HD For Indies

Panasonic Announces Deliveries of 32GB P2 Memory Card | Studio Daily: "Panasonic has announced the availability of the 32GB P2 solid-state memory card (model AJ-P2C032RG) for its popular P2 HD and P2 product line. Available at a suggested list price of $1,650,"

32GB? Rock!

$1650....oh.

-mike

Labels: cameras, P2

P2 Contents Management Software | DVCPRO P2 Series | Broadcast and Professional AV

Hey all -

Panasonic has released a Mac version of their P2 browser software. It lets you display, ingest, search, categorize, display/edit properties, view/play back, add text or voice memo, export, back up, archive, and restore footage.

Along the lines of yesterday's post about having proper versions, it requires OS X 10.4.10 and QT 7.1.6 (but NOT 7.2, is incompatible at present!).

More info on this page as well.

Download Mac version with this, manual here.

And its free!

-mike

ps - thanks to those who sent in the link!

Labels: HVX200, P2, software, workflow

Got an email over the weekend from some folks about to deploy into the field that were having some workflow issues with their gear. Emailed back, didn't hear back, but got a call yesterday from them once they had arrived at their remote destination shooting location on another continent.

They were having trouble with their P2 import from their HVX200 - they could play back their clips on camera (verifying the clips were good, thank goodness), but when they tried to import, they got white frames and no audio. As I started through my litany of questions to verify the back story on what they had (they said they were running Final Cut on a just-purchased MacBook Pro), my Spidey Sense starts tingling - turns out they're running FCP 5.1.1 on OS X 10.4.10 (with an unknown version of QT as well, he couldn't check at the time). So right there that was a clue - he was running a version that wasn't as up-to-date as he could make it. FCP 5.1.x can be updated to 5.1.4 via Software Update for free, so I suggested he start there. I couldn't recall exactly what was supported when, so I did a little digging and found this bon mot -


Bring HVX200 P2 Clips into FCP via the FireStore FS-100 | Studio Monthly: "As of this writing, the P2 formats DVCPRO HD 1080/24P and 1080/30P are not yet natively supported in FCP 5.1.1."

A-ha - I'd also not thought to ask him what res/frame rate he was capturing, but I DID know that 5.1.4 would fully support any mode he could shoot on that camera.

Lesson to Learn

This client was in a hurry and had to travel on short notice, which made it difficult to do the right thing - ALWAYS research to make sure what version of the OS & your NLE (or QuickTime if on Mac) are appropriate to match together. With older NLE software, there can be a target range - not too old, not too new - that will be the correct, properly functioning match for your system. For instance, BlackMagic used to recommend a particular version of OS, QuickTime, FCP, and their drivers if you were using FCP 4.5 - not to update beyond what was it? I think 10.3.8 or somesuch (DON'T quote or depend on me for that number, just for example here!).

For latest NLE software, check to make sure you have the minimum recommended version (FCP 6.0 required at LEAST 10.4.9 and QT 7.1.6), but don't assume the latest is the best - some percentage of the time there may be a bug that requires a .0.x type of an upgrade to fix. So not too old, not too new - like Goldilock's porridge, you want Just Right.

Most editors know this, but field production folks having to deal with FCP on a laptop in the field for review purposes may not.

Other lesson to learn - ALWAYS have your post workflow figured out days in advance before travel - so if there is an issue, you have time to resolve it - requiring analysis, implementation, and verification testing that the fix does in fact work. Your production may depend on it - so it is worth the time to take.

Remember - as an indie, you have more time than money. But time is your least controllable asset when deadlines are looming - so as an indie, you need to spend MORE time prepping and verifying stuff like this, since you can't throw money at the problem to solve it.

These folks leaped before they looked - or put another way, pulled trigger, then aimed by going to the remote location without a solution.

I'm picking on them a bit here to make a point - in truth, they WERE trying to solve it before they left, but didn't manage to until they were on location - meaning they had fewer resources to try to solve their problems in the field than if they were at home. There was a point in the conversation when I was saying as a fallback they could reinstall the OS if all else failed - but they couldn't since all that stuff was back at home.

