HARD DRIVE Support: This is huge
 

It seems this camera will record to ANY firewire or USB2.0 drive that will support the datarate.

That means, no need for an expensive 3rd party solution.

Apparently the Panasonic engineers had it working with an Ipod.
:)

Pretty cool.

Wow. is this true? If this were true, it COULD mean there'd be no use for the P2 cards... I mean, why would I spend $1700 on a P2 card if I could spend $300 on an exernal HD that holds much more? Can anyone point out what it is that I'm missing?

Daniel, physical size is one thing. The p2 cards will be a lot smaller, and lighter than a hard drive. They slot into the camera, where you'd have to attach an HD.

Robustness is another. The P2 cards are way more robust and hardy. Good against bangs, drops, extreme temperatures etc.

For long form though. If you're filming an event, or wedding, you will obviously go HD until the size of the cards increase and you can store enough on them.

Aaron

Thanks Aaron.

I'm still a bit confused, though. It just doesn't make economical sense to me. This cam still can use standard MiniDV tapes? (Of course, you only get 8 minutes on a tape or something in 1080p.) But still...

I can totally see the convenience in P2, but it still seems like you're paying much more than top dollar for a bit of added convenience. P2 is cool against dropping and such, but since you'd probably be offloading them almost instantly, it doesn't even seem like you'd be running risk of that anyway (unless you dropped it on the 5 foot journey to your laptop.)

So... yeah, if you or anyone could clarify... I know the stats are all over the forum, but they aren't in one spot, and I'm not sure what was just speculation. This cam can record onto P2, MiniDV and DVCPro tapes, as well as any FireWire drive?

Sounds like one hell of a bargain to me.

Daniel,

The camera will only record DV to tape.

Any by the way, I put together a quick site to try to have all the info in one place. I'm just posting as I get it, but at least it's all on one page:

www.videoindie.com

Hope that helps

Wow, that's really awesome. Can't be good for Firestore though....

when you say that you can only record DV to tape, I know that means that you can't record hi def to tape, but does that mean that you also CAN NOT record DV to p2/harddrive but instead only to tape?

You can record EVERYTHING the camera can do to P2 or Harddrives (including DV).

The tape will only record DV.

:)
Sorry for the confusion

Thanks for clearing that up :) It's late and my reading comprehension is at its absolute nadir.

Excited, but confused how you would use an external hard drive with this. Do you mean all you'd need for say HD field use is a portable hard drive that can keep up with the datarate? If so, I wonder how the media is managed in this way. Then again, the camera must have something if it is accustomed to doing this kind of thing with p2 cards.
If this is true, how cool would it be to have a self powered hard drive and a few camera batteries?

I think we need to wait for confirmation. It *seems* that it will just take a hard drive, but I haven't seen proof yet. Anyone have any?

Aaron

OH

MY

GOODNESS!

If what you say turns out to be true....and I can simply get a teeny weeny 2.5" laptop 80gig hard drive in a slim FW/USB2.0 combo case and go from there.....

All Problems SOLVED!!

If it will bus power the drive, that's even better!! If not, it only requires 5 funky volts, I can strap the Camera Operator up to one of those! ANY modern day hard-drive will support 100MegaBITS per second, that ain't nuthin! and firewire is 4x's that speed and USB2.0 is almost 5x's that speed, so that's PERFECTO!!!

I guess we find out tomorrow morning.

- Shannon W. Rawls

I think so Shannon, it will be a bloody good solution and alternative to the P2 for those who can't afford it or have other more longer form requirements.

Aaron

Does anyone have actual official confirmation in the form of a press release or page on Panasonic's site to attest to the HDD recording?

Well... anyone know of any large capacity hard drives that are bus/battery powered? All the ones I've seen require AC adapters >.< .

Yes, such harddisks exists:

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10560