HVX200A Playback
 

Forgive me for asking this newbie question: What is a good consumer camcorder I can buy to use as playback deck for my HVX200A? Most of the Panasonic camcorders record to SD cards now. Since I shoot weddings mostly, P2 cards are way too expensive. Your advice is greatly appreciated.

If you are shooting on tape then you are shooting DV not HD so you should be able to use a variety of camcorders although I recommend staying in the Panasonic family if it is a camcorder. Not sure why but the camcorders don't always playback other manufacturers DV correctly. Of course you could just use the HVX-200A if you don't have another option.

I used my Canon XL2 to playback Sony's consumer grade DV cameras without any problem. I also used my Sony professional tape deck (DSR-25) to playback DV tapes taken on Canon XL1, Canon XL2 and Panny's HVX202 (PAL version of HVX200) - all without any problems. Why not take your DV tapes (recorded on HVX200A) to a store, and try it out on a consumer grade videocam of your fancy and see if it plays back normally. Of course, the best bet will be a Panny's own consumer grade DV cam.

Question for original poster - why you buy a HVX200A if your aim was just to use the tape recorder? Even if it were weddings, I still shoot in HD - and then downgrade to SD during post - the colours are a lot better quality. AND if you use a 64GB P2 card, at DVCPRO HD (720p), you can easily cover the entire wedding without changing tapes, and consume less battery power as well. The E-P2 cards are much cheaper than previous A series P2 cards.

Ting Sern,
A deck is a good recommendation if Jason has the money but somehow I doubt he wants to go for that much money. The reason I told him to stick with Panasonic for DV is I have found incompatibility between Canon and Panasonic DV camcorders while Sony decks were able to play both. My DVX-100a could not play back DV tapes made by my Canon XLH1 in DV and vice versa. Mostly audio issues. My DSR-45 could play them both. The newer Sony HDV decks can playback most tapes no matter the format but the earlier ones didn't playback Canon 24F 30F style tapes.
Of course a 64gigE card would cost more than some small DV camcorders but would be a relatively easy transfer shooting in either HD or SD (at DV quality about 4 hours of Recording)

E-P2 Card
 

Thanks for the advice. It looks like Panasonic has figured out a way to squeeze more out of its customers. Now all I have to do is to find a good online store for P2 cards.

Since you already have a HVX200, you might as well explore the possibility of P2 cards. Assuming you have a compatible Video Editor that can understand P2 MXF format, you find that once you use P2 cards, you save a vast amount of time doing post - using tapes, you still have to acquire that tape into your computer. If you have 5 hours of tapes, you have to spend 5 hours doing the acquisition. With P2 cards, you can forget about that nonsense. It can easily pay you back in terms of time saved in 3 months (like in my case).