P2 Store or FS100 – How would you choose

[David S.]

If you are in the studio mostly, why not capture directly to FCP?

[Darren Kelly]

We’re thinking about that option too.

Why would you suggest that over the other 2 options

DBK

[Norman Lafranchi]

Why not cut out the middleman? Digitize direct to your editing system. The only drawback is, no safety with the P2 card (although it’s erased soon enough anyway). So I would still get the Focus direct to disk option, then record to both your editing system and the Focus at the same time, if possible.

[Shane Ross]

YOu cannot record to your system and a firestore at the same time. Only one firewire connection and you system and the firestore both require firewire.

The other drawback is no 24PN when you go directly to drive. You will be recording 720p60 with pulldown.

I am too much a fan of the P2 cards. Sure, they are expensive in the beginning, but they pay themselves off in the end when you don’t buy all that tape stock.

Shane

Alokut Productions
http://www.lfhd.net

[Edward Randolph]

Sorry guys, I don’t know how to do the fancy quotes yet.

Shane said, “I am too much a fan of the P2 cards. Sure, they are expensive in the beginning, but they pay themselves off in the end when you don’t buy all that tape stock.”

Why do people keep saying what a savings it is to not have to buy tape stock?
Where are you going to archive your footage? I plan to use hard drives for now and at current prices, it’s costing $.50 /GB or $30 /hr of DVCPRO-HD. I think that’s pretty reasonalble considering that a Panasonic AJ-HP64EL DVCPRO-HD 64 min. tape cost over $30 and the Deck to record them is over $15K.
I was archiving Mini DV at $5/hr on Panasonic master tapes.
I know I have stepped up to HD and it’s going to cost more, but archiving wouldn’t be free if I bought P2 cards.

[Shane Ross]

I plan on archiving to Blu-Ray cartridges when they come available. But currently I am archiving onto 250GB internal drives that I connect via an open firewire case. $90 each. Very cheap. And when Blu-Ray comes available I will transfer to that format.

Shane

Alokut Productions
http://www.lfhd.net

[Todd Mcmullen]

I would avoid the firestore at this point. I had been looking at it as well but it is just too un-predictable, un-native, and just too expensive. And you have to buy an additional battery just to get the full life out of it. I would look into a couple of 4 gig cards and if you are in a studio just offload onto a powerbook and store on HD. with 4 gig you could archive some stuff(b-roll, etc) to dvd. I have 2-8gig cards and a 4 gig and I have been using this workflow with no problem.

Todd McMullen
Flip Flop Films
Austin
Cinematography Forum Leader

[Edward Randolph]

Shane, ” I plan on archiving to Blu-Ray cartridges when they come available. But currently I am archiving onto 250GB internal drives that I connect via an open firewire case. $90 each. Very cheap. And when Blu-Ray comes available I will transfer to that format.”

Me too Shane. I am using 500GB SATAs mirrored for double back-up because I’m afraid of loosing a drive in the middle of a project.I certainly hope the Blu-ray and 50GB discs are all I expect them to be. It’ll be a lot cheaper than a closet full of hard drives.

[Darren Kelly]

OK,

So to summerize, most people would go this way:

Have 2 P2 cards
Ignore the FS until real world field test
Forget about the P2Store
Use a Mac laptop to retrieve the info
Backup to some drives until Blue Ray

Do I have this right?

DBK

[Barry Green]

Not so sure about the Mac laptop though. I know lots of people have them, and that can work well, but the PC side has two compelling advantages — the P2 Viewer program (a free download), and the forthcoming DVC Rack from Serious Magic. I’ve been beta-testing it and while it’s not quite ready yet (hence “beta”), I already find it indispensable. It’s really quite incredible.

So my eventual plan is to get an MBP with BootCamp and run both.

As far as the P2 Store, I haven’t used it hardly at all, but those who do seem to really like it. It would be a good companion to an MBP because it can act as a pass-thru P2 slot as well.

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