HPX-250 VS PX-270… Some FCP questions….

[Sam Lee]

SDHC or Micro P2 cards are falling apart. I have two 32 Gb P2 Micro P2 cards that lost its rec tab after 1.5 years of light use. My 2007 16 Gb P2 is still going strong after 8 years. The claim of Micro P2 to be 10x stronger than SDHC is full of baloney. It’s just can’t handle heavy duty field use.

You can use all of the latest codecs providing you’re using Micro P2 and not SDHC class 10. With Class 10 you’ll limit to AVC-I 100. I personally do not like SDHC due to the fact that it’s so easy to get lost and build quality. Unfortunately to fully span between two media you MUST use Micro P2 on the PX-270. The PX-270 has only a single P2 slot. I refused this and still use the HPX-250 which will span over two P2 slots. Sorry Panasonic, if your Micro P2 is rugged as P2, I’ll migrate. But after 1.5 years of light use, Micro P2 is no better than SDHC in terms of build quality.

It’s a false sense of security to use AVC Ultra 200 on a cheap $4K PX-270 with stock lens. I own the HPX-250 and its optical fidelity is already fully maxed out at AVC-50. You’ll reap the potential with AVC Ultra on a 2/3″ PX-5000 and a $30K 2/3″ HD EFP grade lens than the PX-270’s stock lens. Optics make a huge difference. You can argue all you like but I have seen it over and over that no matter how good the camera’s electronics (PX-270), it can’t overcome the lens bottle neck. And quality lenses cost $20-240K, depending on the focal length and features.

I still use FCP 7 for AVC-I 100 rewrap. It’s an excellent app to verify all P2 spanning media are present.

1) How big a difference is there in quality between these cameras? Will I notice any difference in the SD mode and my HVX-200?

2) I have heard that you cannot use the micro-P2 cards with some of the higher codecs on the PX-270. Is this true? Also I have read that you need to “upgrade” the PX-270 to get the AVC-Intra 200 codec. How much is this?

3) As I stated above my clients want DVDs and I have a DVD burner that is connected via a composite cable. I realize that I lose quality by using and analog cable, but I write DVDs in real time and I have never heard any bad feedback. I’m kinda leaning toward the HPX-250 as it has analog outputs where the PX-270 would require that I purchase a converter box and then connect via HDMI out. Should I just stick with my current camera?

4) I use Final Cut Pro 7 (groan) and DVD Studio Pro. Will FCP7 even see the AVC-Intra codecs? Is it time to finally make the jump to FCPX? Is there any viable replacement for DVD Studio Pro? It seems to work just fine under Yosemite.