Panasonic Has Issues

C

Cater2theGame

Member
Man, I've had my HVX200 (not the HVX200A) for a decent amount of time. I just recently got my 64 gb P2 card and now I'm getting into weddings and events. What a lack of event planning Panasonic has put into their technology. You have to spend $5,000 just to even stand a chance in the event videography game.

I mean to make it so difficult to import the footage from a P2 card while still filming is ridiculous. I am half tempted to switch companies when I get some more cash together and go with another brand in general. I really like Panasonic as a whole and the camera is amazing (except the low light shooting on this model), but I feel ripped off now. I wish they would step up and have a recall for HVX200 owners to step up the camera to meet the HVX200A upgrades. I see these expresscard cardbus adaptors and I'm either going to get the Startech or the Addonics version (yes I have a PC) but it's not even a Panasonic product and then I have to get a cheap laptop too.

Anyways, a usb single P2 card reader would be ideal for a REASONABLE price Panasonic. Stupid 5 card readers are $20G's and P2 cards cost enough as is (yes, an exaggeration). Thank god the E-series came out. Panasonic's profit margin has to be ridiculous with all of these products. Barry Green or someone on his level, please make me feel better about this huge investment. It's been fine up until this event filming.

Next purchase is a Steadicam Pilot. I'm hearing that is the ideal stabilization system for the HVX. I want to stick with Panasonic but for the money you can get a Sony or Canon and bring in the same income. Plus it would be nice to get the HPX170 since all of us guinea pigs that pointed out the bad things in the original HVX200 are stuck with our $6,000 investments which helped correct their new cameras to help Panasonic make money, not us. Sorry, just had to vent a little. Just frustrated with this P2 event thing. Back to work!
 
dude. two things:

1. quit whining about prices. panasonic doesn't owe you anything. it costs what it costs. the hvx wasnt targeted at bargain wedding shooters. if that's your gig and your pricing cant justify it. get a different camera. there are a ton of folks out there making a fine living with a P2 workflow. its pricing isnt unreasonable relative to its target market.

i bought an original hvx200. made money with it. bought more P2cards. made more money. then moved on to an hpx170. and at some point, i'll upgrade to something else if need be...
and if what i own doesn't work for a certain situation, i'll rent something that does. and build the cost into my invoice.

i remember the days when a broadcast camera cost $30k or more... i find the current prices vs capabilities QUITE refreshing.

2. panasonic now makes a single slot P2 reader for about $350
http://www.spec-comm.com/store/index.php?l=product_detail&p=3684
 
1. What are your feelings when comparing the Panasonic product line to Sony and Canon?

2. Is the hpx170 that much more amazing than the hvx200?

Thanks for the link on the single card reader.
 
Oh, where shall I start.

Cameras are evolutionary as are most electronics products, and most other things for that matter. Is it viable to upgrade older products to the latest technology, usually not. How many companies offer to upgrade any 6 year old product?

The original HVX200 was never meant to be a wedding cam. It is still a great cam, but it was the first of its kind, and is getting a little long in the tooth. The HVX200a and HPX170 are decent wedding cams with improved light sensitivity. I don't know how long you have had your cam, but a HMC150 would have been, and still is a better choice for weddings. You could have had a new HMC150 and all the memory you need for say $3600.

P2 workflow was not viable for longform work such as weddings until the larger cards happened, in evolution. Yes they are pricey, probably too much so for the casual wedding shootist. But you still have the option to shoot to a Focus Enhancement type device which would solve your memory problem for the same price as a 64gig card. If you knew you were going to do long form work, and would need to dump cards mid event, why didn't you buy smaller cards instead of one big one? Panasonic does make a single card reader with a usb interface.

