Hi,
Will be shooting a long interview on this camera (full HD) using two/three 64gb cards, but haven't used this camera before. Do we need a card reader to download footage tp laptop or can we do it direct from camera via firewire?

Thanks,
Jonathan

You can connect the camera to a laptop via USB. You will have to install P2 drivers on the laptop in order to do this however...

You should be able to select firewire or USB to download the footage through the camera.
A card reader is nice, but you don't have to have it.

I use USB on my HPX-170, and it's a tad bit faster than Firewire (specs might say different, but I tried it both ways...). A full 32GB card takes me about 20 minutes to copy. If you are going to a laptop, maybe a little longer than that.

Hi John,
Thanks for the info, much appreciated.

Jonathan

No problem Jonathan... as Sanjin suggest, make sure you have the appropriate drivers handy. OSX Lion might not need them, but most everything else probably will. Otherwise, the OS may not recognize the P2 cards as drives...

Here's the link if you need it:
Panasonic Support Software Downloads for Professional Video (http://www.panasonic.com/business/provideo/support/software.asp)