Which is why when I travel, I make a point of having a Commando Kit with me - enough stuff to rebuild a hard drive etc. from the ground up, including OS, NLE, compositing apps and all the standalone updates, all COPIES of original installers, not the original discs themselves - my old joke was air drop me into Somalia with a Commando Kit and some new Macs in boxes and I'll have a studio up and running by the end of the day - hopefully I'll never have to actually do that.

Which is also why my durn backpack is so heavy when you see me at tradeshows - I carry lots of junk, but I ALWAYS have That Cable Just In Case.

UPDATE - they were also having trouble with the record times on their 16GB P2 cards (and don't forget, as earlier reported, that you need to update the firmware in your camera to work with the newer bigger P2 cards!). At first I thought it was a firmware issue, then digging deeper, turns out they were recording to 720p mode, not 720pN. 720p mode records 720p24 as 720p60 with 2:3:3:2 cadence (or similar, don't recall whether that or 2:3:2:3, but the point is that it takes up more space recording 60fps not 24fps).

As always, research and test everything before arriving on set!

It's called prep, people.

Short for "preparation."

Don't forget that "pre" means "in front of" or "before."

Time on set is your most valuable asset, especially if you're in a remote location. Where do you want to be figuring out technical problems - while that perfect sunset is ending at your exotic and pricey location, or two weeks before at home while idling watching a DVD and having a tasty beverage?

A few extra days gear rental can be invaluable to be ready to roll perfectly. Think of it like combat - when the enemy comes over the hill, do you want to be reading the manual on your rifle, saying to your seargeant "Hang on, I'll be ready in 5 minutes." *

-mike

* OK in our current climate I'm reluctant to use a war analogy as I'm against that sort of thing, but this does make the point.

Labels: FCP, Final Cut, Final Cut Studio 2, original, P2, workflow

My intern Geoff Frost has an HVX200 he got a few months ago, and after a recent frustrating experience (while working on his John Woo film contest short, some P2 footage was lost), I encouraged him to write up some thoughts on P2 and HVX workflow from his own perspective as indie filmmaker. I kept leaning over his shoulder and pestering him to add this and that, and it grew into the article below. Here's Geoff's take on the HVX, as a 22 year old recent film school grad doing his own projects, with my own interjections:

=================

(I dedicate this post to all the HVX users waiting on their free P2 cards)

Anyone who owns an HVX can feel timid with the first experience with their camera. Yes, I am one of the many who purchased the camera back in March thinking I would be shooting and editing projects in the weeks to come. Wrong.

Up until March 31st, Panasonic had a great offer: buy the camera, and you receive a free 8gig P2 card. Estimated delivery time: 4-6 weeks. It's been ten weeks and counting and still no P2 card. I received a letter from them explaining that the 8gig cards reached full production and they would be replacing them with 16gig cards. AWESOME! Right? Wrong.

As the 11th week has approached, I've completed two projects, both of which have not been shot on my own personal P2 card. I've had to rent P2 cards numerous times (4gig = $25/day, 8gig = $60/day from local vendors... it adds up) and have been lucky enough to have a friend lend me his 4gig card for the longer shoot.

I browse the forums at dvxuser.com and see numerous people complaining on why they haven't received their cards yet. I'm a pretty patient person, but going on three months is pretty long. Imagine if PEZ had a shortage of candy and all you could do was click the head back and forth all day long.

I have a $5000 camera and am always anxious to shoot HD, but wait, I could shoot DVCPRO 50 with the same color sampling and lesser compression without the P2 card. Wait, no I can't... you can only shoot DVCPRO 50 on the P2 card. So that leaves me with a mini DV tape shooting SD for the last three months on a $5000 camera. NOT COOL!

-----------------

Prepping the HVX for a 16gig card

If you have an HVX and are planning on getting a 16gig P2 card, you must download the proper firmware update from Panasonic. Here are the links to the Firmware Update and the .pdf instructions to update your camera.

