If the correct pricing is truely "under $5k" then I'll pass. That would make it similar in pricing and concept as what Sony did when the Z1 came out; they offered a stand-alone HDV deck that was basically the FX1 in a shell minus the camera portion - and sold it for about $500 less than the camera. It even used the same batts as the cameras for portability. Most people just bought a second camera and used it as a capture deck rather than buying a "deck only" version.

That's what this device seems to be; an "HVX in a box" minus the camera portion and to me the "under $5k" pricing doesn't make sense.

There is another P2 deck device that would make sense (I can't remember the model or price) but it's more for ENG crews that need in-the-field edit capabilites not tied to an NLE. I'm sure that deck is around $10k, but it's worlds apart in capabilities from this device.

Robert, they are adding HD-SDI out! That's probably where the extra money went! (Joke)

Seriously, tough, I would only buy this item if it could do one thing: preview my backed up data on a firewire drive trough its screen. That way, maybe one could use the deck as a monitoring device, like a matrox MXO, to serve as a passtrough device from firewire to a Component or HD-SDI monitor. And it would be great for reviewing footage on the field- Just connect the firewire drive and see the contents on a portable lcd or the deck screen. If it had these functions, I would certainly think about buying it. But at a 1000 or 1200 pricepoint, nothing more.

No way this is $400 - $500. The P2 store is a silly price for what you get, it should have this functionality already built in. I suspect this will be closer to $2k. Not sure I really get why you would need it when a nice laptop would do the same thing and give you a much bigger screen...



ash =o)

Man, I will be happy if this lil' fella can only playback trough HD-SDI, or even w/o th HD-SDI will be awesome, in my company we do a lot of field production and we need to monitor each take we make, with this our productions will be cool!

P.D. sorry for my lousy english, I'm just too excited aobut this deck.

Its funny why some generic maker wont come out with a P2 card (unless putting SD card in a PCMCIA shell is patent protected for Panasonic).

I dont think it is such a big deal. SD memory cards are super cheap these days at 2Gb. 4 or 8 surely fits in a PCMCIA shell.

Any gadget developer hear me? :) Super business at the pricepoint around $400 for 8 Gb....

I don't think that put 4 o 8 SD cards in a PCMCIA shell would be easy, remember that panasonic's P2 tecnologic says that they put 4 (I don't know, maybe more or less) SD cards in some form of RAID for performance. Maybe as you say that would be easy for us (consumers) to adquire generics P2 cards for less money, but is panasonics decission.

There is a *lot* more going on inside a P2 array than just four SD memory cards.

And they work....
I have not had one problem with P2....
Of course you could always contact Panasonic
and see if you can get a license to manufacture
P2 cards. It is done for thousands of products.....
Or design and make a device like the Firestore....
I take the products that are here and make money with
them today. It is incredible that cameras are where they
are since I started rolling B&W videotape using 1/2"
reel to reel tapes in 1977.
And my sons will probably live on the next moonbase in 20 years.....

Yeah, I wanna be there to get stock footage of them playing micro-gravity golf! (^_*)

Your invited!!

The moon is so 1970's. Everybody know Mars is where the future action in video is going to be. Why do you think they named it the "Red" Camera? As if!

You need a solid base before you go to RED.....