AC130: Panasonic ag ac130

The 250 brochure definitely states that it is a 10bit 4.2.2. camera, recording to P2, which is not mentioned in the brochure for the 130/160.

Makes sense, AVCHD cameras 8 bit, you want 10 bit? Then spend the money, and get the 250 and P2.

Cheers,

Vaughan
 
The 250 brochure definitely states that it is a 10bit 4.2.2. camera, recording to P2, which is not mentioned in the brochure for the 130/160.

Makes sense, AVCHD cameras 8 bit, you want 10 bit? Then spend the money, and get the 250 and P2.

Cheers,

Vaughan

I'd love to spend the money and get the 250, but the ridiculously inflated, bang me in the ___ price of P2 cards is truly criminal....I don't mind paying for quality but there's a certain threshold that, once reached, is beyond comprehension...Do these companies not realize that they would sell MORE units if they stopped raping customers? I mean...$650 for a 64GB PCMCIA card from 1986?? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_Card) really? This is 2011, not 2001...come on Jan!...I'd pay a grand or two more for the 250 if it wasn't for the insulting price of the cards..
 
I'd love to spend the money and get the 250, but the ridiculously inflated, bang me in the ___ price of P2 cards is truly criminal....I don't mind paying for quality but there's a certain threshold that, once reached, is beyond comprehension...Do these companies not realize that they would sell MORE units if they stopped raping customers? I mean...$650 for a 64GB PCMCIA card from 1986?? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_Card) really? This is 2011, not 2001...come on Jan!...I'd pay a grand or two more for the 250 if it wasn't for the insulting price of the cards..

The biggest customer for P2 is news/broadcasters for whom the HPX370 is an extremely cheap camera, and for many the cost of P2 is cheap compared to the piles and piles of Betacam SX tapes it's replacing and how bulletproof P2 is. The P2 cameras the photogs at work shoot on are north of $30,000-$40,000 setups once you factor in batteries and tripods and such. We easily have 20-30 of them. $650 is a drop in the bucket. They are hardly being "raped".

People who are willing to pay an extra couple thousand dollars to move up to a $6,500 camera isn't really the market P2 is aimed at.
 
I think the price of P2 cards is a non-issue. I am a novice and on a very tight budget. I buy used P2 cards for less than half of their original price. They may be old technology but are built like a rock. In this day and time of cheap plastic devices that has considerable value to me.
 
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People who are willing to pay an extra couple thousand dollars to move up to a $6,500 camera isn't really the market P2 is aimed at.

That's why we complain. We want to be in that market, and even though the camera is now 'affordable', the P2 prices still keep us out.

Personally, I'd like to see a 3CCD model using two SDXC slots. The UHS cards are more than fast enough for AVC-I.
 
The biggest customer for P2 is news/broadcasters for whom the HPX370 is an extremely cheap camera, and for many the cost of P2 is cheap compared to the piles and piles of Betacam SX tapes it's replacing and how bulletproof P2 is. The P2 cameras the photogs at work shoot on are north of $30,000-$40,000 setups once you factor in batteries and tripods and such. We easily have 20-30 of them. $650 is a drop in the bucket. They are hardly being "raped".

People who are willing to pay an extra couple thousand dollars to move up to a $6,500 camera isn't really the market P2 is aimed at.



I don't understand...the difference between the AC160 and the HPX250 as far as pricing is concerned is only around $1000...this is not a huge deal and the cameras are, therefore, aimed at the same user base. My problem is with the overpriced P2 cards...it would cost around $4000 to buy enough P2 cards for a 6 hour shoot....FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS, whereas the equivalent in SDXC cards would cost $250 or so.....and I can always backup record to TWO SDXC cards in case one dies....we won't even talk about the $2000 P2 card reader (unless, of course, you enjoy transferring footage off the camera at USB 2.0 speeds). Hell, even the new SSD drives are a fraction of the cost of P2; what are they...$250 for 120GB or so???

I would buy the 250 in a heartbeat for the codec alone, as would many, many other people, broadcasters or not; event videographers, weddings, etc etc....everyone would buy it....if it wasn't for the ridiculous price of the media. I don't care if the P2 cards themselves are literally bullet-proof....give the HPX250 2 SDXC slots, allow backup recording to both cards at the same time, and keep the price of the camera the same or, hell, even jack it by $1000 if you want...the high cost of P2 is not in the high quality of the codec, but it's in the over-priced media...

There is absolutely no physical, technical, or technological reason why a P2 camera can not record AVC-I to SDXC or even CF cards...the speeds are already there, the quality of the media is there, and the ability to record to two cards maximizes redundancy...P2 is nothing more than a cash grab on the media.

