Panasonic P2 quirks

[Mike Schrengohst]

Here is a great FAQ on P2 store interfacing with the MAC.
Did you have the P2 store formatted correctly.
The biggest problem I have seen when renting
equipment is not having the proper drivers installed.

https://www.moviola.com/Cameras/C_P2_faq.html

[Mike Schrengohst]

And

ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/pub/Panasonic/Drivers/PBTS/engineering/EB_P2_Store_Compatibility.pdf

[Gary Adcock]

[javamikey] “Once on set, the reality of using the P2 cards and the time to recycle P2 cards became one challenge of many to come. They get used up too fast on a feature film. The P2 store doesn’t transfer media fast enough to keep up, either.”

P2 cards are like batteries, so you will need to carry a lot of them. 3 or 4 additional cards from the rental house would have solved this problem.

[javamikey] “Still, we suffered problem after problem with things such as reading files, losing files, corrupt files, etc.”
[javamikey] “After three days of trying to make a movie under these circumstances, we had to cease production and send people home in order to stop the bleeding. As you can imagine, we took a serious financial hit over this.”

Better Pre-production would have help you This is a change in the way things work and a reevaluation of your existing workflow is Necessary.

Don;t you really feel that if you had spent a day shooting and testing the camera in a real world situation a couple of weeks prior to the shoot, most of these problems issues could have been resolved?
It seems to me a couple of days of camera rental would have saved you from “sending your crew home”

gary

Join us at the NAB FCPUG SUPERMEET
Wed April 26th @ the RIO for details go to https://www.lafcpug.org/nab_2006.html

[Michael B.]

Gary,

Please note that I sent the camera team to the rental house a week prior to the shoot to learn the system. It’s not like we just picked it up one day and didn’t ask questions. I had the DP on a movie prior to this and he did a good job.

For the record, the camera works great. It’s the card turnover and the P2 Store not liking our computers (combined with the initial customer service response by the rental house) that hammered us.

We tried several different computers on set and the P2 Store didn’t like interfacing with them. One issue would be resolved or a work around was found and a new issue would then appear. Thus, coming up with fresh P2 cards on set became a huge challenge.

Even after the rental house brought four more P2 cards to us, it still didn’t resolve the P2 Store issues. We had dozens of calls out to veteran editors and DPs, had the rental house reps show up on the 3rd day, and tried multiple computers.

The system, when using the P2 store, wasn’t as user friendly as it was made out to be.

In contrast, a buddy of mine owns an HVX200 camera and doesn’t use a P2 Store. He simply dumps the P2 card into a slot on his laptop and saves the media to an external drive. That method works great for him and he’s never had problems.

If your computer has a PCMCIA slot, that appears to be a more sound method.

[Mike Schrengohst]

Did you see this
https://www.moviola.com/Cameras/C_P2_faq.html

and the Panasonic .pdf??

The P2 store will not work correctly unless
you have the proper drivers installed on the computer
you are trying to use it with.

[Michael B.]

My understanding was the drivers were installed. I know that the DP had gone to the Panasonic website looking for downloads.

[Frank Nolan]

[javamikey] “lease note that I sent the camera team to the rental house a week prior to the shoot to learn the system. It’s not like we just picked it up one day and didn’t ask questions. I had the DP on a movie prior to this and he did a good job”

I think you missed Gary’s point. Sending the DP to the rental house a week prior to the shoot to “ask questions” still doesn’t compare to getting the equipment early and actually TESTING your work flow! The nominal rental fee you would have paid to get the equipment a few days early could have potentially saved you thousands of dollars. Sorry to hear you had to shut down production but instead of blaming your misfortune on a new and untested workflow, perhaps you should take note of the advice given and be better prepared for next time. As Jan said there are people working this way with good results.

[Michael B.]

Frank,

When I said that I sent them to the rental house, the purpose was to talk to them AND try out the system. Roll the cameras. Make sure it works. Get the P2 thing down. When I went down there they had a camera up and running and were testing it out. The DP appeared okay with the setup and he’s more savvy on this system than I am.

The big problems came from the P2 Store and it interfacing with our computers. That caused P2 card gridlock. Even the rental house team had problems with it once they showed up. We did updates and downloads and still had problems. It was duplicating the same files over and over. The rental house guy had no explaination for it.

A friend of mine has the same versions of FCP, Quicktime, and OSX on his laptop and he doesn’t have any problems with this camera and the P2 cards. Then again, he has never tried to use the P2 Store.

All I’m saying is that the P2 Store doesn’t like either of my Apple computers as perhaps it should. And we had a whole group of folks feverishly seeking to resolve it.

In short, I want other readers to learn from this and not get boned as we did. And if there’s a good “must do, must have” tutorial to go with this setup, it should be made available early on.

[Frank Nolan]

[javamikey] “All I’m saying is that the P2 Store doesn’t like either of my Apple computers as perhaps it should. And we had a whole group of folks feverishly seeking to resolve it.”

Why is it this problem occured during the shoot but not during the testing at the rental facility?

[Don Wilson]

I don’t want to look like I’m bashing, but I have two friends that own rental houses and I would not in a million years trust any of their techs to educate any of my crew. They are not familiar with the real world typically and do not know computers and how they relate to cameras. I have the same set-up, though have just ordered a Firestore, and after three days or so of making many mistakes, fiinally got it right and it now is a robust, quality system. As well, there is a piece of software called P2 Genie that automates the P2 to computer download, erasure of the card or P2 Store and ejects it, saving precious minutes each time. I know hind sight is lame, but with any new technology, double the effort to become aquainted. I once had a DP throw a hissy fit and made us rent a new Arri camera package. Once on location, he had nightmare problems for all of us with what were usually simple tasks with the old camera. I learned from that pocket book hit. The P2/P2 Store or direct to Final Cut process is the beginning of what will change the way we capture images forever. I was totally frustrated at first and feel like an old hand at it now, and I’m an editor! Anyway, sorry for the hit financially, but stay determined and keep the faith. It really does work.

Don Wilson
AmericanaMediaInc.com