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A Crisis of Faith
Gentlemen, I need help.
I have been having a battle in my head over whether or not to sell my
HPX170 and get an HMC 150 instead. I shoot weddings for a living typically
using an HMC 150 and Canon 7d Combination (the HPX170 is my personal cam)
and require at an hour of continuous 1080 footage during a ceremony. The HMC
150 can do this but my HPX170 due to space constraints can’t. I read about taping in
a 720 format and exporting in 1080 but don’t know anything on that subject, supposedly
somebody on here does it for national broadcasters all the time to alleviate the space issues
but I thought the footage would be worse.But now that the 64 gig O2 are only 665 I might just get two of them for 160 minutes of HD
for 1200-1300 bucks. And then if I get a card reader (another grand at least) I can shoot forever.
Or…I can buy 5 16 gig SD cards for 60 bucks a pop and shoot more footage than I would ever need. I
hate to restart this debate but can anybody restore my faith in why I would still want P2 cards instead of SD? Honestly what is the benefit and should I just sell the camera and go HMC? Any help would be appreciated, I hate feeling like buying the HPX170 was a waste. -
6 Replies
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If you already own the HPX-170, get yourself a few 64 GB P2 cards and the PC2 card reader ($350) and look at it as an investment.
1 wedding will pay for the equipment.
Bottom line, the HMC 150 is a lower cost alternative to the HPX-170 (discontinued). Yes, the HPX-170 is higher quality (100Mbps vs 21 to 24Mbps). It also has many many more features. Can shoot in every format possible (480, 720 and 1080).
Your question should be, do I sell my HPX-170 for Panasonic’s new version to be announced at NAB.
Unfortunately, the HPX-170’s value is around $3000 now. It’s still a great camera that will last a very long time.Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
YA, Keep the 170 – better cam.
Buy some P2 cards.Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC -
Really depends on your client base more than anything. My gut tells me most wedding clients cannot tell the different at all between nicely shot HMC150 footage and HPX170 footage. Is then 170 a better camera- sure it is. Is it better to the point a client at this level would ever make a comment about it when shown equivalent HMC150 footage, I’d guess not. But then again I’m not your clients. 🙂
Noah
Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio with Call Box Training. Featuring the Canon 5D Mark II and 7D.
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It is a good point Noah.
What meets your clients expectation/needs is what is important.Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC -
I agree, thank you very much for the help. I will just buy some P2 cards and a reader as it really wont be more than 1600. So that will arm me with two 64 gigs and a 16gig. That way I could shoot continuously until one card fills up, pull out the full card (while still taping on the other) and plug it into the reader, which I’m guessing is attached to an external drive and dump it. Does it take a very long time to dump footage on with that reader? IE am I going to run into the problem of dumping footage on one card and the other filling up too quickly?
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Also, I think I will stick with the HPX170 since I want a camera that has more range than just weddings in which most clients can’t tell the difference in footage.
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