Firmware Update


Note: You also need a SD Card (64MB or higher) to upload the update on it. You can buy a USB Adapter for the SD Card to put the files from your computer to the card. You then put the SD Card back into the HVX and follow the instructions on the .pdf.

Also, if you have a PCMCIA slot on your computer, such as a Powerbook, you need to download this driver to update your computer so it can read the card:

Panasonic Support page


You definitely need more than one P2 card when you're shooting. There's a reason for two P2 card slots on the camera, so take full advantage of them. One 4gig just doesn't cut it. I bet an 8 gig would be great, 16gig would be awesome, but here are the downsides...

On a 4gig card, you can shoot about 8 minutes of 720p/24pN (Native mode~literally 24 progressive frames/sec). It sounds like a lot, but when you're shooting it goes by in a flash... The positive side is that after you copy the contents of the P2 card onto your laptop/hard drive/etc... you need to have someone archiving the folder on a DVD using a DVD burner. It's really the only way I feel safe with my footage- I have a physical form of footage rather than just data on a computer.

-----------------

15" and 17" Powerbooks

These are the only two Mac laptops that can read the P2 cards directly from the PCMCIA slot.

First thing learned: ALWAYS HAVE A PERSON ON SET TO DUMP THE P2 FOOTAGE... a.k.a. P2 WRANGLER. I can't stress this enough.

The drives on the 15" and 17" Powerbooks are either a combo-drive or super-drive. The super-drives can only single-layer burners, so if working with 8gig cards you would need to purchase an external dual-layer DVD burner (Mike note - a quick search didn't indicate that Apple made a G4 based Powerbook with a dual layer burner - are we wrong? Was there one?). The downside to the 16gig P2 card is that you can't fit its entire contents on a single DVD (mikenote - thus losing the 1-to-1, P2-to-burned-disc ratio which keeps life simpler). So how do you transfer/back-up your footage?

UPDATE - Mike here - we forgot to include the Duel Systems Adapters - an ExpressCard to PCMCIA adaptor that lets you use MacBook Pro computers (MacBooks can't because they have NO expansion slots of any sort). They worked OK with 10.4.8, ther were issues with 10.4.9 that may not be fully addressed yet, dunno about 10.4.10 - somebody who knows please comment or email me so I can update this. Around $100 though, not bad.

-----------------

5 Options to transfer/archive P2 Footage

A) Have a dedicated hard drive to store your footage via a direct data dump from camera to drive, no computer necessary. By dedicated, I mean buy a hard drive and don't use it for anything else. ONCE YOU CONNECT THE CAMERA VIA FIREWIRE TO THE HARD DRIVE, THE CAMERA FORMATS THE DRIVE AND CREATES FAT32 PARTITIONS FOR EACH TIME YOU DUMP THE P2 CARD CONTENTS. (mikenote-thus obliterating anything you had on there before!) The size of your P2 card determines the  of size each partition it will create. Meaning if you only have 2 gigs of footage on a 4GB card and dump the card to the hard drive, it will create a 4 gig partition instead of only 2.5 gigs. There are a maximum of 15 partitions that can be made on the hard drive, so that means you can only dump the card contents 15 times on the hard drive, which turns out to be ~ 60 gigs. (mikenote - or 120GB if dumping 8GB cards, or 240 GB if dumping 16GB cards...a 250 GB drive probably isn't QUITE big enough to dump 15 full 16GB cards to - formats to 232GB usable.) Advice: don't buy a dedicated hard drive over 150 gigs (if shooting with 8gig cards) and nothing over 80gigs if shooting with 4gig cards. The hard drive must be bus powered, meaning the camera cannot power the hard drive directly - thus the hard drive needs power from somewhere else.

Or...

