New slideshow up featuring a beta (?) unit.

http://www.spec-comm.com/cineporter.php

That looks great! Removable hard drives is a wonderful idea. Too bad it's so late in the game, however many should be able to benifit from it.

I sincerely hope the housing is extremely solid, for the camera mounted to the unit and the unit mounted to the baseplate could make for a lot of play, especially if you have a monitor or other heavy items - makes for unstable dolly moves and timelapse.

That thing is massive. ...I'm not sure how I feel about that just yet.

Nice to see it's one step closer - a lot of people have been going insane waiting for this.

If it comes out this summer (and works!), maybe it'll get Panasonic rolling on 32 or 64GB cards. And then maybe a P2 cam w/ removable lens, image flip, CA correction, VFR in 1080p, and an optical adapter... all for under $20k. Pipe dreams, I know.

Will there be a beta version at NAB 2007?

Barry, did that Cineporter unit ever make it to NAB?

Not at NAB but at the DVXuser party... still seems like they have a ways to go and generally, with new P2 card prices, it seems bulky and too expensive. For the price of the 320GB Cineporter you could get a bunch of P2 cards, a laptop, an external HDD and P2 Genie. Great idea, just not sure they pulled it off...we'll see though.





ash =o)

yeah it seems they have been too slow to market on this one.

Its a pity as it seemed to have promise, IMO they should have sort investment to get it going.

Doesn't make much sense that a CinePorter would cost that much.
A 320 gig RED drive is $900 - Same cost as a 16 gig P2 card?

It is a testament to how difficult the P2 tech actually is. Each drive for the Cineporter must have custom firmware so you have to order the drives from them. The beta unit was very heavy and had a max battery life of 2 hours. Seeing that 32GB cards will likely be here by fall for $1500 or less, the Cineporter just no longer seems relevant. You could shoot 720/24PN for 3 hours on two 32GB cards... It will be useful for some but their market is shrinking every day IMHO.




ash =o)

probably been posted already
 

I did a search and found referance to, but not a direct statement about the demise of the cineporter. here it is from their website:

"Due to lack of market interest, the CinePorter™ will NOT be going into production. With the introduction of larger P2 Cards and lower prices, the P2 lineup no longer needs a product such as the CinePorter™."

http://www.spec-comm.com/cineporter.php

Seeing as this is the cineporter thread, It's fitting that the post should go here.

Phil

Thanks for posting that update, Phillip -- and with that, this story is over. Thanks to all who participated,