Some Pix from Apple Event

Forget Firestore. You don't need it. You just need about any Firewire drive. When it records to P2, it just stores folders. It'll do the same on your firewire drive. You can do 160 GB for a couple hundred bucks. And to do it for $6k? That rocks. I was predicting 7, so I'm happy. The only thing I was really hoping for was direct to HD through Firewire and they came through. Cheers!!

Onto the lens, it looks to me like manual focus, and zoom, and then is that an iris/shutter wheel on the bottom by the lens? I hope so.
 
Philipp said:
Oh, and (don't take my sarkasm too serious): Does limitations mean: One Concert half a TB? Cool! Where do I get one of these hardcore-shake-me-as-much-as-you-want-drives?
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Hey, nobody said real HD didn't take up a lot of space. And you can get a half-terabyte drive for around $450 nowadays. I wouldn't recommend running with it attached to your belt, but if you're shooting a concert, I don't think you'll have to go anywhere. One tripod, a camera connected via FW to a LaCie Big Disk 500GB drive sitting next to you. That's $6000 + $500 + $500 = $7000 for a full 1080p concert that can last up to 8 hours. 16 hours if it's at a "measly" 720p.

This camera is about options. Record DV to cheap-ass tape. Record DVCPro50 or HD to P2 or HDD. It's your call.

Of course, you can always get the HD100, and be forced to do half-baked HDV 720p on tape only.
 
Phooey said:
Forget Firestore. You don't need it. You just need about any Firewire drive. When it records to P2, it just stores folders. It'll do the same on your firewire drive. You can do 160 GB for a couple hundred bucks. And to do it for $6k? That rocks. I was predicting 7, so I'm happy. The only thing I was really hoping for was direct to HD through Firewire and they came through. Cheers!!

Onto the lens, it looks to me like manual focus, and zoom, and then is that an iris/shutter wheel on the bottom by the lens? I hope so.
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If this is true....that you could you use *ANY* firewire Hard Drive....that would be the saving grace of this cam. I'll start doing backflips when I can get some confirmation on this. The reason being.....that proprietary HD systems like Firestore cost an ARM and a LEG. 1k for 60-80GB....give me F'in break!! you can get a 500GB firewire drive for that kind of money!!

I really hope you can use any "off the shelf" firewire HD. That would do it for me right there.

Now we just need some field monitoring software (DV RACK HD) and we'd have everything we need. Well, except for a badass computer with a NLE!!

~reservoir~
 
reservoir said:
If this is true....that you could you use *ANY* firewire Hard Drive....that would be the saving grace of this cam. I'll start doing backflips when I can get some confirmation on this. The reason being.....that proprietary HD systems like Firestore cost an ARM and a LEG. 1k for 60-80GB....give me F'in break!! you can get a 500GB firewire drive for that kind of money!!

I really hope you can use any "off the shelf" firewire HD. That would do it for me right there.
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This is what I'm hoping for. Screw tape and pay $1000 for a 1TB LaCie drive. If they limit the firewire out to something like a Firestore, then it gets expensive again. I'm really hoping you can use any external drive the same as you would a P2 card.
 
The plus of firestore is that it's battery powered and fits on the back of the camera, making it a portable system again. A normal lacie would be just like having a laptop after you. Also, most firewire HDDs don't run on batteries. Not a field set up.
 
jrv3034 said:
Screw tape and pay $1000 for a 1TB LaCie drive.
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BOOM-Shaka-LAKA!! That's what I'm talking about. Except I'd phrase it like this:

"Screw Tape and *P2* and pay 1k for a 1TeraByte LaCie Drive."

No offense to P2...it's great technology, but the price just isn't right yet. When a 4 or 8GB P2 cost just a few hundred bux....then were talking. But until then.....it's HD all the way for me!! Well..that is...*IF* we can use our precious "off the shelf" Firewire Drives!!

