To transfer footage recorded to a P2 card, do you just plug the camera in via firewire and then have access to the files to drag/drop? How do you get this footage onto the computer?

(I am asking out of curiosity - I don't have the camera, but considering buying before March 31st to take advantage of their free 8gb P2 card promotion).

You have to have the P2 driver loaded, but yeah...the card mounts like an external HD and you can drag to your internal HD or edit from the card. It really depends on what NLE you are using...each have their own workflow. One very, very important thing to remember is...BACK UP YOUR FOOTAGE, this cannot be stressed enough.

James

You have to have the P2 driver loaded, .

James

but only if you are using a PC, then you would also use USB. If you have a Mac and FCP, then Firewire, and FCP handles the import.

While you can import directly into FCP, I would not recommend it. Not for stability reasons, but when you import directly from the P2 card you are not backing up the footage. Like I stated in my other post, it really depends on what NLE you are using. With FCP I would recommend that you first copy the P2 card to your HD and then import from there...that way you have a copy of your media on the P2 card, a copy on your HD and the imported copy in your Capture Scratch.

James

To transfer footage recorded to a P2 card, do you just plug the camera in via firewire and then have access to the files to drag/drop? How do you get this footage onto the computer?

If your computer has a PCMCIA slot (like a G4 PowerBook, for example) you can read the P2 cards directly and transfer even faster than FW.

While you can import directly into FCP, I would not recommend it. Not for stability reasons, but when you import directly from the P2 card you are not backing up the footage.

I've never had a problem with this. Ever. Have you?
If you just watch your imported footage before formatting your P2 cards, there really isn't a reason to backup the .mxf files. After import, I go to my capture scratch folder and back the .mov files up and that's it.

I disagree Sam; in the absence of an original source tape like the good old days, backing up your entire P2 card with all the metadata (whether you or not you use it) is the closest thing to having the same kind of security. Watching all the footage before you back it up is an extra step that I don't always have time to do.

Saving the entire P2 card data is the next best thing to having a tangible source tape, and it doesn't make the files bigger because most of it is video & audio anyway.

So to confirm - I do not need to buy an extra hardware or P2 card reader, etc.? Just the firewire cable from the camera to my PC running Premiere Pro 2?

And from what I understand, it is best to not edit directly from the P2 card, but rather to copy the files to HDD first and then edit from there.

If you have a usb cable you can offload to your pc using the camera (with card in it). No extra stuff required. Just install the proper drivers off of the disk that came with your camera.

Jason