should I stock up on these?

S

stabwound

Well-known member
Alright, I've been looking at laptops for downloading from p2 cards, using the cardbus slot.

Incredibly, only about one in 10 laptops at the local store feature the slot nowadays. Someone pointed out that laptops have WiFi lan, firewire etc being built in, there is no need for the slot, and soon nobody will build them.

I'm thinking of picking up three of the cardbus slots (for use on the pc) at 29 bucks Canadian:

http://www.anitec.ca/?mode=product_detail&pid=2821&mcid=10

Do you think it's a good idea or am I panicking over nothing.
 
I don't think there is too much to worry about. On one hand, yea, it seems like PCMCIA is fading out a bit rapidly, but also remember that Panasonic has worked on this camera for quite some time now, so I don't think (well...I'd hope not) they were completely in the dark with this, and there is likely some plan in mind for keeping P2 alive and making it as useful to consumers as possible.

As for the cardbuses, if you want to try one, go for it. But 3 might be overkill.

Also, can't you set the HVX to a sort of "P2 Reader" mode, and transfer over Firewire 400 at full speeds? And if that's the case, it can't be too much slower than a dedicated PCMCIA slot would be at transferring, right? I'm not positive on this, but if it's true, then getting any cardbus for the desktop might be pointless.
 
I got a widescreen laptop from Comp USA a few months back and it had the slot and wi-fi. I didn't expect to use the P2 but it saved my bacon on our shoot last week since the demo unit only had one 4gig card.

I just went back to Comp USA yesterday and the couple Dual laptops, (not many of those) both had the slot. I didn't count, but I didn't think the slot was that scarce on units I looked at. It'll make some good homework and research.

I'm hoping, (although haven't done enough homework to predict), that with solid state slowly merging into Hard Drive storage, it might make sense for computer makers to keep this slot alive. I'm sure other storage uses will be utilized.
 
the PC cardslot should be around for quite a while.... It's an expansion port and a lot of companies offer DVD burners and wifi cards and such. I think the only laptops that don't have them are the 12" powerbooks and other small PC laptops... Seems like the majority have them... or something comperable.
 
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