Regarding HVX200 purchase..
 

Hello, I am looking into purchasing an Panasonic HVX200. I am wondering if the higher capacity p2 cards (8, 16, 32 gig) are compatible with the HVX200 models currently available? I am not sure if 32 gig cards are even out yet. However, I heard talk on a DVXuser forum that the higher capacity cards may only be compatible with a newer released HVX model? Please bare with me as I am relatively new to HD, as well as the p2 concept. However, I am looking at just the HVX200 unit itself and one or two p2 cards to get started. I will most likely be purchasing through B&H. I want to get the largest capacity p2 cards available. Any help, info, and/or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time!

-Corey

Corey, 8GB cards are certainly compatible with the HVX200 because I use them every day. There may be a firmware update to use the 16GB with the HVX- you should confirm this with Panasonic- but aside from that, all the higher capacity cards in the future should be compatible with the HVX.

Our HVX200 was purchased in March 06.

We applied the latest firmware update to the cam and it sees, formats, and records to a 16 GB p2 card without issue.

No 32Gb cards are out yet.

Today
 

Hi:

If you purchase a new HVX-200 today, and it's not old stock, it will work right out of the box with the new 16GB cards.

16GB are just becoming available, we just took delivery of fifteen of them.

8GB cards are hard to find right now, although Abel found me three last month.

Panasonic has said 32GB cards in December of this year, which realistically means you and I will be able to actually buy one in about March of 2008. With P2 product, always add 2-3 months to whenever Panasonic says it will be avaiilable.

Best,

Dan

I appreciate your prompt attention/helpful replies. Just wondering as well.. roughly how many minutes of full HD (uncompressed) footage a 8 and 16 gig p2 card can hold? Does this vary between different frame rates as well? Thank you for your time.

-Corey

P2 Cards and DVX200 cameras don't store uncompressed HD video. They are compressed using Panasonic's DVCPRO HD compression algorithm - with about 100 Mbits/sec bitrate. At a typical 720p at "native" 25 frames/sec, 16GB will keep about 32 minutes of video + audio (PAL). At 1080i, the capacity will decrease by about half. On the other hand, filming in SD at the lowest bitrate could easily get you double the time (of about 64 minutes) at DV (digital video) quality.

Thanks for thinking of us. 16 GB seems to be the largest size our sales database shows.

Corey - I shoot almost everything in 720 60P (mostly sports, scenics, etc). At that frame rate, or at 1080 60i, the HVX-200 records about 1 GB per minute of video. Thus, an 8 GB P2 card is good for eight minutes of shooting. If you go to lower frame rates in native mode, say 720 30PN, you would get twice as much recording time on a given P2 card.