Lastest on P2 Varicam?

[Noah Kadner]

My gut tells me we won’t see anything like that until NAB in April ’07 and then perhaps it will follow the usual Winter release pattern. Meaning if you’re holding out for a P2 Varicam you could be as much as a year out. Then again it might also be tomorrow. IMHO if you have projects to shoot today you go with the HVX. It’s cheap enough and resellable enough this is not a big risk and the footage looks great.

Noah

[Chris Baldwin]

Thanks Noah,

Actually I’m sold on the HVX. I’m buying one mid Sept. (unless cineporter deal in october is too good to not wait for…)

Irregardless I’m scared about not having a 2/3″ ccd camera in the house ready to work and we’ve stopped using our Sony DVCAM DSR300 and been renting a SDX900 for the past year. I’ll immediately put the HVX to use for my doc projects and for my podcast and so on and for broll in Varicam tv shows that come to town; but the HVX isn’t supposed to replace the SDX900 for SD work is it?

If I’ve got the desire and work to switch to P2, but the clients that want 2/3″ccd SD for another year or so – and I have the budget room in Q107 for a 2/3ccd camera …

Here I go again, but I am leaning towards either buying a good used SPX900 with an new HD lens and using our existing DVCpro50 deck. (and upresing to HD if we need/want to – maybe even cross cutting HVX200 footage in SD or HD) — $30,000

OR

Plunging into P2 and buying an SPX800 with an new HD lens and investing another $10k into aquistion media and archival solutions. (and upresing to HD if we need/want to – maybe even cross cutting HVX200 footage in SD or HD) — $50,000

And waiting until the P2 Varicam comes out before selling the SPX800 or 900 for $8000 come Q108

The only other idea out there to me is to buy the HDX900 and a HD1400deck and downconvert the footage for SD clients, live with tape for the big camera projects and let P2 truly come of age with my HVX projects. Problem is that the same aquistion media and archival solutions I’d need/want for the HVX workflow would then not be utilized by the HDX900. And I’d be investing in two post-solutions instead of one. — $65,000

My $numbers are based on camera, lens, monitor, bats and either decks or media.

The HVX isn’t supposed to replace

[Roddy Jamieson]

[Chris Baldwin] “HPC2000 – great 2/3″CCD P2 HD camera but it doesn’t do 24/30p or SD, need to invest in about $10,000 of acquisition media and archival solutions.”

I think you’ll find the HPC will shoot All DVCPro formats 25, 50 and 100.

Roddy Jamieson

[Chris Baldwin]

but unfortunately it doesn’t shoot 24/30p

[Noah Kadner]

Nothing trumps good optics and the SDX900 is a sweet, sweet picture. Still I’d suggest some tests to see what meets your workflow. The HVX is solid.

Noah

[Chris Bell]

Panasonic is working on a new H264 based codec. I would not expect to see a P2 Varicam until this new codec is implemented. Maybe next year at NAB.

Chris Bell

[Jeremy Garchow]

??? What?

[Tony]

Yes I have seen it and was told it would be available tomorrow but just not shipping for the general public at large.

Due to the massive backorders on the HDX-900 Varicam P2 will not be available unless Fed ex is able to deliver them overnight for free.

Cmon dude get what you need today to start making money and producing solid ROI instead of speculating what next the next super hyped digital miracle could be.

With the price of the SDX-900 so low now you could have it paid off several times by the time the next digital marvel is actually released.

Tony Salgado