B) Dump the P2 card directly through the PCMCIA slot (note: MACBOOK PROS CAN'T READ THE CARDS, ONLY 15" AND 17" POWERBOOKS CAN). If you own a Powerbook, I advise you to make sure the PCMCIA slot is clean and dust-free. The card will show up as a disk image with NO NAME as the label. *****************CREATE A NEW FOLDER ON THE DESKTOP/HARD DRIVE AND COPY THE FULL CONTENTS OF THE CARD: THE "CONTENTS" FOLDER AND THE "lastclip.txt" FILE.************* If you don't coy the text file then FCP won't be able to read your folder.

Or...

C) Connect the HVX directly to the laptop via firewire cable, the camera should show up as a drive labeled "NO NAME" just like the P2 card. Again, COPY THE ENTIRE CONTENTS OF THE FOLDER, same as above. LABEL YOUR FOLDERS ACCORDING TO P2 DUMP # AND ITS CONTENTS... FOR EXAMPLE: "p2_01_beach", "p2_02_beach", "p2_03_beach" etc... There is no alternate solution for changing the "NO NAME" label when the P2 card shows up.

Or...

D) Use a USB2 Hard Drive that has the USB "On-the-go" protocol. Connect the camera via USB 2.0 and in the camera menu choose OTHER FUNCTIONS>PC MODE so the camera will operate as a USB device. Switch to dubbing mode on the camera and press the "copy" button on the hard drive and it will copy the contents of the P2 card on the first slot it sees.

Or...

E) Open FCP 5.1.4 and click File>Import>Panasonic P2 (On FCP 6 it's File>Log and Transfer, and it has some enhancements over FCP 5.1.x). The P2 import window should pop up. Before you do that, you should create a logging bin to dump the P2 card contents. With the P2 import window open, click the add button and just choose the whole P2 folder you want to dump, don't toggle the contents folder, etc... Click open and the clips will show up in the viewer. This is a great way to log/label/note all your clips before importing. I do not recommend this option...

Here is a little video tutorial on how to import p2 cards to your hard drive/computer/FCP:

FCP 5.1.4 P2 Import Tutorial

-----------------

P2 Alternatives/Accessories/Hardware

FS-100 Portable DTE Recorder (Firestore)

"Weighing about one pound and only 1.5 inches thick, the FireStore FS-100 is an HD recorder designed to work with the new Panasonic AG-HVX200 P2 camera, supporting DVCPRO HD, DVCPRO 50, and DVCPRO/DV recording formats. The FS-100 provides long recording times and improves workflow with Direct To Edit® technology. It can also be used with other Panasonic DVCPRO/DVCPRO 50 and DVCPRO HD devices that have a FireWire port."

Here are the new features they just came out with:

- The ability to record native 720/24p, 25p and 30p in the MXF pN format; Allows users to only record the required frames in a DVCPRO HD stream, eliminating the need to remove advanced pulldown or duplicate frames during import to the edit system.

- QuickTime support for native frame rates as well as other 720p and 1080i DVCPRO HD record modes for DTE workflow within Apple Final Cut Pro; Allows DV, DVCPRO 50 and DVCPRO HD clips to import directly into the FCP timeline.
- Extended record time; Native frame rate recording allows users to double the record time from 100 minutes to over 200 minutes

- New included accessories such as a high-capacity 180 minute battery, a cradle to mount FS-100 onto all shoulder-mount camcorders with an Anton Bauer adapter, and a new 4-pin right-angle FireWire cable for an extra secure connection to the camera.

- The ability to easily bring non-P2 Panasonic cameras into a DTE workflow; Any DV, DVCPRO 50 or DVCPRO HD camera with 1394 can take advantage of IT workflow.

Visit Focus Enhancement's Official Website for more information.

AJ-PCD20 P2 Drive

"The AJ-PCD20 P2 solid-state memory drive answers the need of today's video professional for faster, easier file transfers on the desktop or in the field. This flexible, time-saving internal/external drive allows users to mount five 8GB P2 cards simultaneously for instant access and continuous editing of all recorded content in sequence. The P2 drive now offers an IEEE1394b interface (in addition to USB 2.0) for high-speed transfers of DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, or DVCPRO HD content into nonlinear editing systems and servers. Compatible with Windows 2000, XP and MAC OS X, the AJ-PCD20 can be installed directly into a standard PC 5.25" bay drive enclosure or connected to a computer and local area network (LAN) via its USB 2.0 or IEEE1394b interfaces. The flexible AJ-PCD20 also serves as a stand-alone external drive when connected with laptops for in-the-field use."