Argue about broadcast quality or "drops in the bucket" all you want...

-The codec is awesome
-The cameras are reasonably priced (the HPX250 is extremely competitively priced for the quality)
-$650 for 64GB (1 hour of record time only) is absolutely, positively, criminal.
 
I don't understand...the difference between the AC160 and the HPX250 as far as pricing is concerned is only around $1000...this is not a huge deal and the cameras are, therefore, aimed at the same user base. My problem is with the overpriced P2 cards...it would cost around $4000 to buy enough P2 cards for a 6 hour shoot....FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS, whereas the equivalent in SDXC cards would cost $250 or so.....and I can always backup record to TWO SDXC cards in case one dies....we won't even talk about the $2000 P2 card reader (unless, of course, you enjoy transferring footage off the camera at USB 2.0 speeds). Hell, even the new SSD drives are a fraction of the cost of P2; what are they...$250 for 120GB or so???

I would buy the 250 in a heartbeat for the codec alone, as would many, many other people, broadcasters or not; event videographers, weddings, etc etc....everyone would buy it....if it wasn't for the ridiculous price of the media. I don't care if the P2 cards themselves are literally bullet-proof....give the HPX250 2 SDXC slots, allow backup recording to both cards at the same time, and keep the price of the camera the same or, hell, even jack it by $1000 if you want...the high cost of P2 is not in the high quality of the codec, but it's in the over-priced media...

There is absolutely no physical, technical, or technological reason why a P2 camera can not record AVC-I to SDXC or even CF cards...the speeds are already there, the quality of the media is there, and the ability to record to two cards maximizes redundancy...P2 is nothing more than a cash grab on the media.

Argue about broadcast quality or "drops in the bucket" all you want...

-The codec is awesome
-The cameras are reasonably priced (the HPX250 is extremely competitively priced for the quality)
-$650 for 64GB (1 hour of record time only) is absolutely, positively, criminal.


There is nothing stopping anyone from buying an HPX250, but just because there is only a $1,000 difference does not mean it's aimed at the same market. The HPX250 is a P2 camera. The market that P2 cameras are aimed for, regardless of the price of the camera, is primarily broadcast. That doesn't mean anyone else can't buy them, but to get get the advantages, Panasonic wants you to invest in P2. There is nothing wrong with that.

I mean, seriously, if you're shooting something that actually needs to be recorded onto a 10bit, 4:2:2, I-frame, 100Mb/s codec, chances are you're going to have the budget for P2. I mean, what advantage does AVC-I really give to an event videographer? Most of the stuff I shoot on the side is almost all AVCHD, and everyone is tickled with it.

Just because the camera is "competitively priced" at $6,500 list and the codec is awesome doesn't mean that the media is required to be cheap. There is nothing criminal about Panasonic saying if you want to use our "competitively priced" camera with awesome codec, you need to buy our media that it's designed for. Sure, Panasonic could theoretically make it work with SDXC cards, but why should they? Somewhere, someplace, someone probably did that research and figured they would make a lot more money overing AVC-I in P2 only, and most of the folks that actually need AVC-I are plenty happy paying the premium for it.

The camera is designed as P2 for folks already invested in the P2 infrastructure. P2 is designed for an entire different market than the event and wedding crowd. The fact the camera is $6,500 doesn't change that.
 
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$650 for 64GB (1 hour of record time only) is absolutely, positively, criminal
Hmm... So presumably, $1200 for one hour of record time should earn BlackMagic the death penalty?
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=796978&Q=&is=REG&A=details

If you wanted to record on a Blackmagic Hyperdeck Shuttle for one hour, you'd need 600GB of storage, and that costs $1200. Surely we should grab pitchforks and flaming torches and burn them to the ground for such a heinous crime, right?

And surely, if that's criminal, what Red does must be absolutely genocidal and you'd have them tried for crimes against humanity, right? Because a RedMag costs $995 for 64GB, and only records 20 minutes of RedCode 42. So if $650 for one hour is a "absolutely, positively criminal", surely $3,000 for one hour is a crime against humanity, right?

While you're prosecuting camera companies for their unconscionable crimes, you might want to go after Arri too. They use SxS cards, and 32GB of SxS delivers only 13 minutes of 4:4:4 footage. So you'd need five 32GB cards to record an hour -- and those cost $969 each, so you're looking at nearly $5,000 for one hour of recording time. Man, Hitler must have been a schoolgirl compared to those demons at Arri, right?

Give us a break. Besides being inflammatory and hyperbolic, it's just wrong to say stuff like this. If you don't like the prices, don't buy it. Simple. They're not forcing you to do anything. They're making a product available for sale. If it works for you, buy it. If it doesn't, don't.
 
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