[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

https://eww.pavc.panasonic.co.jp/pro-av/support/cs/csregistp2m/p2indexe.html

Go to the download page and download the P2 viewer. I think it’s PC only.

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

Pana says you should reformat the cards in the camera every time you use them. The issue with erasing them from the computer seems to be some left over junk that can build up over time and reduce the usable space on the cards, (or so is my understanding). As far as I know, if you are hot swapping cards through the camera and do not have time to switch to MCR mode to format them, you should be fine. Just format them in the camera as often as you can. I’ve done this in windows and never had a problem.

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

I’m in the same boat. I filled out the form the day Jan posted the link, but have not received tracking info or any kind of acknowledgment that the order has been received or processes. If they have not already shipped, I would be more than happy to pay for quicker shipping.

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

And they are not just memory. Maybe Jan or someone can correct me on this, but I believe each P2 card contains four top 1% SD memory cards with a RAID controller/microprocessor as well, (the cards themselves have firmware). They are not just over priced PCMCIA cards, they are digital media you can really trust. Having said all that, I sure wish I could afford enough of them to use my video camera like a video camera. The film-like work flow of a short film load with a long reload time is getting a bit old.

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

Genlock!

I can live with everything else.

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

Are you using Avid or FCP?

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

There’s a bit of info here: https://panasonic.biz/sav/p2/AGHVX200P_GuideBook.pdf
All of the 1080 and 720 over 60P modes are about one GB per minute. The 720PN (native) modes are longer.

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

I’m running Xpress Pro HD and I’m still a little confused myself. The whole process does work, but it sure seems to have a touch of drunken monkey to it. If you haven’t seen it, the avid tutorial is here: https://learn.avid.com:8080/content/tutorials/P2/tutorial.html . All seems just great, if you want to edit from the P2 cards, but if you actually want the data on you machine it’s a little more complex. First, attach the camera to the Avid via the USB cable, then go to the bathroom while you wait for it to scan the cards. Now open the media tool and drag the footage into a bin. You now need to close avid, then use windows explorer to copy the MXF files from the CONTENTS\AUDIO and CONTENTS\VIDEO P2 directories to Drive:\Avid MediaFiles\MXF\1, you might want to go make a sandwich while you wait. Now, be sure to disconnect the camera before restarting Avid. Once Avid loads, again, all the clips should be there.

I had someone tell me to use consolidate from inside media tool, but that never quite worked for me. I hope I’m either just missing something obvious or I hope this process improves on future versions of Avid as it does seem needlessly time consuming.

Am I missing something?

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

you pretty much need to use the HD component output, (Y/Pb/Pr), from the camera. The Panasonic LH1700 would be my first choice by a mile, in fact I plan to rent one for our next project in about a month. It can run on batteries and also has a built in wave form monitor to check exposure, but they are around $2800 to purchase. I have also used the LH900, but I don’t consider it large enough to set focus, although others may disagree. Budget is always a big issue for us as well, so on the cheaper side of things we use Keydigital Component to VGA converters to drive LCD computer monitors. We currently have two paired up with Envision 19″ 1440 X 900 wide screen monitors, ($325 for the converter and $200 for the monitors at Costco). The down side of this is they only work in the 720P modes, the colors are a little off, the image is a little soft and just not as pretty as what the camera is producing, so I would NOT use this method for judging color or exposure, but I do think it’s adequate for focusing. By the way, one of my preferred setups is to put the good monitor, (like the LH1700) at the camera for the DP to use, (that would me), and set the cheapo monitors out for the director, clients and other on lookers to see composition/action, (and to keep them away from the real monitor). Only other issue is the cheapo system does not seem to work when playing clips back from the camera so you may need to review from your NLE or the P2 player on a computer.

https://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ModelList?storeId=11201&catalogId=13051&catGroupId=14625

[Accountneedsrealnameupdate]

We actually need reference marks in the frame that show how the images will line up in the final display. The lines need to be near the middle of the image, and do not block the sides. Pin striping tape or a piece of string and some gaf tape will get the job done, but they are hard to adjust, hard to see in the dark, have parralex problems, are more than one pixel wide, and just don’t look that good in front of the client. All of the HD solutions I’ve found only work in SDI, so right now the string is looking like the winner.

Thanks for the imput.

Kirk