How long til 16gb cards and beyond?

[Betsy Moore]

How Long, O Lord, how long til there are P2 cards of a non-maddening length? Seriously, when do ya'll think Panny (or someone else) is going to come out with bigger cards?

[Ash Greyson]

In all honesty, the net result doesnt gain you much, the bigger cards will take longer to back-up and transfer. It will let you shoot longer without a P2 store or laptop but even with two 16GB P2 cards, that is only 32 minutes of full rez HD...



ash =o)

[Chris Hurd]

Only 32 minutes of "full rez HD" is all you'd get from a tape-based DVCPRO HD camcorder anyway, such as the VariCam. Panasonic AJ-HP64EL cassettes yield 32 minutes of DVCPRO HD video at an 18 micron pitch. So it's not as if you could gain anything if the HVX recorded HD to tape instead of P2. This fact is too often conveniently left out of these sorts of discussions.

If you refer to my P2 Recording Capacities chart located at http://www.p2info.net/articles/misc/p2cardcaps.php, you'll see that a pair of 16GB P2 cards will give you an hour and twenty minutes of 720p24 DVCPRO HD. If you're willing to shoot at 24fps, you're getting more than double the recording capacity than you'd have at 1080i60.

[Mark Ross]

Well, then, back to the speculation on the pricing and release date of those 16gb cards... :)

My wild stab: $2499/Q3 2006

[Kevin Shaw]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

Only 32 minutes of "full rez HD" is all you'd get from a tape-based DVCPRO HD camcorder anyway, such as the VariCam...So it's not as if you could gain anything if the HVX recorded HD to tape instead of P2.

An interesting point as far as P2 versus tape is concerned. But now if you need longer continuous recording times you can use an external hard drive recorder; it's too bad there isn't a version of the HVX200 which is designed from the ground up to work with hard drive recording.

[Barry Green]

Originally Posted by Betsy Moore

How Long, O Lord, how long til there are P2 cards of a non-maddening length? Seriously, when do ya'll think Panny (or someone else) is going to come out with bigger cards?

At NAB they mentioned that it should be towards the end of this year. I'm guessing November/December, and probably around the $2000 price point. I'm guessing 4GB's will be down around $350 by then, and 8GB's down around $800.

As for bigger ones, those may show up a lot sooner than once thought. The ultimate size of the cards is dictated by the underlying SD card size, and the initial roadmap called for 128gb cards by sometime around 2010. 128gb cards are dependent upon there being a 32gb SD card, of course. Samsung has announced that they've made a breakthrough in NAND technology that could see a 32gb SD card on the market as early as the end of this year. I'm sure it would be exorbitantly expensive at first, but we could potentially be seeing 128gb cards as soon as a year from now, which would give you two cards' capability of 10 hours of 720/24pN footage in the camera in one continuous load.

[Zack Birlew]

Sheesh, 128gb P2 cards? That's a whole lot-o'-footage, 24pN or otherwise! =)

Well, when Panasonic does go about making bigger cards, I hope they don't get rid of the smaller capacities. I personally would like to work with the 4 or 8gb P2 card workflow. It just seems like more gets done faster to me.

[Robert Lane]

Betsy,

One word: "Cineporter".

Once it's out and tested stable/reliable that would be the way to go vs. more P2 cards. Heck, for the price point if it had been available (and tested) I'd certainly have purchased that rather than the 2 8GB P2 cards.

No doubt, the 'Porter is bulky, adds wieght and makes any handheld shoots more of a challenge, but if there's one thing I've learned about being an indie producer, it's learning how to transform the equipment I can afford into the perfect production device. Heck, I think it's that exact kind of thinking that spawned the 'Porter's existence to begin with!

[Ash Greyson]

Sorry Chris but you really missed my point. When a tape is full, you pop in another tape. When your P2 cards are full... then what? You are looking at a good hour to transfer and verify twp 16GB P2 cards. If you can shoot out your day on two 16GB P2 cards, then great. If not, then...like I said, you have not gained a lot. The P2 workflow is really meant for people who dont shoot more than an hour or two per day anyway. I generally shoot more than that and I am looking forward to a solution that will avoid the lengthy transfer/verify process of P2. Firestore is still too buggy.

What becomes of the P2 store when there are bigger cards? It doesnt make a lot of sense to have a device that will only back up 3 cards. AFAIK, the issue is with Fat32 and the partition limit correct? There cant be more than 15 partitions of 4GB right? Or does that just pertain to firewire offloading?


ash =o)

[Robert Lane]

Originally Posted by Ash Greyson

...When your P2 cards are full... then what? You are looking at a good hour to transfer and verify twp 16GB P2 cards...The P2 workflow is really meant for people who dont shoot more than an hour or two per day anyway.

