Affordable P2 Card reader?

[Tom Klein]

We have all read about every possible solution for a card reader, we all have our work-arounds, panasonic has the solution to all our woes,- https://eww.pavc.panasonic.co.jp/pro...ive/index.html
It's the Panasonic AJ-PCD20 five card reader.

BUT, it's well over priced for our budgets,

SO, why don't we ask Panasonic to produce a "cut-down 2 Card version unit" for us little folk who need to read their P2 cards , bearing in mind we are not in the "broadcast" league but still need a relativley priced solution to a very basic problem.
Panasonic would sell thousands of these units if they were priced at a level where it would be considered "affordable".

Let's face it, it is a simple "card reader", not a VTR, or a HDD unit, so why does it cost one third the price of a HVX200, when the components to manufacture one would cost maybe $400 .
the selling price on B&H is $1899.99-
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc..._P2_Drive.html

Come on Panasonic, make a cut-down 2 slot that we can afford at say under $1k and they'll fly like eagles out the door.
OR
some other manufacturer take on a challenge and reap the rewards.

Tom K

[TingSern Wong]

No need for those super duper P2 card readers ... just use a normal notebook with standard PCMCIA (or PC-CARD) slot will do. You just need to install the device driver (download from Panasonic website) and you will have it - all raring to go. That's the cheapest one I can think of - FOC - provided you have a notebook which I think most of us should own one.

[Tom Klein]

Hi TingSern

That's satisfies your needs, but a P2 card reader as I was refering to will be compatible with ALL computers, towers/lappies Mac and Windows ect.
USB and firewire connection that's the key.

Cheers Tom K

[Sergio Perez]

Buy a cheap PC laptop, dump the files to external HDD's formated to the FAT 32 format, and you have your files ready to share on both mac and PC's. P2 cards are FAT32 compliant.

I do understand your plea, though. just not seeing it happen.

[TingSern Wong]

I wonder whether those USB tethered PCMCIA card readers will do double duty as a P2 card reader as well? That could solve Tom's problems. Just install the device driver from Pany's website?

[Sergio Perez]

P2 store actually is a p2 reader. But the slowest reader I've ever seen. it takes at least 7x the time of a normal pcmia transfer. Terrible.

[Robert Lane]

Don't forget Tom, you already have a 2-card reader on-hand - the camera itself.

[Kevin Railsback]

I still wish they'd come out with like a 250 gig P2 Store or something. I love having the P2 Store in the field.

[Tom Klein]

OK, there are lots of varing viewpoints out there, Now with the Increased size of P2 cards ie 32gig, the ammount of field off loading for many users is not as great. A Single card reader as the -http://www.amtron.com/reader/p2card_reader.htm
BUT, with a PCIe controller not the current PCI controller that would slot into a G5 would be great.
my smaller commercial shoots are like this usually under 30mins, with the 32 gig it fits all onto one card.
I have asked amtron but am still waiting for a reply.
Cheers
Tom K

[TingSern Wong]

I shoot on 720p exclusively. No point shooting at 1080i. No visual difference. With a 16GB P2 card - I get 34 minutes. With a 32GB P2 - 69 minutes. I put in 2 32GB P2 - more than 2 hours continuous shooting. It's more than enough - I am not doing events but documentaries.

I have P2 Store ... but the silly fellow won't be able to offload 2 32GB anyway. Only 1 32GB - P2 Store is already going the way of the dodos (a pity). The speed of the P2 Store card reader does not matter to me - because I only accesses it once - namely to copy all the clips in my P2 card to my editing computer's RAID hard drives. Once it is inside the hard drives, I disconnect the P2 store.

[Jeff Heywood]

A one or two card reader for the Mac would be most excellent and I'd shell out for it. pci-e or usb or firewire. I don't really care.

I've got the PC laptop for the field but I'd like to stop using the camera to offload when we're not out in the field

[Kaku Ito]

Nothing to talk against the inexpensive card slot here, but I purchased bunch of P2 cards and the PCD20. Prior to that, I was trying to get by with few cards and portable drives and tried many ways. However, I got tired of them not working so well under real world video shooting situation.

When I purchased HPX, I had to make a decision because I was going to rental as workable set. I was debating to buy Focus, P2 drive or the PCD20. I gave a lot thoughts deciding and I decided to buy six P2 cards and PCD20 first because I have HVX and HPX that both needs P2 cards. Also, I have Mac Book Pro and Lacie little big disk hat I could connect the PCD20 (with Tekkon Battery pack) which offer most massive backup possibility possible.

The result is, so far so well. I just did shot a 160 minute live performance (4 bands) with three cams, covering the whole performance with HPX and HV20, HVX to be used as handheld and capture only parts. Whole performance fit without no margin (wish I took my 3 4GB cards along).
I came back and packed up to five P2 cards to PCD20 and it took about one hour to copy everything over to the hard disk drive (including the last sixth card). The good point here is that the copy can be done unattended up to five cards. That gives me an hour of doing something else instead of attending in front of computer to swap the cards or come back every 10 minutes.

I do think PCD20 should be cheaper, too, but after you get it, it provides you so much. I have the duel adapter and the PCD20, so they are covering pretty much every situations that I need, but I do wish someone comes out with firewire cards slot for me to rent it along with the cams.

Additional "pros" on PCD20:
When you mount P2 cards using PCD20, the software driver adds the PCD20's slot number along with the mounted volume icon on the desktop that helps to identify which card you are working on.

[TingSern Wong]

Only problem is the cost of the PCD20 is super expensive. For the independent or single person production shop - I can't see how they can afford it.

[Kaku Ito]

I actually bought everything on my own (I don't buy other expensive stuff) with loan. When you put together a loan, tend to select everything and forget about the high price. But after arm yourself with complete rig and everthing just take off.

[Sergio Perez]

Originally Posted by TingSern Wong

I shoot on 720p exclusively. No point shooting at 1080i. No visual difference. With a 16GB P2 card - I get 34 minutes. With a 32GB P2 - 69 minutes. I put in 2 32GB P2 - more than 2 hours continuous shooting. It's more than enough - I am not doing events but documentaries.

I have P2 Store ... but the silly fellow won't be able to offload 2 32GB anyway. Only 1 32GB - P2 Store is already going the way of the dodos (a pity). The speed of the P2 Store card reader does not matter to me - because I only accesses it once - namely to copy all the clips in my P2 card to my editing computer's RAID hard drives. Once it is inside the hard drives, I disconnect the P2 store.

Tingsern, 720p is not the same as 1080p in the HVX. If you have a mac, do this simple test:

1st- Shoot a scene in both 1080- and 720p. I would suggest a close up scene to someone, or a wide panorama.

2-Create a 1080i50 timeline and select "no fields" in the sequence options.

3- Import P2, or use the new import screen of 6.0 (still happy in 5.1.2)

4- Use media manager (File/media manager) to Uprezz the 720p footage to 1080i50. Place it in the timeline, and place the native 1080 25p footage next to the uprezzed one.

5- See the difference!