I was talking to a Sandisk Rep today who told me that they just finished a 4GB secure digital card, which anyone whos been reading about the hvx200 and the P2 cards can tell you, a whopping 16 minutes of HD video will soon be available for a camcorder that is not even out yet! What this means for the Panasonic? Probably a significant drop in price for the smaller capacity cards an realistic hope that this recording medium could eventually become very common since it is so versatile. Just thought you guys would be interested, especially those of you who can afford the 10k and 1700 for the 4gig card and cam when it is released...

Thanks Noah,

Actually that should equal more than thirty minutes of continuous DVCPRO HD recording. Four 4GB SD cards per P2 card equals 16 gigabytes, times two cards in the camera is roughly 32 minutes of HD recording. Hopefully the 16GB P2 cards aren't too far off -- or too expensive!

yeah, i was just talking about ~16 minutes a card, also, i have not seen anywhere whether the hvx200 comes with any cards?Does it?

Current plans by Panasonic are to offer the HVX200 in two ways... you can buy it either without P2 cards for appx. $6K or with two 8GB P2 cards for appx. $10K.

or 64 minutes of DVCpro 50 or DVCpro HD 720 24p. Now thats not bad at all.

At the DV expo east yesterday at Jan's HVX presentation I suggested to her what I thought would be a great idea, I know that I would invest in P2 technology much faster if I knew that when in the future memory prices come down that I would have the option of sending in my P2 cards for an upgrade (or trade in). Jan said she would put the idea into the "hopper".

... Or, take it one step further...

Why not build a "P2 Card" with user replaceable SD cards? Seriously, if the biggest expense in building those things is the LSI and custom this and that, then design it so I can pop it open and throw in some different SD cards.

Perhaps I don't understand the fullness of this technology, but surely it would reduce the cost of entry, and isn't that what Panasonic wants to do anyways?!

She did mention that the SD cards are something to the effect of "defect free SD cards" and anything less than that would be unacceptable to Panasonic as going under the lable of "P2". I don't know if that makes much of a difference but it does say one thing to me and that is that Panasonic wants to have control over what goes into the P2 card...although you are right, that would be great!

Regarding timing, didn't Jan say that the 16gb card would be available by NAB 2006? The 8gb card isn't even expected to be available for a few months yet, and they've already got the 16gb card slated for release... that's good news!

well the first "consumer can buy" 4gb sd card was announced July 28 2005,
PRETEC makes emall yours for $700 bucks (they also made the first 12gb compact flash may of 2004, for a whooping $15,000 which now sell for $5,000)

but the size is only half the story the were able to increase the speed 400%with access speed up to 20MB/s rated at 133x

---editorial below---
but now lets look at that pricing consumers pay $700 bucks how much does panny pay ???

Well, I asked Jan again about the "upgradeable" P2 option and this was her reply:

Hi,

The unfortunate answer to this question is that it would virtually cost
the same amount as a new card to upgrade because all of the EProms would
also have to be reprogrammed. The LSIs would look at the larger cards
just as if they were the same size as before.

Sorry for the news,

Jan

Well, I asked Jan again about the "upgradeable" P2 option and this was her reply:


Hi Philip,

If you are going to post a communication that was between you and me, thus making it public discussion, I would have appreciated your telling me that you were going to do that. Not that It would have changed the answer but just out of courtesy to the correspondant.

Thanks,

Jan

http://www.larssteenhoff.com/blog/pictures/ibc/P2.jpg


cards up to 128 gb are possible in the near future

Haha, this is funny, beacsue as I was talkgin to Jan at the booth today, someone asked the exact same question abotu card sizes and showed the picture.. "[but you have a picture]" and Jan replied "That's a roadmap", continuing with "[That picture was made by Photoshop]" and the fact that P2 cards capacity is still of course controlled by the capacity of SD cards..
And they test EVERY SD card that goes into a P2 card and they ONLY accept the ones that are 100% perfect.. any memory errors at all and they don't put it in the P2 card. - Thats one of the reasons for the price.
Soposdly they have figured out a improved quiality manufacturing process that allows them to start making the capaceties bigger reliably.. so right on track with THE BASIC FORUMLA FOR P2 CARD SIZES: THEY DOUBLE IN SIZE EACH YEAR.

so 128GB is still a few years off.

- Mikko

Jan,
You are right. I'm sorry - there were just a few of us here who were wondering about this and I figured I would share it. Next time I will ask first.
Thanks,
Philip