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Iomega RevPro Discs For HVX200-200?
Hi
Considering the purchase of a HVX-200 but aditional cost of P2 cards for a long form project will make it a costly enterprise.
I’ve read about the Iomega Rev Pro, just wondering if this can be adapted as an external hard drive for HD recordings from the HVX-200.
Is there a 3rd party manufacturer doing this?
I’ve also read that the Rev Pro discs, currently 30GB will soon be up to 70GB.
Thanks in advance.Cameraperson, Sydney, Australia
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13 Replies
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[Digibeta] “I’ve read about the Iomega Rev Pro, just wondering if this can be adapted as an external hard drive for HD recordings from the HVX-200. “
The only hard drives that work for recording directly to are the Firestore and forthcoming Cineporter and Citidisks.
[Digibeta] “Is there a 3rd party manufacturer doing this? “
Nope.
P2 cards are really the way to go. We used them for our long form documentary where we shot all day in the field. Very slick. And the cost of this camera and cards is MINIMAL compared to the image quality you get and the format in which you can work. DVCPRO HD just simply blows HDV out of the water. $10k for a camera and cards that shoot in this format is darn little.
IMHO.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
No Panasonic will milk the high price of the P2 proprietary cards as long as they can, until the other more affordable solutions finally surface. Grass Valley has the right idea with the REV drive data solution. 1.3K for 8 gigs of storage really is absurd in todays market. That is why I went the Firestore route until the Cineporter comes out!
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[Christopher Wright] “No Panasonic will milk the high price of the P2 proprietary cards as long as they can”
Those aren’t cheap cards to produce. Seeing that they have to be specifically designed for that camera, and there isn’t a HUGE market for them (like there are for other flash memory cards with MANY applications) I don’t see the cost going down too much. But it will gradually come down as capacity increases and more demand for them surfaces.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
And they are not just memory. Maybe Jan or someone can correct me on this, but I believe each P2 card contains four top 1% SD memory cards with a RAID controller/microprocessor as well, (the cards themselves have firmware). They are not just over priced PCMCIA cards, they are digital media you can really trust. Having said all that, I sure wish I could afford enough of them to use my video camera like a video camera. The film-like work flow of a short film load with a long reload time is getting a bit old.
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Shane, can you tell me your workflow for shooting a long-form doc in the field with P2 cards?
I can’t see how it can be done in a way that would work for us.
Jemima
http://www.passionaterproductions.co.uk -
Hi,
Take a look at http://www.marcsinger.info. Marc is working on a long form doc with just P2 cards and P2 Stores in Afghanistan.
He figured out how to make it work, so it can. It may not be for everyone but it can work.
Best,
Jan
Jan Crittenden Livingston
Product Manager, DVCPRO, DVCPRO50, AG-DVX100
Panasonic Broadcast & TV Systems -
[Jemima Harrison] “Shane, can you tell me your workflow for shooting a long-form doc in the field with P2 cards?”
Sure, I blogged about it in three parts:
https://homepage.mac.com/comeback/iblog/Work/B787268209/C515898016/E20060211012205/index.html
https://homepage.mac.com/comeback/iblog/Work/B787268209/C515898016/E20060227144825/index.html
https://homepage.mac.com/comeback/iblog/Work/B787268209/C515898016/E20060308131936/index.html
Requires a person in the field whose sole purpose is handling the backup of the cards, but it worked far better than we expected.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
Thanks Jan
I loved Marc’s Dark Days. Interestingly, a friend of mine, film-maker Chris Terrill, is currently embedded with with the UK Marines on a long-term series and due to go off to Afghanistan soon. Chris explored several options but I think finally went with the XDCam HD.
Marc’s workflow with the P2 cards makes it sound, if not easy, then at least possible… Do you know any more about his back-up procedure?
Jemima
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Thanks Shane
It’s obviously horses for courses. I just can’t see us taking an assistant with us everywhere JUST to handle the P2 cards. We’re a husband and wife team who specialise in tricky, sensitive docs. My partner shoots, I direct and do sound where necessary. It makes us very small and intimate – like having a couple of friends round most of the time. Much of what we achieve is because of this – and the time we spend NOT filming, but just hanging out, is as important as the filming. We’ve perfected putting people at ease. Assistants, bless ’em, rarely have these social skills – even if it is nice to have someone who can carry your tripod.
I really, REALLY want to use the hvx-200 – not least because we’ve bought it… But the workflow compared to shooting on tape is a pain. Apart from all the backing-up hulaballoo (which, actually, takes almost as long as it would to digitise and is the last thing I want to have to do after a long day’s shoot), there’s the question of transporting back to the UK. We’ve always carried tape in our hand luggage, but I can’t see any way we’d be allowed to take hard drives in the cabin on any internal or transatlantic flight.
The best solution I’ve come up with is to shoot to the Firestore and back up each to a couple of mobile FW drives. We’d probably get by with rotating 5 Firestores – plus of course we’d need loads more FW drives; then there’s the laptop – another potential point of failure. It all makes my collies wobble.
Jemima
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Having the P2 Store would be a good investment. Simply remove a card, put it in the unit and press START. When it is done, press a button to erase it and then remove it for use in the camera again. You can attach it to your belt if you want to, as long as you aren’t running.
The Firestore has a bunch of issues itself…just search the forum and read. I’d take the P2 workflow with the P2 Store over the Firestore any day.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net
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