Now that Panasonic has announced the (somewhat) imminent release of 16GB P2 cards, are we going to get larger P2 Stores, as well? In my opinion, a larger P2 Store is the much better, seemingly more accomplishable, and more needed solution for those folks who are doing long form work (self included). Robert's point in another thread about continuous record times and analogies to tape is a little off the mark IMHO. Sure, you can now record as long as a single tape, but when you're shooting tape in the field you just get another one. If you've filled up your P2Store, what do you do then? It would be great to have an assistant with a laptop and a hard drive in the other room while I'm recording a subject, but, well, I won't even finish that sentence.

From what I hear, there are actually HDD's out there today that are larger than 60GB's! It may be just a rumor at this point, but I've heard this from reputable sources. All sarcasm aside, 16GB cards are great and all, but if I'm shooting a doc (which, coincidentally, I am), I could do just fine with 4 8GB cards and a larger (and faster) P2 Store. Any word on this Jan? Thanks as always.

Peter

I'm sure if there are bigger P2 Stores in the works, Jan can't comment on them until after any announcement at NAB.

Hey Kevin,

I'm sure you're right about this. I guess my post was mostly just rhetorical. This whole P2 thing is so depressing. I agree with Jan that it's a great time saver in the field and people are always amazed at seeing the results and truthfully I am totally sold on it. And the images the camera makes (except for the noise, as we all know) are beautiful! But it's taken so long for these new cards to come out and,frankly, I think they are overpriced (at least the 8GB models), and we still don't have a larger than 60GB P2Store. I just don't understand the thinking here. Maybe in the case of the 16GB cards, if I really stretch, I could see how technically this is the soonest they could get them out and have them be near error proof. I'll give them that, and I think I'm being generous. But the P2Store? 60Gb's? Seriously? Do they not want long format people to be able to use this camera the same way they would a tape based camera? Or perhaps by keeping the P2Store small we are forced to buy more cards. That, of course, is the reality. I've already missed shots because all my cards are full and my P2Store is full.

I know this is where a lot of you would say, well, buy another P2Store, or maybe this isn't the right camera for you. But the point is, it COULD be the right camera, if only there were a larger P2Store. Seems like such a simple fix, and honestly, such a waste of a great camera and technology, not to have made an upgrade like this. Ok, I'll stop whining. Maybe my prayers will be answered at NAB. We'll see.

Peter

I read somewhere that the 60 GB drive was used because that's the same "ruggedized" drive that's used in Panasonic's Toughbook notebook computers.

Not sure if it's the P2 Store or the drive that senses motion, but the P2 Store will hold up writing to the drive if it gets moved around too much. Mostly if it's moved in the vertical axis. An error light comes on to warn the user.

Would be great if a 200 GB version were released.