http://panasonic.biz/sav/p2/aj-hpm110/index.html

The HPM110 is available at a suggested list price of $12,000.

Now it does native format recording from 1080/24Pfs input. Neat!
Funny the catalog don't mention anything about HPX500. Why?

This seems like a fantastic piece of equipment...But my question is:

Purchase this, or a Macbook Pro + an Aja IO HD?

In theory, this deck would be more portable and more "production specific", but would we gain anything in quality vs the IO HD capture to Prores HQ?

The Aja + a Macbook Pro + Final Cut Studio 2 and external Hard Drives seem like a much less expensive proposition to the deck. Sure, a lot less portable (Imagine the deck on a backpack recording with an hd-sdi cable connected to the camera- I don't know if it is possible to capture with the monitor closed, though.)

I know, Different tools with different uses, but for the independent filmmaker with an HD-SDI camera, what would be the best overall option, everything considered? (The deck costs 12 000 without cards)

Kaku, have you tried your HPX500 with an IO HD direct capture from the HD-SDI? You said you have a macbook pro... Can you do a comparison or gve us your opinion of the card capture vs the avc-intra capture trough HD-SDI?

One thing about IOHD is that it is not DVCPROHD native. It always converts to prores422. In terms of being DVCPROHD native, ioHD is not a choice.　I heard that AJA had to delay the shipment of ioHD for awhile, because Apple did not approve the quality of prores422 that is encoded via ioHD and AJA had to work on the quality to start shipping. Which means, it must be okay now but it might not be the same prores422 quality you can get by software encoding. So, I'm not really into ioHD period.

Okay, I have MBP, MOTUV3HD I use them for editing, but it will be cumbersome to take them around, and for getting good monitoring, I would need external monitor.

HPM solves many of the limitation with my current rigs.
It provides AVCIntra recording (option board is required)
It provides realtime monitoring for better focussing
If you have second cam with 1080/24pfs output via firewire or HDSDI, that cam and HPM110 can be second cam that records 1080/24p natively.
You could edit out bad takes on the way back, consolidate the clips to another P2 card, so you won't have to look through the whole takes. Also, upon looking at the preview of the clips before you transfer to FCP projects, HPM let you playback the clips with its larger monitor (better than small window on the computer) and also external HD monitor with its HDSDI or HD component output.

So, after experiencing how clammy it gets when you take MBP for shooting video, I though something like HPM would be so solid to take it around, and I felt that is very true. Duel adapter is really lousy to keep it working, you will not want to scratch you MBP since they are not rugged.

I know what you are saying about considering the whole cost of the system, I know it would cost more, but If I buy HPM, I probably don't have to PCD20, the P2 card drive, and production monitor for focusing when I have to use 35mm imager. And I won't have to take MBP if I have the HPM.

Also, another pro is that HPM works as random access video deck.
You can record your timeline from FCP and output using V3HD or Blackmagic Decklink HD or Multibridge series, you can record them on the P2 cards inserted in HPM, that becomes random access video player with 9pin remote. You can use it as playing back video for shows with 9 pin remote control, or use it to playback and sync to music composition or DAW software like Digital Performer that won't eat up the CPU usage. I already tried this and worked very very solidly.

It is luxurious to have this but it would make your whole workflow very efficient and reliable.

Great points.

If I was to have my own independent studio, I would seriously think about the HPM110. But I still believe we're going to see an AVC-Intra tape deck. For News gatering, ENG and broadcast the tape workflow is still pretty much cemented. For TVC's, Narrative films and shorts its not that important, but for news and archiving, tape is still the main choice.

I still have to catch up and purchase an HPX500, though.

Great points.

If I was to have my own independent studio, I would seriously think about the HPM110. But I still believe we're going to see an AVC-Intra tape deck. For News gatering, ENG and broadcast the tape workflow is still pretty much cemented. For TVC's, Narrative films and shorts its not that important, but for news and archiving, tape is still the main choice.

I still have to catch up and purchase an HPX500, though.

My workflow is concrete, so didn't think about AVCIntra on tape, but if they come out with that with reasonable price, it'll be great way to archive the footage. If FCP gets smart and include function like Avid, archive the clips to tape, then we won't have to worry about saving the clips as files, just save the project file and archive the clips to tape. Wow!