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Does the P2 card really save time?
I keep reading about how much more efficient it is to work with the P2 card because it does not require capturing. However, I was told that if you work in Final Cut Pro that after transferring files from the card, you need to import it into Final Cut Pro which requires some time and some type of conversion process. Does this really result in any type of efficiency in the workflow process since this has to be done?
Thanks.
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24 Replies
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Once you get the workflow down, yes, time is saved. Importing the footage is faster than realtime.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
Thanks for the response.
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Time is spent on the back-end backing up data, and management of that data, which is other story in the digital domain.
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Is it more time intensive to backup and manage video from a P2 card? I would imagine once it is in a useable format, it would be similar to backing up or managing footage captured from DV tape.
Thanks.
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It is much faster than tape. Using FCP’s P2 import, not only is the import faster than real time, once you tell FCP to import a clip you can continue on to the next clip while the first one loads in the background.
Another approach is to use Raylight which allows you to access P2 MXF files directly from a P2 card or hard drive with off-loaded P2 cards without the import step.
John
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I don’t back up tapes…I keep the tapes. I back up the Original P2 CONTENTS folders to hard drives right now….but I am looking into BluRay as a solution.
Shane
Littlefrog Post
http://www.lfhd.net -
Why do I never see people backing up P2 media to something like Exabyte packet-tape storage systems? It’s not instant random access, but it’s a heck of a lot more durable than DVD-R or a parked-on-a-shelf hard disk in a couple years.
I suppose cost-wise it could be a little more expensive, but 40 gig tapes at $25 ea seems reasonable to me for the level of confidence granted.
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We’ve been shooting on P2 HD for a month on a project. I love the look of the camera and the quality. But if you shoot 2+ hours of HD and backup to one or two P2 Stores during the day, consider this. After a long day’s shooting on location, head back to your hotel and start digitising. If you do it direct from the P2 cards, it’ real time plus drive/notebook management time.
16gig equals 16-minutes transfer time. Try doing 120 or 200 gig like I’ve had to do every day. Spending 2 – 4 hours in a hotel room on a doco shoot every night backing up to hard drive (and then to a backup drive for the primary drive) while the rest of the crew heads out to dinner is not my idea of a good time.
I love the Panasonic cameras and reckon they kill the Sony’s on gamma curves and kick-butt chroma, but the data backup issue is a major one. We lost a half day’s shoot because we lost track of which P2 had been backed up and erased a card that hadn’t been transferred. It’s very tricky to keep track of things and as I said, VERY time-consuming.
I don’t know where these guys who say it SAVES time are coming from. Maybe if you’re a news shooter and you zing back to the station and edit directly from one or two cards, then nuke the contents when finished. But what if you shoot one hour, or three hours a day. What if you are away doing long corporate days or wildlife or hours of interviews? It’s a different story and I challenge anyone to prove me wrong. That said, I will still consider the HPX3000 when we actually buy a 2/3″ HD camera. Call me crazy.
Peter
Peter Corbett
Powerhouse Productions
http://www.php.com.au -
I am actually considering just backing up to a hard drive and putting it on the shelf just like tape. The advantage is that I can put my FCP project files and DVD studio pro files and AE Files, etc.. on the drive with the media. so that if I ever have to revisit that project for whatever reason.. I can just plug in the FW drive and go.
I would make a back up of that drive as well just in case one drive fails I still have a back up. I can do this for about the same cost as we are currently spending on tape but I figure this will be a tremendous time saver later on should we need to revise something. -
[Peter Corbett] “I don’t know where these guys who say it SAVES time are coming from.”
Er… it comes from the guys who don’t use FCP… 🙂
FCP’s implementation of supporting P2 is goofy and limited, at best. Every other editor on Earth lets you edit straight from the cards — no importing, no ingesting, no capturing, no digitizing, no anything. Shoot & Edit, that’s it.
If you’ve been offloading your footage to hard drives throughout the production day, every other editor lets you plug in that drive and edit. Only FCP requires that you import/ingest.
You can get around that. You can start saving time immediately. Just go to http://www.dvfilm.com/raylight and get the Raylight plug-in. It does for FCP what Avid and EDIUS and Liquid and SpeedEdit do natively, and what it does for Premiere and Vegas — it lets you have immediate access to the MXF files. If you want to save a tremendous amount of time between shooting footage and meeting your deadline, give Raylight a shot.
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