So to sum this up:
You are expecting Panna to upgrade your older model cam.
You bought the wrong cam to begin with to do weddings.
You bought into the wrong workflow for your budget (P2).
You are unaware that Panna has a single slot P2 reader.
You bought the wrong P2.
You are considering a change to what? Canon or Sony HDV? Oh ya! (Four years ago, this would have been OK)
Or, you could switch to an Sony EX1 and don't forget your gym membership for your forearms. Oh did I mention they are just as expensive or more than what you have, though the IQ would be better.

Did I leave anything out?

There are lots of things to gripe about Pannasonic, but most of your problems are self-inflicted.

Grant
 
Cater2theGame said:
What a lack of event planning Panasonic has put into their technology.
Click to expand...
I don't really understand this statement -- Panasonic didn't have a lack of event planning, they make many products that are suitable for shooting events. P2 was never marketed as an event format. You could swap over to the DV tape or use a DVX100, or get an HMC150, either is more suitable for events than shooting HD on a P2 card. So it's not like they had a lack of planning, it's more like you didn't get the appropriate product for that task. But, with that said, with large enough P2 cards you can pretty much cover anything -- a couple of 64GB cards gives you five continuous hours of 720/24pN footage.

I mean to make it so difficult to import the footage from a P2 card while still filming is ridiculous.
Click to expand...
Again, I don't understand -- are you wanting to offload footage on a card that's currently recording? Or are you trying to offload one card while recording on another? If so, there are products that make it very simple. There's the P2 Store (for working with smaller-than-64gb cards) and there's laptops that you can plug a card in and it'll automatically start the copy process, and there's the HPG20 and the new MSU10 or whatever it's called, which is a direct slot-to-drive copy unit. There are lots of choices.

I wish they would step up and have a recall for HVX200 owners to step up the camera to meet the HVX200A upgrades.
Click to expand...
Okay, while I think I understand what you're saying, that's simply not realistic. I wish Honda would step up and have a recall on my 2007 Element to step it up to the 2011 Element upgrades, but -- that just isn't ever gonna happen.

Anyways, a usb single P2 card reader would be ideal for a REASONABLE price Panasonic.
Click to expand...
AJ-PCD2. $349 MSRP. Available now.

Stupid 5 card readers are $20G's
Click to expand...
You do realize that's off by an order of magnitude; the 5-card reader is $2,000.

Barry Green or someone on his level, please make me feel better about this huge investment. It's been fine up until this event filming.
Click to expand...
Well, see, there's the key point -- "It's been fine up until this event filming" -- because P2 takes some investment to make it appropriate for shooting longform events. Get two 64GB cards and then forget all the hassles -- no need for laptops or slot readers or offloading or any of that.
 
Cater2theGame said:
2. Is the hpx170 that much more amazing than the hvx200?
Click to expand...
Amazing? No, not really; the imagers are slightly upgraded (half stop more sensitive, lower noise). The 170's main benefits are its better ergonomics for handheld use (it's smaller, lighter, and better balanced) and it has a number of new features (like the waveform monitor and HD-SDI output). If someone was buying new, I'd recommend a 170 over a 200 (unless they really, really need a tape drive). But would someone have to sell an HVX and upgrade to an HPX170, expecting a night-and-day difference? I don't think it's necessary. If you've made enough money to pay the HVX off and the upgrade cost of selling the old and buying to the new is reasonable, then sure. But it's not necessary, it's just nice to have the newest. And I do think the 170 is an upgrade, yes. It is better. But it's not like a DVX-to-HVX level of upgrade! It's more of a refinement, not a revolutionary remake.
 
Haha.. alright I think I'm going to cancel my account on this site and never post again. No, I apologize I really don't expect all of that stuff to happen. I just went into a dream world real quick and just put it into words through this posting.

I didn't know about the $350 single P2 card importer. I looked but did not find. I got my camera 3 or 4 years ago and used it in the beginning but never developed my video business into a consistently lucrative enterprise until now. I never planned on getting into the event business, it just kind of fell in my lap.

