I have finally seen a price for the PAL version of the HVX200 on offer from Expandore in Singapore. They are offering the camera "bundled + 2 P2 cards" (they don't say what size) for $9950.
I am looking to just get the camera first and a hard drive but there is talk of Panasonic only selling the camera bundled with 2 cards whereas the NTSC version can be bought separately.
If this is true it really makes me angry. How can they dare be so unfair to a whole group of consumers, charging them higher prices and forcing them to buy really expensive P2 cards if they want to have the camera.
Make no mistake I want this camera but I'm not going to pay almost $4000 for 16 GB (or is it 8 GB?) when I can get the Cineporter 100 GB for $2000. It just doesn't make sense.
Are Panasonic desperately pulling at straws to try and make more money out of this camera at PAL users expense?
In any case, the marketplace will find a way round this problem. I'm sure vendors will realize it's easier to sell a 5500 dollar camera than a $9950 one.
They will start putting pressure on Panasonic as well, just as we should do and nip this thing in the bud right from the start.

I think Barry Green mentioned this potential problem a few months ago in another thread.

If any of you hear of any vendors selling the PAL version unbundled then write in and let us know.

The European office (at www.panasonic-broadcast.com) has announced that there will be cardless versions available. It's still a couple of months away from PAL/50hz release, so don't be too concerned at what places like Expandore advertise, wait for the final pricing announcements from Panasonic Europe.

That's a relief!!
Now I've just got to wait for the Cineporter (and the HVX200) to come out

Thanks Barry

id wait before commenting on this element.. (p2 bundles)

here in aus for an example, p2 has been a VERY difficult product to sell (being the products which support P2 and the p2 workflow itself... )

Personally, id like to see P2 store units shipped with p2 cards, OR a firestore type unit, so long as the 1394 port on the camera is a lil more robust than the dvx units...

The Cineporter sounds like it might be a good solution to a point. It will still have 2 drawbacks though. First it looks like it will add substantial bulk to the camera, right now they estimate as much as 4 pounds. (In a box that adds a couple of inches to the bottom for the length of the camera.) Second it still costs $2100 for the smallest (100GB) version. Yeah that will solve the limited record time but compared to what we're used to paying for stock to record on it's still way way too much. By the way I talked to the company today and they estimate the Cineporter "might" be ready by the NAB in late April.

I'm hoping that some memory company will figure out a way to package their SD cards together and make an aftermarket P2 card. They could charge a very nice premium make a lot of money on their cards and still beat the heck out of Panasonic's price.

I know this was talked about in another thread but does anyone know if there is a possible alternative for recording such as to a mini 1394 external hard drive. I've seen a lot of them around fairly cheap and with good data rates. (More than 100Mbps)

Hello Phil, this would kill the Cineporter as well as the P2 card sales, would it not? I brought up this topic months ago, long before the manual was available. Back then most people here were convinced the drive would need a special design to receive the data streams. The interesting thing though is that, according to the manual, P2 cards are addressed as a 1394 device anyway. And the microcontroller in the HVX runs a specialized Linux, generally capable of supporting any file system and a vast variety of accommodating protocols, so judge for yourself.