A-Series P2 Cards
 

Maxell announced that they were making P2 Cards last November. I have yet to see these cards, but they promise to deliver just as well as a standard P2 Card. Fujifilm made a similar announcement recently and apparently the cards are available now in some parts of the world. (FUJIFILM Global | Products | Professional AV Media | P2)

I did notice that the Maxell cards are listed as being “A-Series” - as opposed to the R-Series, H-Series, and S-Series cards from Panasonic. A little history: The H & R series where designed to work with HD video (640mbps) and S for SD video (320mbs). The 16 & 32 Gig Cards were the first of the R-Series Cards and required a firmware upgrade in many P2 Devices. The FujiFilm cards are also labeled as R-Series. Finally the 64 gig cards came out with no Series listing at all, but with an increased speed of 800mbs.

This brings into question what exactly the A-Series will be. The Maxell (press release) makes no mention of transfer speed, but the fact that they are a different series then previous cards seems to point to a different system all together. On January 21st Panasonic updated there P2 Format Station software to include support for the A-Series cards, this also suggests a significant change in the card structure. I’m excited to see the features of the new series, and hope that the A stands for more Affordable. Hopefully we will learn more in the near future.

Well I just have to say "A"men to that ;)

Hi Andy,
interesting info, My P2 32gig Fuji is a R series, and my 32gig panas are R series, and my old 8gig panas have no series designated at all. they all perform the same for me.

All I know for sure is, they are "Very Expensive".

Cheers
Tom K
olinevideo.com.au

The original 2, 4, and 8GB P2 cards had no identifier in the product name and used the older, original SD-type memory modules. The type "R" refers to the newer cards - 16GB and higher which use SDHC-type modules for greater capacity/throughput. Maxell may simply be using their "A" designator to create a branding differential between Panny and Fuji product.

If you look at the product number of each card the second to last letter lists the series. Hense the AJ-P2C032RG and the AJ-P2C008HG. Many cards didn't actually have the series printed on the front.

The A-Series could be just a simple distinction between the manufactures, but as you pointed out there was a significant change from the H to R series. So why change the series at all if they aren't changing the structure of the card?

As it was explained to those of us who were Panny consultants in '06 the "R" designator was as much for marketing as it was technological differential. The structure of the card didn't change but it's capabilities did with respect to data size and I/O speed. There was also a change in in-camera communication parameters which required firmware updates to talk to the newer cards, however all P2 devices produced after the release of the Type-R card came with the updated firmware. See the enclosed slide from a Keynote I created for the P2HD roadshow in '06:

Hi,

The "A" series denotes an uptick in the record and transfer speeds, it is now 800Mbs up from 640Mbs.

The "R" series while using an SDHC memory, also did wait to have the memory incorporated into an SD container to be used like the 8GBs and lower. The memory "sites" are incorporated into a larger memory/LSI/RAID so if you were to open one, it looks like one big chip in there.

Hope this helps,

Jan

The "A" series is significantly faster. It sounds like a small increase, but in reality I've seen a 64GB "A" card offload at a rate of six gigabytes per minute. The fastest I've gotten a regular "R" series card to offload is around 3.4GB per minute.

Checking the B&H Photo site for the HPX170, I notice they have "E" series cards listed for the camera. Another new designation? I would love to check out the Maxell equivalent.

These different series sound like they are equally about doubt and confusion, and performance.

E Series is the newer version of P2 which eventually wears out depending on how many times the card is formatted. The A series was more expensive but lasted much longer. Download speeds were different.

Speaking as a forthcoming user of such cards, this would seem to be a setback. On the other hand, I am not likely to reach the re-write limit of the E series cards.

"Lasted much longer",
has anyone ever worn out, thru writes and re writes a P2 card of any sort yet, I doubt it, I only wish E series cards were out back in the early P2 days, I paid a kings ranson for my cards.
Lots of people forget that you will only buy them "once", the lastest E-series are terrific $ value in my opinion.
if you ever reached the "Limit" with an E-series they would have paid forthemselves many times over, much the same as re use of old video tape stock in the bad old days.

Cheers

Incidentally, I just got an email from Maxell Canada concerning the price of their version of the 64GB P2 cards.

I'm glad I was sitting down. Their price is $1269.52!!! He followed that up with the comment that that is in line with Panasonic's pricing. I have seen it listed on Canadian websites for $1200.

Wowzers, if they are going to the trouble of developing these cards, why give them a fighting chance in the marketplace?

Tom,
While I agree the E series are a great value compared to the older cards costs I could see a news operation running through the cycles fast enough to wear them out in a couple of years. I still think Panasonic hasn't made the "cost" a no brainer for the system compared to some of the other memory choices out there. I do like the reliability of the cards but still have to manage media more than I would like.

Hello Daniel,

If you didn't cover the cost of some P2 cards in just a few months, then your well under charging your clients, get some clients that are prepared to pay a decent rate, or get another job.

Most network news gathering gear is "well worn out / bashed about" after two years anyway.

This industry costs plenty to acquire the material so pass your costs on.
yes, SD cards are cheap, or go back to tape if your clients are cost driving your work.

Cheers