Is there any updated news on pricing of the P2 cards?

I think this is a major factor for many people as to whether or not they'll buy the HVX200. Currently the 8GB is well over double the price of the 4GB which doesn't entirely make sense to me.

Hopefully Panasonic will drop the prices of the cards very soon as the P2 workflow benefits, variable frame rates & HD recording are definitely the major selling points of this camera... and those 3 major selling points are useless without beng able to afford the P2 media to record it on!

It's not that the 8GB cards are more than double the price of 4GB cards, it's that the 4GB cards are priced really low in order to blow them out. They're in the process of being discontinued, just like the 2GB cards were discontinued last year. Every year the lowest capacity P2 cards are discontinued, just like all flash memory. For example you can't find 16GB flash cards for digicams anymore, and 32GB is pretty rare. The entry point for digicam flash cards is 64GB. The same thing is happening with P2, and the 4GB P2 cards are being priced low enough to flush them out of the system so that the 8GB P2 cards will soon become the entry level offering.

Chris,

So in what you've said, realistically we can't really expect the 8GB to drop in price very much at all then? The only reason the 4GB is "cheaper" is because its being discontinued?

I hope i'm wrong because thats bad news if 8GB of P2 is going to stay close to $2000....

At this point, I'm not doing anyting major, so 4GB P2 x2 is okay with a iPod 60GB around. But my customer pointed out that people probably fit this camera to the filmish workflow rather have over 20 minutes of recording (because it is similar to length of the film?). So, 8GB x2 would be really nice.
After knowing what this camera can do (and I was thinking this camera was going to be over $10,000 and which is a lot cheaper), I don't mind buying extra cards, but I would definately choose 8GB cards.

we can't really expect the 8GB to drop in price very much at all then?You certainly can expect the 8GB card to drop in price, remember Moore's Law, and whatever the offshoot that's related which dictates the continuously falling price of flash memory. You can definitely expect the 8GB card price to drop, the only question is "when" and "by how much."

Let's also not forget that the 8GB cards are *NOT* available right now... Panasonic will adjust pricing for 8GB cards when they become available, the current listed price is what Panny announced nearly a year ago! The price announced at that time for 4GB cards was over double what the current MSRP is, so we will just wait and see.

I don't think Panny is trying to discontinue 4GB cards just yet... Prices on these are not "blow-out" prices by any means, but they do fall in line with what we can expect from the components used in their construction as well as the premium we can expect to pay for the Panasonic label as well as Panasonic being the current sole-supplier. My guess is that Panasonic will continue to produce 4GB cards for some time... 4GB P2s will fit nicely into many studio workflows where swapping of cards is convenient and they will continue to become more attractive as prices continue to drop.

Fair enough and makes sense to me. By the way I am not privvy to any info about 4GB P2 cards being discontinued; I was just making a guess, which I should have stated in the first place. My apologies for that one.

For example you can't find 16GB flash cards for digicams anymore, and 32GB is pretty rare. The entry point for digicam flash cards is 64GB.

I wish :)

LOL

I wish :)

LOL

Me too... 64GB's in my Nikon D100 would sure be nice.

Unfortunately, most the memory makers are under investigation for price fixing!

This is why i think the 8GB P2 card's price is soo high. It can't be more technologically advanced than the 4GB model.
One could almost believe these memory companies have plotted to stick it to the P2 card consumers, you know?

Well, i'm sure Michael Dell will get to the bottom of this once the HVX200 is bundled with an LCD monitor at the Dell website.

Jimi

Me too... 64GB's in my Nikon D100 would sure be nice.

hehee... he made a Typo...be nice :)

Megabytes... MB... I meant megabytes!

D'oh!