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Can you swap a P2 card w/o visibly jarring the cam?
I haven’t used a P2 camera yet, so I don’t know if this is an issue or not.
The “big” P2 cam, the model AJ-SPX800, seems heavy enough that perhaps you can remove a P2 card and swap in another without jarring the cam while recording and causing the cam & video to shake, but what about a smaller cam like the new HDX200?
I’m not talking about interupting the datastream (I can grok that P2 tech handles card-to-card handoff switching gracefully), but rather I’m referring to the cam being physically shaken and ruining a shot visually.
My fullsize DSR-250 — even when fully loaded with an AB Titan power supply, battery, shotgun mic, cables, and so forth, and locked down on a moderately studly tripod weighted with a sandbag — is still easy to “jiggle” during a medium telephoto shot, simply by flipping one of the cam’s small switches and such, let alone popping out its Sony memory stick.
Also, swapping a conventional PC Card in & out of my laptop is usually accompanied by a fair amount of shaking, relatively speaking. If the laptop were a video camera, the “live” video would shake, too.
So, are the P2 slots in a P2 cam somehow super silky (“SSS”)? And if so, what’s to keep a P2 card from slipping out uninvited (“SOU”)? Or, if P2 cards are held in place by a latch, can you unhook the latch and swap cards without ruining a shot?
Even with a relatively lightweight cam such as the new HDX200?
Oh, and is swapping cards _quiet_? I mean, really, really quiet? Like, it won’t ruin a take quiet? Like “Quiet on the set!” quiet?
Just wondering how it’s all gonna work, or: In addition to planning how/when to switch P2 cards every few minutes because they fill up relatively quickly, do you also have to plan to do it only when the cam’s _not_ rolling?
That would be unfortunate.
All the best,
– Peter
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4 Replies
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Works just as well as a digital still camera- do CF cards and SD chips normally fall out of them?
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[Noah Kadner] “Works just as well as a digital still camera- do CF cards and SD chips normally fall out of them?”
Hi Noah!
Good to know a P2 card won’t fall out uninvited.
Now, what about the main part of my question: Since P2 cards fill up relatively frequently, and users may need to swap them while recording, can you do so without jarring the cam (especially a wonderfully lightweight cam like the HDX200) and not ruin a shot?
I don’t worry about nudging my current camcorder while changing tapes because I usually use 60-min. loads and can plan accordingly.
But needing to swap P2 cards every few/several minutes — including while the cam is “rolling” — could get old if the shot gets jiggled in the process.
Inquiring minds (with too little sleep) want to know. 😉
All the best,
– Peter
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I suspect that depends on how steady your hands are. The slot ejector on the other P2 cameras is much less touchy than a mechanical tape assembly so if you’re good I would think it would be no problem.
Noa
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[Noah Kadner] “I suspect that depends on how steady your hands are. The slot ejector on the other P2 cameras is much less touchy than a mechanical tape assembly so if you’re good I would think it would be no problem.”
Thanks, Noah; good to know, although I guess we’ll know more once a large group of cam operators actually use a small P2 cam for “critical” locked-down shooting.
Until relatively inexpensive, really “big” P2 media is readily available, the possibility of having to call “Cut!” every few minutes to allow for a P2 card change — to absolutely avoid jarring a shot — is interesting.
For people accustomed to pausing for typically frequent film mag changes it’s business as usual, but for video shooters (like me) who are “spoiled” by long tape loads, it might (or might not) require a work-style adjustment. We’ll see.
In any event, the HDX200 is going to rock our world!
All the best,
– Peter
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