Visit Panasonic's Official page

AJ-PCS060G P2 Store

P2 Store is a 60gig hard drive and is battery powered, so no computer necessary. it serves as a great buffer when working in the field. It can then be used as an external hard drive to link to a computer via USB 2.0.

Visit Panasonic's Official Page

-----------------

And now a very important message from the trenches, aka "See this scar here? That's why I don't that anymore."

If you want to view the contents of a P2 folder while you are on set, do so from the archived DVD. BURN THE DATA DVD FIRST, THEN REVIEW THE FOOTAGE IN FCP. This way your files are FOR SURE safe and won't be deleted.

I was toying around importing P2 footage with FCP 5.1.4. When importing footage, DO NOT delete the video files from the P2 log window. They will be deleted forever... you will end up with a P2 folder with all it's sub-folders but no contents within the sub-folders.


Let's set up the rules of P2:

1. Always have a person on set to dump the P2 footage... a.k.a. P2 Wrangler.
2. Always have a person on set to dump the P2 footage... a.k.a. P2 Wrangler.
3. Have at least 2 or 3 places to store your p2 folders. You never know when that day will come when your computer/hard drive crashes.
4. Burn data DVD's if possible and asap.
5. If dumping directly to a hard drive, use it strictly for P2 dumps and nothing else. remember it makes FAT32 partitions on the hard drive.
6. Always copy the entire contents of the card, including the "LAST CLIP" text file. if you don't, you're S.O.L.
7. If importing with FCP, do not delete the clips from the P2 import window, just leave them be. I REPEAT, leave them be.
8. Format the P2 card within the camera, not from the computer. it makes things much easier.
9. Label your folders according to P2 dump # and its contents. For example: "p2_01_beach", "p2_02_beach", "p2_03_beach" etc...
10. If you are on set and want to reviwew the P2 contents safely, view them from the archived DVD and not the Hard Drivesource footage

-----------------

Panasonic really put a lot of effort into the P2 workflow, which in turn spoils the shooter to never want to revert back to tape. But there's something that doesn't feel right when you're shooting and dumping, almost like you never feel reassured that your footage is safe. with tape, you can hold it in your hand and say to yourself "I control you and I decide if I want to get rid of you." You should do the same with P2 to data DVDs.

Keep the P2 folders on multiple hard drives and back them up on DVD's if they are less than 4 gigs. Hopefully within a year, BLU-RAY/HD DVD burners will be affordable and you can back up 16gig/32gig cards on the discs for just a few bucks. Hopefully that day will come sooner than we think.

If you don't own a Powerbook and want an easy workflow in the field without tying up tha camera, a good choice would be the P2 Store. the downside if you have a 16gig card you can only dump it 3 times, but up to 15 dumps if you have 4gig cards. working with multi-P2 camera shoots, the P2 Drive would be a great option. If both of these choices are out of your price range, another option would be to buy a modestly priced PC laptop with a PCMCIA slot. Even ANOTHER option could be to somehow get your hands on a 15" or 17" refurbished Powerbook for a pretty modest price.

-Geoff

Mike's Comments: First off, thanks to Geoff for spending all the time to put this together.

As you can see, there are a BUNCH of options for how to deal with your P2 footage. One way not mentioned, because it isn't very budget/indie viable, is to just have a stack of P2 cards. With the recent price drop, the 16GB cards are awfully compelling, as their GB/$ ratio is MUCH better than the 8GB cards. Geoff did some spot market research and found that 8GB cards were going for around $675, and 16GB cards were going for about $900 on the street - so why NOT get the 16GB ones if you're on a budget? The "fits on a disc" is the only reason I can think of to even consider not doing so.

