P2 reliability

[Jason Ramsey]

And when the cards are large enough, you'll never "have" to go to a hard drive. Transferring to hard drive is also an interim workflow that we have to put up with because of two things: 1) limited card capacity, and 2) limited vision on the part of NLE developers. In EDIUS I never have to transfer to hard disk, I can edit straight from the cards. As cards get larger I expect that to become a more common workflow

That to me is pretty much the best part, and something I really look forward to. Related to that, is the ability I have right now to have instant access to my footage. No rewind, no fast forward, no capture. Look at it in camera and discard before I ever even get to a computer.

For me, I think that the sweet spot will be 2 32gig p2 cards per camera. At 3 hours, I can do all the filming I would need for events or otherwise, and offload during lunch, and go at it.
That is when you get to the point that, I think, the singular "deficit" that people place on p2 in comparing it to tape, goes from deficit, past on par, to superior. Does that make sense? Change a tape once an hour, or offload your p2 cards once a day. Twice at the absolute most.

Or to put it much more cleanly... @32 gigs, tape quickly begins to go the way of vhs.

Jason