P2 solutions? New Macbook Pros = no Express card slot

Pluimer

Pluimer

Active member
Sounds like the new Macbook Pros won't have an Express Card to use for a PCMCIA (P2) adapter. What other solutions are there in terms of PCMCIA adapters? Are there decent Firewire to PCMCIA or USB to PCMCIA that people use?
 
I'm pretty shocked at what they've done to the 'Pro' lineup. Without the express card slot, they're severely limiting their audience with audio and video professionals. There are tons of pro add-ons that use the express card slot. And just one Firewire 800 port? You can't capture from a camera and go directly onto a hard drive, at least not through firewire or esata. Bad call, Apple.

At least this is the case with the new 15" models. The 17" still has the express card slot, but 17" is huge for a laptop. It's bordering on not actually portable.
 
I do it all the time with P2, Red, whatever. I often find daisy chaining to be faster than my SOnnet PCMIA FW 800 card.
 
Nowadays, as long as they sell more iphones n ipods , screw the pros that supported the company since the very beginning.
 
bluetuned said:
17" is huge for a laptop. It's bordering on not actually portable.
Click to expand...

I tend to agree, but I've noticed that the 17" models have been getting comparatively smaller. In the late powerbook G4 days, the 17" model was 1.7" wider than the 15". The upcoming models are only 1.1" wider. Might be worth reconsidering.

I agree it's a shame they deleted the expresscard slot from the 15 though. But at least they brought firewire back to the 13...
 
bluetuned said:
I. The 17" still has the express card slot, but 17" is huge for a laptop. It's bordering on not actually portable.
Click to expand...

I disagree. I have been traveling around the world editing on my MacBook Pro 17 for 3 years and counting. The on screen real estate is worth the slight extra hassle. But I agree that it seems odd that Apple would "downgrade" or remove features. But then who knows. Lots of the still guys I know will be very hapy with the SD card slot since they have to use an outboard reader which is a pain in scrums etc.
 
I believe they do make USB/Expresscard converters:
http://www.expansys-usa.com/p.aspx?i=149113

So, that's a decent option. I'm kind of pissed by this as well. But, understand, Apple is in the business to make money. And, the average consumer doesn't even know what a firewire port is even for, let alone an express card slot. So, as long as they buy a 2,000 laptop to surf the internet and type things on word, they're set.
 
ikander said:
I believe they do make USB/Expresscard converters:
http://www.expansys-usa.com/p.aspx?i=149113

So, that's a decent option.
Click to expand...

unfortunately that's not going to be an option for a lot of people. the whole point of an express card slot is that it allows much faster data transfer possibilities than USB. if you've been using eSata drives as a lot of laptop filmmakers do, going through an express card slot by way of USB negates all of the speed advantages that eSata would typically provide.

i haven't had much luck with daisy chaining, but perhaps i should give it another go. that was with older external drives.

i DO know that daisy chaining causes problems with audio recording. most guys i know who do recording through firewire have the recording on a separate bus from the hd, which requires the express card slot. otherwise you can end up with audio dropouts and other misc glitches.

oh well. i'm really just surprised apple would do this. and replacing it with an SD card slot? really? i know a lot of cameras use sd cards, but it's so limiting. sd is consumer level, not pro. when you're actually advertising the fact that you added an sd slot at the expense of an express card slot on a pro laptop... something is just wrong there. add to that the fact that they already removed the matte screen option on everything but the 17" and you're basically left with only one truly 'pro' laptop in their lineup.
 
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At present, I've haven't splurged and bought a P2 adapter yet - been drawing my footage directly off the HVX. A little slower, but I set it to go overnight anyway, so it's six of one, half dozen of the other. Once I have to start offloading more than an hour of shooting at a time, I'll probably go for the P2 reader.
 
I just bought a new 17" and although i cannot download cards via firewire (b/c there is no firewire 400 port anymore) I did get the adapter and it's the fastest way to download cards... I think.

The p2 card to express slot adapter is super fast... just finicky. Anyone looking for why it wont work needs to do these things:

1) Download a driver
2) The computer wont recognize the adapter unless it is plugged in before start-up (w/o card)
3) Then insert card. You can eject and insert as many cards as you want. but if you unplug the adapter, you much plug it back in and restart the computer.
 
The best solution for me was to pick up a refurbished MBP /w an ExCard slot. Ended up saving about $1,300 in the process, and was delivered a repackaged new computer, instead of a repair. I'll be great with that for now, but I hope there's a better solution 3-4 years from now when I'm looking to upgrade.
 
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