The P2 Store gets points for being small, battery powered, and simple to use - load and go with a a readout. The downside is the price. The other good thing about it is that the camera isn't tied up while you're using it. So if small size, portability, and immediately freeing up the camera is your goal, P2 Store makes some sense (or multiple ones).

Keeping track of which cards have been dumped and are ready to wipe and recycle from those that haven't is KEY if you have multiple cards.

The P2 Gear is good for better funded field work as you can review on it - think of it as an HVX with the lens and sensor sawed off.

The direct to drive option is nice, but makes me slightly nervous in terms of being sure you've got the footage- I'd want to plug it into a laptop right away.

The FS-100 is still kinda big and bulky, and P2 cards are finally starting to catch up with it. But for shooting a lot of footage in one go, it is a good answer for that.

The P2 economy/ecology is growing and advancing, and you have lots of choices as you can see. If you have budget for it, and/or need to be sure you can keep shooting, having a pair of cards to shoot with, the pair of cards you're backing up, and a spare pair keeps you guaranteed rolling.

Carefully analyze the needs of your shoot, see if you can spare staff to wrangle P2 cards, see if you need to keep the camera free to shoot, or if it won't be a problem to have it tied up offloading in down time. Standing around waiting for the P2 cards to download while everyone impatiently taps their feet as the good light is fading is definitely not a situation you want to put yourself into.

OK, happy shooting!

And keep multiple backups of that footage!

-mike

Labels: cameras, Final Cut, FS-100, HVX200, NLE, P2, post, workflow

I found it here first: 16GB P2 Cards are Shipping at FreshDV

and that links to the press release on Studio Daily:


Panasonic Ships 16GB P2 Card | Studio Daily

which reports:
-16GB cards are indeed shipping
-$900 from Panasonic (perhaps a touch less from others? -mike)

Handy stats to know:

With a five-slot AJ-HPX2000 P2 HD camcorder, professionals can record up to 200 minutes at native 720/24pN in DVCPRO HD, 80 minutes in 1080i/720p in DVCPRO HD, and 160 minutes in DVCPRO 50 using five 16 GB P2 cards. With the newly-available, four-slot AG-HPX500 interchangeable lens P2 HD camcorder, users can record up to 160 minutes at native 720/24pN in DVCPRO HD, 128 minutes at 720P/30pN in DVCPRO HD, 64 minutes in 720p/60 in DVCPRO HD,128 minutes in DVCPRO 50 and 256 minutes in DVCPRO on four 16GB P2 cards. Users of the compact AG-HVX200 P2 HD handheld, which has two P2 card slots, can also enjoy extended recording with 32 minutes in DVCPRO HD, 64 minutes in DVCPRO 50 and 128 minutes in DVCPRO.


(bold mine)

In case you hadn't noticed, I kinda like the HVX200's flexibility and tapeless workflow, but the lack of an easy master copy (no disc/tape to stick on shelf) and PAINFULLY HIGH cost and relatively low record times of the resuable media have been my biggest complaints (after soft image quality and low sensor resolution). But I do likes me that HVX200, and this new price point (with 32 GB cards expected by year end for $1800 list.

DO READ the full Studio Daily article for important limitations - 16GB P2 card ONLY work in HPX500 and HVX200 cameras and AJ-PCD20 readers with serial numbers above a certain point - check for details w/Studio Daily's page, link above.

-mike

UPDATE

Commenter JTL left this useful advice in the comments:

My company had an HVX-200 and we just sprung for a second. I found a little place in Boston called the Camera Company that had 2 16GB cards a week and a half ago, and I snapped 'em up as fast as I could. Just wanted to mention that they haven't released the new serial numbered HVX-200s yet, so even the second camera I just bought needed a firmware upgrade. SD card upgrade. 10 minutes for each camera. No problem.

