-
HD FS4
http://www.focusinfo.com/ announces HD FS4 capture support and “news” on panasonic P2.
-
8 Replies
-
looks like Ikegami’s has their own tapeless media.
“The new Editcam HD camcorder will likely be the star of Ikegami’s booth. The Editcam HD uses the Avid DNxHD high-quality mastering codec to deliver HD resolution, full raster (1920×1080) images that can be edited on laptop and desktop systems in real time.
This camcorder employs a data rate of 140Mb/s to provide 1080/60i, 1080/24p and 720/60p recording and playback using Ikegami’s FieldPak2 recording media. (By the way, a 120GB FieldPak2 capable of recording more than one hour of HD video will be introduced at NAB 2005. FieldPak2 is also available in 40GB and 80GB models.)”
-
120GB recording media? 1 hour HD recording time! Makes the P2’s 4GB and 8GB look pretty silly huh? I bet that bad boy will cost a pretty penny.
Cheers,
JS -
[js33] “120GB recording media? 1 hour HD recording time! “
Isn’t DVCPROHD 24fps about 40Mbps onto P2 which would be the same onto HDD?
That would be about 6.5hours record time on 120GB, a bit less for 25fps and 30fps but no huge drop.
PS2 is so great in so many ways but even Jan has had to admit it won’t work for some of us. Having such an option such as a custom 1.8″ HDD to plug into the P2 slot would mean it could truely work for all (thouse that can work with P2 can those that can’t can use the HDD). They can still slug us for the HDD P2s as they will still have to be proprietry to the P2 slot and interface wouldn’t they? (I assume its not just a PCMCIA interface). Perhaps even modes like 1080/60p will only work on the flash P2, but thats ok by me, it would be pretty rare I would need that so a single P2 media (that could come with the camera) could suffice.
-
On another board, Jan talked about Panasonic’s testing of HDD’s in the P2 slots on the SDX800 (or whatever it is…). She said that the drives weren’t fast enough to record the DVCPRO 50… but she never said that the HDD’s wouldn’t interface… in fact, if Panasonic was testing them at all, it should mean that it interfaces like a regular PCMCIA card…
Kevin Dooley
Director of Video Services
Imago Dei Media Group, Inc. -
The post I read from Jan was that they tested them in the SDX800 but they didn’t work at all (ie device not seen), not that they worked but couldn’t sustain the transfer rate. Could you post a link to that thread you referenced?
I totally agree that it is great they are even testing it, as long as the purpose is to try to get it to work, not ensure it doesn’t 😉 It does tell me the physical connection and size must be the same as a PCMCIA card though, which I didn’t know before. The interface could well be whatever is normal for PCMCIA, but only the firmware doesn’t know how to handle the device (like a device in Windows without drivers).
PS: PC Benchmarks have shown these 30GB 1.8″ HDDs can sustain at least 10MBps which is 80Mbps (and it only drops to that at the very inside of the platter, it is much faster on the outside), so 50Mbps shouldn’t be a problem unless the interface to the drive is causing problems somehow.
See https://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20050323/pocket_rocket-04.html
-
Yeah, here’s the link. She never mentions that the card couldn’t be recognized, and she does elaborate a little further on, saying that the drive just couldn’t keep up…
Here’s an excerpt from Jan’s second post on the topic:
“So to answer your Question I think it was a 40Mb drive and we tried with with 25 and 50. I think it was a Toshiba. But I think that the little drive didn’t understand what it was supposed to do and since it was not designed to write video and a sustained rate, we blew its little mind. That is not to say that once that industry sees that there is another market they might figure out how to make it work. The thing is once we move away from tape drives and turn it into an IT question, change seems to happen at a much faster rate.”
Kevin Dooley
Director of Video Services
Imago Dei Media Group, Inc. -
OK, I just followed the link from https://www.creativecow.net/forum/read_post.php?postid=111323500381296&forumid=193 and have now seen my first P2 card!
“Compliant with PC Card standards (Type II)”
Therefore I can only assume the camera’s firmware is the problem in recognise the 1.8″ HDD, unless as you say Jan tried it and it did recognise it but dropped frames trying to capture to it, in which case there is probably still a firmware problem and just some tweaking by Panny could get it to work. It may be too late for the SDX800, but certainly not for the HDX200.
With that option, it would make me think very very hard before deciding between a HDX200 (better codec even if it is technically lower res, unknown CCD res though) and a GY-HD100 (detachable lens, native 1280×720 CCD). Why not have the option and provide the flexibility to work how you want when you want. I’m happy to accept the HDD will only work with 720p/24/25/30 due to the HDDs capabilities, but thats 99.9% of my shooting needs, for the rest I would accept the P2 workflow. Of course this is all just me though, each to their own.
-
It’s an interesting explaination of the problem they encountered because it really doesn’t quatify if the Drive or the Firmware was to blame. Writing video to a HDD is still writing data files which is what a disk is designed for, and many other HDDs are doing just fine doing the same thing. I’m not sure how a disk drive could get confused when asked to write data without more information on why Jan came to that conclusion.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up