I think P2 is amazing just more expensive than I would like. I guess everyone would like stuff to be cheaper. I just wanted to start a controversial post so I would get some harsh answers and I got what I wanted to hear. Thank you all for talking the B*TCHASSNESS out of me. I'm going to get this other P2 card, this P2 card reader, and everything else I need to start making some serious videos and be successful.

Another 64gb P2 card, the reader, a steadicam pilot system, a light kit, a green screen, a new PC with cs5, some wireless mics, and I'm going to make you guys proud!

Thank you wgzn, ggrantly, and Mr. Green. Please forgive me for posting before thinking and thank you for your blatant answers that got me ready to go hard this Saturday at my first wedding. Any other things you recommend me purchasing for my gig? I have a sachtler dv6 so my sticks are legit. Thanks again!
 
Well, best of luck with your business! The wedding business is not for everyone but for those who do well at it, you can do very well indeed. If you want to do weddings, you may be well served to check out WEVA and even consider attending the convention. It's big, big business and there's some people out there doing amazing work, and the convention has lots of classes and presentations and stuff. Might be very informative for someone starting in the biz. Just googled it, the convention is next month, so it may even been timely.
 
Well thank you very much Barry, I'll look into that. You are an amazing figure in the realm of video and I feel honored just having you respond to my illegitimate complaints.

So does that mean I shouldn't cancel my account lol?
 
If you can get past the sticker shock and master the workflow, you will really appreciate the Panna cams and P2.

Grant
 
i hope youre kidding about wanting to cancel your presence here. its just that your original comments are some of the most frequent (and misguided) complaints by new users and we all have heard and answered them repeatedly. and we may be quick to jump when they come up. especially when they are voiced aggressively...

i dont think we answered your firestore question. yes its cheaper than its size in P2 cards. but it has some of its own issues:

1. some people have had issues with them failing. i.e. its a hard drive and sometimes hard drives to lose data. i however, have owned two of them and never had a problem. so every person has their own experience ; )

2. the firewire cable that connects the cam to the device can be a liability. in tight or hectic conditions, there is a very realistic chance it could become unplugged.

if you only occasionally shoot weddings (or other long form work) i would just rent a firestore - or a pair of 64gig cards as needed and roll the rental price into my invoice.
 
im sorry, it was another thread where somebody asked about the firestore... oh well. i'll leave it in here as well. as it might be an option for you...
 
hey everyone, new to the boards, new to filmmaking, new to the hvx200. i'm just about done paying this thing off, and i'm loving this camera, though I keep reading on these boards "get the 200a" and well, I pulled the trigger too fast and got just the plain old hvx200 (it says hvx200p under the eyepiece). but you know, i'm gonna do my best with it. I was getting down on myself earlier about it, but I'm always going to want the latest and greatest and frankly I can't afford it.

i moved from photography to video and i'm seriously missing my depth of field. would you guys recommend me using a 35mm adapter, or selling the hvx200 (can you even sell them?) and going with something with more dof?
 
here is the long and short of the videocam/dof discussion

using a 35mm adapter on a video camera is fine - great even in some situations. but the camera itself isnt great at low light and slapping an adapter and lens on the front loses you another stop or two of light. and you introduce two points of failure. adapter to camera and lens to adapter.

the only other budget answer is use a video enabled DSLR. and that comes with its own challenges - jello-vision, pro-level audio, workflow headaches...

if you really NEED true DOF control in your video work. it can be had. but there are choices to make...
 
Get the new Sony video cam with interchangeable lenses. They have a Sony section here on this board, no need to not come back, someone always has something useful to say, times have changed.
 
Get the new Sony video cam with interchangeable lenses
Click to expand...
i dont think the interchangeable lenses in that case are going to result in the same DOF control that an adapter or DSLR would...
 
I shoot weddings with the HVX200, and I use 16GB cards, 64G too big IMO. You can hot swap cards and download on the fly, and record as much even time as you need. Two 16GB cards will get you 84 minutes at 72024pn, plenty for most wedding ceremonies.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top