just got a brand new hvx200

[John Davidson]

Cool – I suppose I should mention that I’m flying to a location Thursday in which I was hoping to use the camera (I admit, it would be with an abbreviated understanding of the camera). Shipping a card isn’t really an option if I’m to use it on set this week.

Does anybody have a line of a provideo store in Atlanta I can try? That’s where I’m shooting.

It’s seriously time for competition in the p2 market. Anybody wanna start a p2 card company? We could make a 400 gig one that mounts on the back and charge $50,000 each. Sweet.

This is my fault for not walking out the door when the store I bought from dropped the bomb they were out. I’m so STUPID! Sorry if I came off a little strong before. At this price point product shortages are very annoying.
jd

[John Davidson]

found one in Atlanta – says it’s in stock – cross your fingers.

[John Davidson]

and now apparently there are no cards in Atlanta, either. Not even to rent – PCE is all booked up.

Wow.

[John Davidson]

JeremyG, you’re a lifesaver. They had it in stock at Fleth.com. Shipping it to location.
Whew!

[Jeremy Garchow]

Good peeps over there, it’s where I get most of my camera needs.

Glad they could help you out.

Jeremy

[Rennie Klymyk]

[John Davidson (fomerly JNeo25)] “Way to go Panasonic. Not one single store listed on the Panny website carries any p2 cards in stock. B&H photo is out, Promax is backordered, Studio Exchange (the guys that sold me this camera) is out, Samy’s in Venice won’t sell it without buying the camera, every shop I hit in Burbank was out.”

Glad you got one but you can’t blame the resellers for not stocking something that is going to drop in resale value by at least 50% in a couple weeks. Inventory can kill a business and in this age of the “information hwy” most of us will put off buying till the new stuff arrives supposedly at NAB.
I know in your case when you need it you need it and the job should justify the expense for you. They will drop in resale value but not in actual value. Your 8 Gb card will replace many many rolls of tape in the next few years.

[John Davidson]

I think it was pretty obvious that I was annoyed with Panny for not having p2 cards avail to the stores who were telling me they couldn’t get any. Listing stores that don’t have any cards demonstrates to the guys here that I’m not just looking at one store online and then giving up. All worked out in the end though.

We shot the first night of the video last night and I’m seriously feeling the love for this camera – 24pn footage is amazing – I can’t wait to get it into After Effects and mess around with it. I’ve read posts about people not wanting to shoot 24pn for a 29.97 final delivery, however I’m fine with just outputting from AE and adding pulldown myself. We’re use to doing that with maya renders (we do 24fps from maya).

Here’s some other awesome things I noticed.

My mom’s acer aspire laptop that we gave her for xmas reads these p2 cards, eliminating the need for a p2 store. Once I loaded the drivers on it and got p2 viewer, that is. That was totally unexpected. Oddly enough, it makes me wonder why anyone would buy a $1500 p2 store or fs-100 when you can get a $800 laptop that does the same thing with twice the hd space – and let’s you view your files when loaded.
Maybe it’s a battery – convenience – ruggedness issue. The p2 store feels like it could take more punches than Patrick Swayze.

Thumbnail playback of footage shot is excellent and very intuitive.

The elipz battery is great, but won’t last 7 hrs if you’re using the ElightZ attachment. That little tiny light sucks power like an electric vampire.

focus assist is your friend.

720-60, slomo shots. Huh huh…cool… It makes me want to shoot scenes like in the Chappelle show when they demonstrated how cool slomo makes everything.

Coming from a z1u ,I thought the camera was a little quirky. I missed the sony design and formula. I’ve changed my tune – the panny is much better.

When we’re done with the music video, I’ll make sure to post it for you guys. It’s country music, but please don’t hold that against me. I’m sure I’m making all kinds of shooting mistakes. Later, I’ll call them creative decisions :-).

Cheers,
John

Cheers,