The AJ-PCS060 (P2 Store) on the other hand was a little tough with a mac. You need to update the P2 Manager software (which was PC only when I got the 1st camera) in order to update the P2 Store firmware. Once done, however, everything's been going fine. The 16GB card, I think, still copies onto the P2 Store in 2 8GB partitions... Oh, well.


....so probably everybody needs a firmware update.

Labels: cameras, P2

Learn about Panasonic's AJ-P2C008HG - 8GB P2 High Performance Card

Hey, the Easter Bunny left me a present while I was away - P2 cards just dropped substantially in price.

Now, instead insanely, ludicrously expensive, they're just really expensive!

Panasonic now lists 8GB P2 cards for $700, so I'd expect the aggressive web retailers to drop to about $625-$650 (from about $1100-$1200).

This is a BIG chunk of progress, you'll be able to buy nearly 60% more recording capacity for the same amount of money. $2400 used to get you 16GB of capacity, now it will get you 24GB with $300 left over. I wouldn't go buying stacks of them yet, I think I heard Panasonic predict 32GB cards for $1000 by year's end (is that right? Somebody bust me if I'm wrong on that.)

-mike

Labels: HVX200, P2

Studio Daily | The P2 Matrix - Navigating File-Based Workflow:

The presentation at the Lounge was short on details, but here's a cribsheet on what to expect from the HPX3000.

-2 million pixel progressive image block
-Using the AVC-Intra codec, get a 10-bit image at full 1920x1080 resolution, not 1440x1080
-Camera will be less than $50,000
-32 GB P2 cards will be 'about $1000' at year's end
-Because NLE support won't be ready at the camera's launch, Panasonic will provide tools that will decode 1920x1080 content and send it out via HD-SDI
-'By this time next year, there will be codec support in the edit packages ... and we're going to put that D-5 quality across FireWire.'"


The article then goes on to discuss some of the practical realities of P2 based workflow - backup, archiving, tracking that data, etc.

That is all REALLY good news. Although there is another camera within that price range that will record >10 bits @ >HD resolution that I'm KINDA interested in that I've been tracking...

-mike

Labels: cameras, hardware, high end, P2, workflow

Studio Daily | Panasonic Announces $14,000 2/3-Inch P2 Camcorder, Ups Cards to 16 GB

Goodies galore! First up, a new 2/3" $14,000 camera, the HPX500. Key features:
-3 CCDs, 2/3" each
-upgraded (sounds like pixelshift) version of SDX900 (which is a 16:9 SD camera)
-interchangeable B4 mount lenses
-variable frame rates from 12-60fps
-available in May
-$14,000, including viewfinder (but no lens I'd imagine?)
-P2 based, 4 P2 slots
-16GB P2 cards will ship in May, price TBA, 32GB by year end
-1080i60, 50i, 30p, 25p, 24p, 720p60/50/30/25/24
-4 XLR audio inputs
-8 gamma modes, CA compensation function

New P2 deck: "P2 Gear" - AG-HPG10
-2 pounds
-battery powered
-record or play back P2 media
-3.5" screen
-IEEE 1394 & USB 2.0 interfaces
-$3995, shipping August

-AVC-Intra codec in August for the HPX2000 with 32GB cards

another camera, the AK-HC3500, is 2/3", 2.2MP 3CCD camera for studio/EFP usage, native 1080i sensor, late summer, price TBA

and a viewfinder/monitor, 800x450 pixels, BT-LH80W

Labels: acquisition, cameras, high end, P2

Studio Daily | P2 Log Pro For Panasonic AG-HVX200

New Mac version of P2 handling app. Does the following:

-lets you view native MXF footage
-repairs MXF video files
-searchable
-printing
-create new P2 volumes from combined clips
-logging, viewing, text editing of original metadata
-print w/text & thumbnails in 2 styles, 3 or 6/page
-can merge clips while still native MXF

P2 Log is $150, P2 Log Pro is $200

Doing a P2 based production? The ability to edit source metadata, view & thumbnail and print probably cost justifies.

-mike

Labels: HVX200, P2, software