~reservoir~
 
If you want to look cool--buy some shades and a broken Arri. If you want to film your niece's first steps in HD, get a low-end HDV cam. For those of us that have been around for a while--this is a revolutionary camera. Yes, it is a more expensive solution than a low end HDV camera, but it's a whole step up in format. The HDV standard was backed out of the 25 Mbs tape capture specification. You're capped out at 25 Mbs. I still think HDV is amazing--they crammed a lot into that data stream. But it's not going to be comparable to the quality you can get out of a 100 Mbs data stream. So yes, you're paying a premium, but that's for a (much) fatter data stream and solid state capture. And it's not all that much of a premium either--if you have clients or a little financing. You can always buy a HDD solution or rent P2 cards. Isn't it good to have choices? I'm glad Panasonic didn't come out with an HDV cam--but there are other choices if HDV suits your needs.
 
When we first talked about this Cam everybody was "Uuuuh, no mechanism, no tape, finally a solid state Card based system. Now everybody is out there buying HDs. Wow! Things change. Compared to tape, a hard drive is loud, energy absorbing, not easy to handle, well what do I tell you. You all do Backups of your harddrives. Do you do them from your tapes?
 
I couldn't agree more Barry. I do pick on the HVX for not having some features I would like it to have, even if it meant it would cost more. But it's a GREAT deal for 5,995 as it is.
People are expecting Panasonic will give away varicams for 6K. Just not gonna happen. As said many times here, if you can't afford it, stop winning and buy a DVX100a. The price is right.
 
Philipp said:
When we first talked about this Cam everybody was "Uuuuh, no mechanism, no tape, finally a solid state Card based system. Now everybody is out there buying HDs. Wow! Things change. Compared to tape, a hard drive is loud, energy absorbing, not easy to handle, well what do I tell you. You all do Backups of your harddrives. Do you do them from your tapes?
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Hey, I'm not going to do the Hard Disk thing, because I'm into Narrative Filmmaking. That just seems to be the way to record long-form events, like a rock concert or a wedding.

For filmmaking, it's P2 all the way. Zero dropouts. Instant review of footage. Instant editing off an on-set laptop. No moving part or noise. Rock-solid rugged capture system. Delete bad takes on the spot. Most takes are 30-60 seconds long, so 8 minute recoring limits are absolutely no problem.

When I do my next feature film, it will definitely be recorded on P2 cards. It's "no questions asked" filmmaking.
 
There are battery powered Firewire hard-drive enclosures. We DO need to get confirmation of the the Firewire out thing, but the press conference slideshow said, Firewire AVC and SBP2. I'm hoping that means Firewire out that will send info like it does to the P2 card. If not, I'd bet money that someone comes up with a P2 to Firewire card by the time the camera comes out. Juan?

P2 will rock in 2-3 years.

I'm with you Barry, thank God, Panasonic skipped over the HDV thing.
 
You can bet that by the time *6 months* rolls around and the cam is getting ready to be released....there WILL be some sort of bundles to choose from that include P2 cards. It'd be dumb not to have them.

Personally, for film work....I'd like to get a 4GB P2 for around 500 dollars and use that as my MAIN capture device. Just delete bad takes and dump to a Hard Drive / Laptop as I go.

~reservoir~
 
John_Hudson said:
Yes Media; I was just curious of what's missing for you?
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So far, accounting for what we already know:

Real lens, or at least real iris.

But I also hope the DSP is better than the DVX and that the low light performance is better than Z1 and hopefully, better than PD150 too.

The rest we need to wait till tomorrow to know.
 
jrv3034 said:
Hey, I'm not going to do the Hard Disk thing, because I'm into Narrative Filmmaking. That just seems to be the way to record long-form events, like a rock concert or a wedding.

For filmmaking, it's P2 all the way. Zero dropouts. Instant review of footage. Instant editing off an on-set laptop. No moving part or noise. Rock-solid rugged capture system. Delete bad takes on the spot. Most takes are 30-60 seconds long, so 8 minute recoring limits are absolutely no problem.

When I do my next feature film, it will definitely be recorded on P2 cards. It's "no questions asked" filmmaking.
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P2 on location will suck. Unless you have a load of them.

Firestore will be better for location work and have the same advantages of P2.
 
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