buy the best equipment available, but the price difference is so significant here that its impossible to ignore. Problem is, normally, a price difference this big means a big loss in quality. What exactly is the difference between the "A" series cards and the "E" series cards?

I've read a few things about them in the forum, but I'm still not convinced they are the way to go. Are they reliable? am I going to find myself losing footage after a few years because the card is nearing the end of its lifespan?
 
The difference is MLC memory versus SLC memory. Read up on it on google, you'll find that the inexpensive SSD drives are using MLC memory, whereas server-class SSD drives will always use SLC memory.

No there is no difference in reliability or recorded image quality. The only difference is in the # of rewrite cycles, and P2 has a built-in microcomputer that manages the memory and checks the write performance and does write verification for every byte of memory written to the card. You won't ever lose a clip or get bad recordings, ever. When the card is nearing the end of its lifespan it will post a warning to you saying exactly that, long before it's actually worn out.
 
Go to the Panasonic authorized dealer web site and punch in the most common LV zip code, and you'll get a list of dealers with telephone numbers.
 
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