transition to p2 workflow

Finnegan

Finnegan

Well-known member
I'm currently shooting on a canon xh-a1 which is a very different workflow from the hpx170, since it uses minidv tapes. however, I'm looking to upgrade in the next year or so to a solid state or p2 cam but I'm a little worried that it'll be difficult to get used to. I tend to shoot a lot, and go through tape pretty quickly on my xh-a1 and I'm not sure how I'd adapt to having to dump footage to a laptop on set.

can anyone give me a run down of their experiences about transitioning from tape workflow to solid state or p2 workflows? was it easy? did it take some time to get used to? if you had to choose now, which type of workflow do you prefer?
 
Im basically right in the middle of the swap from HDV to P2.

Its alot of money but I think the return and the ease of the workflow once perfected is quite easy. I always hated tapes. I hated buying 60 new tapes every 2 months. And I hate having piles of them all over my desk.

Theres a ton of good info on here. If you thinking a year or more before u transfer. Thats alot of research time. I basically bought the camera and then started researching lol.

But im getting there. As soon as the new E-series P2 cards actually go on sale I think Ill be complete.

Just bought a old powerbook g4 for 300 bucks for offloading in field. Bought a external rugged harddrive. Ive read all the tips on the workflow.

This forum has helped a bunch. Everyone is very helpful. Alot of the guys here have been shooting with the hvx since the release in 05.

If I could choose Tape or P2..... P2 anyday. Tape is going to be dead quite soon. Couple more years and mini dv Tape will end up being like VHS. Solid state is the answer.
 
I used to be iffy about going tapeless, but it's pretty incredible when the situation allows for it. The issue is when you have to do events; P2 cards especially make this extremely difficult unless you have a dedicated loader and two cards. Firestores aren't very practical to carry around. But, as I said when it does work it's an incredible improvement. I don't miss capturing tapes in the least.
 
Yeah one of the benefits to buying the HVX200 over the HPX170 is that you would still have a tape drive in case you are doing events and you need to shoot hours and hours without any time to offload a P2 card.

And yes the transition to tapeless takes a little while to get used to. Especially the metadata and scene file capabilities of these Panasonic cameras. Crazy amazing stuff.
 
as long as you have 2 cards and an assistant in the field to do the transferring, its not really any different than shooting with tape...

you shoot to one card. fill it up then have your assistant transfer it to your laptop/hard drive. by the time youve filled the second card, the first one is transferred and ready to be re used.

and like others have said. once you get you head around the p2 workflow you wont miss tape in the LEAST! the only new thing is now you have to buy hard drives (or a tape drive, but thats another conversation) to store all the source footage. but drives are CHEAP
 
Just bought a old powerbook g4 for 300 bucks for offloading in field. Bought a external rugged harddrive.
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ive been using this method for 3 years now and its never let me down. add to that, as long as youre using FCP and the powerbook is at least 1.5ghz (1.0ghz if youre on a 5x version of FCP) you can edit in the field as well
 
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wgzn said:
ive been using this method for 3 years now and its never let me down. add to that, as long as youre using FCP and the powerbook is at least 1.5ghz (1.0ghz if youre on a 5x version of FCP) you can edit in the field as well
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ok, that was one of my big concerns - having to buy another laptop that was powerful and therefore expensive for offloading footage on location. I bought a macbook for writing/school purposes on black friday of last year....it's a 2.0ghz and 2gb ram 160gb hdd machine, will that cut it as far as an offload machine? my main concern is the hdd being too small. I could probably get an upgrade to a 320gb, or whatever the maximum is for macbooks.

why are externals popular with this work flow? do you offload source footage to the laptop, then again to the external hdd to save space?
 
Finnegan said:
why are externals popular with this work flow? do you offload source footage to the laptop, then again to the external hdd to save space?
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For us and many others the reason we use externals is so we have a backup. We often transfer to the laptop in the field and then the external while we are shooting. But sometimes just bring the footage home on the cards now that we have more.

FWIW, I was a 30 year tape based veteran. While I never resisted change, I was concerned about the workflow.
After a few shoots of over protecting multiple backups and constant playback verification in the field, I learned to love the workflow and benefits.

It rates up there with transitioning from tape based editing to non-linear. I'd hate to go back!
Best of luck.
 
wgzn said:
as long as you have 2 cards and an assistant in the field to do the transferring, its not really any different than shooting with tape...

you shoot to one card. fill it up then have your assistant transfer it to your laptop/hard drive. by the time youve filled the second card, the first one is transferred and ready to be re used.

and like others have said. once you get you head around the p2 workflow you wont miss tape in the LEAST! the only new thing is now you have to buy hard drives (or a tape drive, but thats another conversation) to store all the source footage. but drives are CHEAP
Click to expand...

3 cards are better than 2...
 
I'm already cringing at the idea of spending $800 for a 16gb card.
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$800??!??! pshhht!
whatever man, if you cant roll $800 into a the budget of a couple or three days shooting, as ive said SO many times before - you dont NEED to be shooting HD in the first place...
 
Besides, wth the advent of the E series, 16GB cards are now half of that price. But I do agree with WGZN, if a few hundred dollars is too much, you should be shooting HDV or something.

Dan
 
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