<<<-- Originally posted by Ignacio Rodriguez : Yes. This same kind of conversation is going on about the new Panasonic prosumer HD camera that records onto solid state media. Everybody says solid state is going to be inexpensive someday but right now it is still pretty steep. The great thing about the Marantz is that you might be able to pop hard disks into the slot, and that is probably far less expensive --if somewhat more delicate-- than solid state cards. I think you can buy 5 GB microdrives for around US$200. -->>>

Got curious and checked pricing on the B&H web site. Putting together professional kits with enough memory or media to allow approximately 10 hours recording time as uncompressed PCM wave format before haveing to move the files to CD or hard drive. Pro level recorders accepting balanced mikes with decent monitoring and metering, defeatable SCMS. Thinking 10 hours recording time as a nice safe number for an all-day event with some contingency reserve or for a documentary in the field rafting the Grand Canyon for several days, that sort of thing.

Rough prices ...
HHB MDP550 minidisk recorder + pack of 10 discs ~ $1520
Marantz PMD660 CF recorder + 7 1 gig cards ~ $1300
Marantz PMD670 CF recorder + 7 1 gig cards ~ $1575

So close as to be essentially the same cost.

Steve

NH800 Minidisc recorder + Mixpad 4 + 10 1 gig discs = $350

:)

Arne

<<<-- Originally posted by Steve House : But the cost of CF cards could be considerable. If you're going on the road for several weeks and need to record several hours of audio a day at highest quality, unless you take your laptop with you to burn your CDs every night you're going to have to carry along several kilobucks worth of CF cards. -->>>

If I'm going away for such a period then I'll certainly take a laptop and maybe an external hard drive along. Sure you could take a pocket full of CF cards but why would you? Let's not create a problem where there is none.

"I think cf cards are the perfect media. I think you can download a cf card like 50-100 thousand times. You sure can't do that to tape or minidisc."

Actually, a minidisc can in theory be rewritten a million times. Don't know how realistic that is, but I've never had one fail.

http://www.minidisc.org/faq_sec_3.html#_q10

The camera...
 

Here is some info about the camera:

http://www.whatsnewatnab.com/search/code.php?code=031

well Ignacio , I've been avoiding the p2 camera threads because there was so much speculation and little real info and now this is the first pic I've seen and I now know why they haven't put out a photo like with jvc- It's bein feo ! - looks like a cross between a gl2 and dvx , with the gl2 winning!
well... thanks anyway amigo- Kurth