Like a rain of heavenly P2 goodness, Panasonic graces us with a brand new $350.00 dual USB P2 slot reader. Bus powered! Cheap! Small! Light! I am running around the office, waving my hands in the air like I just don't care!

http://www.dvinfo.net/article/acquisition/panasonicp2hd/panasonic-announces-aj-pcd2-single-slot-p2-solid-state-memory-card-drive.html

Dan

Hi Dan,

I'm asking myself "where are the "Transfer times" expected , actual real world times, not sales times (Spin).
In any case why did they not bring out this little baby years ago, was it recent competition, or fear of loosing the "Reader market".

either way it's well over due for many in the P2 camp.
Like I've always said, P of P2 signifies "Patience"

Cheers
well done Pana, even if it's years late.

Meh...dual interface with FW800 bus power would've really blown my skirt up...

Hi Tom, (a great name)

USB connection most likely because of "universality" across the board Windows or Mac, lappy of desktop, I just hope it's at least as fast as the camera for off loads.

Cheers

I feel like you have to be named Tom or Dan to reply to this thread so I qualify.


I am sure the transfer speeds on USB 2.0 will not blow people away but I know the flexibility of using any computer for transferring will help the P2 form factors longevity in field use.

If this thing is not in the neighborhood of the Duel as far as speed, I will probably foresake it and just buy two new 64GB P2 cards. Then when I travel, I can just use the camera to download to the laptop at night. I am kind of tired of downloading cards during shoots anyway so that may be the way for me to go. Much more money though. I already have four 8GB P2 cards and three 16GB P2 cards so if I add a couple of 64GB cards, I can shoot for days without dumping anyway.

Dan

I am upgrading to snow leopard (have a duel adapter).
That was the last thing holding me back and 350 is nothing in terms of P2 workflow.


Just got 2 64GB E-Series also. I'm loving it!
-C

If this thing is not in the neighborhood of the Duel as far as speed, I will probably foresake it and just buy two new 64GB P2 cards. Then when I travel, I can just use the camera to download to the laptop at night.
, I can shoot for days without dumping anyway.

Dan

Hi Dan,

I've been doing just that for the last couple of years, and only dumping to HDD at night or back in the office when the shoots finished,
If I were to do lots of field work I'd get the "Wrangler" .
Remember, You only have to buy the cards "Once", a big $ hit, but if your making a living from it, it's just another cost to bear or build it into your costs....Un-like say Insurance , that is paid every year.
Even the old days of Tape we had to go out with new stock every shoot, that was an unavoidable cost also.
I have 3 x 32g & 1 x16g - 2x8g all R series. suits my bussiness.

Cheers

Just have to get some projects that will pay for them. I agree. If I buy two 64GBs, combined with my present cards, I will have 568 minutes of 720 24pN and 208 minutes of 1080. That should be enough, except when I rent or borrow other P2 cameras for multi-camera shoots.

Dan

Hi Dan,

Multi cam shoots "Should" give you more income/budgets to play with ? If not, don't do them, simple.
I tell my clients, that my Camera/Computer suppliers don't give me all this great gear to just go and "Do good works" for FREE. someone must pay, or, don't have it done.
If they want it for nothing, I say, do it yourself.

It's much cheaper to not work, than work for nothing.

Cheers
Tom K

True enough. I do get spoiled though since all of my gear paid for itself years ago so my charges to the clients are pure profit. When I have to go sub-rent stuff, I am not as enthusiastic about doing so because I can't mark the gear rental up very much since the rates are so standardized on LA.

Dan

Hi Dan,

I understand, easy solution though, if it makes not as much dosh as your accustomed too, then don't do it.

Cheers

No fw800?
Epic Fail!

They've had fw in 5-slot readers for years...GRRR!

I am a Mac person and as much as I know FW is far superior to USB for video editing, it is a fact of life that FW is a fading protocol. The new MBPs don't even have FW 400 connections anymore and 800 is fast on its way out.

Panasonic has always been a PC-centric company so this doesn't surprise me. FW is kind of alien to most PC users since most PCs don't come with it standard, they have to buy an add-on card to use it.

Dan

I am a Mac person and as much as I know FW is far superior to USB for video editing, it is a fact of life that FW is a fading protocol. The new MBPs don't even have FW 400 connections anymore and 800 is fast on its way out.
Fw is downwards compatible (like almost everything else), so it doesn't matter if fw400 connectors are disappearing, since fw800 are still there and can be used like before.

Situation seems to get worse for P2 users all the time.
First Panasonic chose to use already outdated form & connector factor for P2.
Now they are dropping faster connections away from their readers.
At the same time Apple is taking away express card and fw from macbooks.
Both companies are not using faster connections like eSata or usb3 even they both could do it.
At the same time Sony offers 1/2" cameras cheaper than panny's 1/3" and you can use regular SD cards with them with SxS adapters. And macbooks do have that sd reader...

Panasonic has always been a PC-centric company so this doesn't surprise me. FW is kind of alien to most PC users since most PCs don't come with it standard, they have to buy an add-on card to use it.
So when 5-slot P2 readers do have fw, then panny was not pc-centric before?

Most pc's are not used for video editing.
Most pc's that are used for video editing do have fw.
All pc's that are used for capturing the most wide used video format (miniDV & dvcam) has to have fw and so they have had it for last decade.

Right Toke, but a lot of users don't use an editing laptop for dumping P2 cards. I don't personally know very many PC users who edit on PC laptops either, not that it can't be done but it is much more common for Mac users to use their MBPs for editing that to find PC laptop users who edit on their laptops. Most of the PC editors I know use big, fancy desktops to edit video. The few PC laptops I have seen that include integrated FW use the horrible Sony 4-pin i-link connection, which offers no bus power for FW drives.

Dan

No fw800?
Epic Fail!

They've had fw in 5-slot readers for years...GRRR!
And they still do. You want a 5-slot reader with FW800, go right ahead and buy it.

You want a $350 product? Something's gotta give to get the price down.

The few PC laptops I have seen that include integrated FW use the horrible Sony 4-pin i-link connection, which offers no bus power for FW drives.

FW800 never caught on in the Windows world. I don't know of any Windows laptop anywhere that has a FW800 port on it. If you want firewire on a Windows laptop, it's gonna be 4-pin.

And while the connector is indeed a Sony design and is indeed horrible, there is one compelling benefit to it over the six-pin -- a 4-pin FW connector has never ever blown up a camcorder's firewire port! :P

Anyway, FW800 seems like a quite marginalized interface. If you want a high speed reader for your desktop, get the PCD35 -- a direct PCI Express interface that runs at 3x the speed of FW800. If you want a high-speed transfer to a laptop, use the PCMCIA interface ($79 on Windows, unfortunately not available on the Apple).

I'm upset this wasnt given USB 3.0 functionality

$350 for simple reader is way overpriced (but of course in line with P2 prices over the years), when it does not have fw.

I will never dump 5 cards at once, so I'm not throwing €2k away for AJ-PCD20.
If they would have been smart, they could have made the new reader usb powered for 4-pin fw use. That way you could use it with any laptop.

Looks like I'm buying old powerbook with cardslot which costs less than this new adapter and has also hdd...

If you need the speed of USB 3.0 today, you got it already - just use eSATA.