I'm curious, what method are you currently using to transfer your P2 footage now? I've had many days of day-long shoots and it takes no more than 5 minutes to offload 2 - 8GB cards, so why would it take an hour for 16GB cards? In fact, during a typical work-day of being on set for 8 hours I can shoot about 5 hours of footage. That's taking in to account multiple takes on scenes, "creative breaks" for myself and talent and of course 2 food breaks. And, plenty of time for P2 xfr.

Is the P2 transfer process longer than inserting a new tape? No doubt, but we're talking about literally a few minutes, not hours.

To say the P2 system was only designed for a one-hour-a-day shoot is, well...inaccurate at best. If that had been the case no P2-based camera, either the HVX nor it's ENG cousins would ever have made it off the retailers shelves.

By my account 80% of the people who bought an HVX complained about short record times and the added steps in transferring clips. There is more than one way to xfr P2 clips; if your method is costing you more time than you're comfortable with then maybe it's time to rethink your workflow.

[Jason Boyce]

I have only one 4 gig P2 card, but I shot 40 minutes of footage last night. I was just filming the Golden Gate Bridge between HD and SD, and the process was pretty simple and straight ahead.

Film on the P2 until it's full, then pull out the card, toss it in my Powerbook and start downloading the footage. While the footage is downloading, I shoot in SD, adjust camera angles, level of zoom, camera settings for nightfall, etc.

Then when the P2 card is ready, the camera is set up. Throw the card in the camera, back to filming. Fill up the card, back in the laptop. Then back to SD, film to tape while the card is offloading.

Rinse, repeat for 2 hours. Lots and lots of footage, and I didn't miss anything. It generally took me about 4-8 minutes to offload a 4 gig P2 card. It's pretty similar to capturing in real-time at my settings, but the re-use and no deck being needed are excellent bonuses.

[Ash Greyson]

Originally Posted by Robert Lane

I'm curious, what method are you currently using to transfer your P2 footage now? I've had many days of day-long shoots and it takes no more than 5 minutes to offload 2 - 8GB cards, so why would it take an hour for 16GB cards? In fact, during a typical work-day of being on set for 8 hours I can shoot about 5 hours of footage. That's taking in to account multiple takes on scenes, "creative breaks" for myself and talent and of course 2 food breaks. And, plenty of time for P2 xfr.

Is the P2 transfer process longer than inserting a new tape? No doubt, but we're talking about literally a few minutes, not hours.

To say the P2 system was only designed for a one-hour-a-day shoot is, well...inaccurate at best. If that had been the case no P2-based camera, either the HVX nor it's ENG cousins would ever have made it off the retailers shelves.

By my account 80% of the people who bought an HVX complained about short record times and the added steps in transferring clips. There is more than one way to xfr P2 clips; if your method is costing you more time than you're comfortable with then maybe it's time to rethink your workflow.

Uhh... how are you transferring 16GBs in 5 minutes? I have not used P2 very much because I am just not confident. I have used 4GB cards and a rented P2 store or even shot straight to a 1200HD deck. I have also tried dumping from the camera to an OTG drive but that is BRUTALLY slow...


ash =o)

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Originally Posted by Ash Greyson

Uhh... how are you transferring 16GBs in 5 minutes? I have not used P2 very much because I am just not confident. I have used 4GB cards and a rented P2 store or even shot straight to a 1200HD deck. I have also tried dumping from the camera to an OTG drive but that is BRUTALLY slow...


ash =o)

This topic came up in the flash drive topic in the industry news area and was addressed there, but here we go...

First of all, the P2 Store is dreadfully slow - by design. That's all there is to it. Don't even think about using the P2 store unless you absolutely have to... It sucks and at only 60GB (53GB real world capacity) it's not all that great.

Current P2 cards have transfer capabilities of about 400Mbps for the 4GB cards and a bit over 500Mmps for the 8GB cards. Assuming you don't have problems with your system and everything is functioning as it should be, then downloading a couple 8GB cards in about 5 minutes sounds about right. Works here for me just fine... I didn't mention it in that other thread when talking about which system I use, but I can also pull the cards in about that fast on my HP ZD7000 notebook too... Or at least as fast as the 100GB 7200rpm HDD or external HDDs will allow.

[John Jencks]

Originally Posted by Jeff Kilgroe

First of all, the P2 Store is dreadfully slow - by design. That's all there is to it. Don't even think about using the P2 store unless you absolutely have to... It sucks and at only 60GB (53GB real world capacity) it's not all that great.

Dreadfully slow, by design? Why would anyone design something to be dreadfully slow?

[Betsy Moore]

Originally Posted by John Jencks

Dreadfully slow, by design? Why would anyone design something to be dreadfully slow?

For that you'll have to ask Terence Mallick.