Michael B.
Forum Replies Created
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To all:
Thanks to everybody for all the feedback and well wishes.
We’re moving forward now that my editor is back in town and he has a G4 laptop with a PCMCIA slot. He’ll be on set from this point on for whatever filming time we can afford over the next few days. This laptop method works much better than the P2 Store ever did.
Lesson learned? The PC Slot rules! And, don’t trust anybody who says they know the workflow until they can prove it.
Cheers.
Michael
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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.
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My understanding was the drivers were installed. I know that the DP had gone to the Panasonic website looking for downloads.
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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.
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You got that right. We love the camera itself. But the P2 cards and the P2 store – combined with trying to interface it with our computers – was and still is a nightmare for us.
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My DP and AC visited the rental facility several times so they would know the system inside and out. The DP had a choice of cameras and this was the one he really wanted to work with.
However, the glitch came when the P2 cards were full and we struggled to get them back in use. Interfacing the P2 store with the available computers was a nightmare.
Somebody earlier today wondered why we didn’t use the PCMCIA slot instead of the P2 card. Unfortunately, my iBook or my Power Mac doesn’t have a PC slot. I looked online today for a PC slot that I could install into my Power Mac but haven’t found one yet. Anybody got any ideas?
Michael
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Jan,
I love Panasonic and shot my last movie using the SDX900. Great camera and I was going to use that one again except for a bunch of DVD companies who wished that I had shot on HD.
This time around, I did go the HD route.
As far as getting a hold of you off list, what’s the best way to reach you? I spent one morning calling Panasonic for help (New Jersey and in Los Angeles) but didn’t get to the right people.
At this point, I have media files in 3 different computers and this is a total mess.
If you can do anything to help get our movie back on track (files found, opened, and sitting on one drive), I would be VERY, VERY, VERY appreciative.
Sincerely,
Michael
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Daniel,
We had two cameras, six P2 cards and one P2 store. Even shooting with the delays and the company giving us four more 4GB cards, the cards and the P2 couldn’t keep up. The P2 transfer times were killing us and the P2 store transfer times killed us, too.
To do the next take was like waiting for somebody to go to 7-11 and back. Everybody’s standing around and we kept losing momentum.
Michael