Free 8gig P2 Card Promotion

November 14, 2006

For those of you who just recently purchased or are planning on purchasing an HVX. Pansonic is throwing in a free 8gig P2 card. I just wanted to let everyone know who had recently purchased that they could be eligible to get one. The promotion is for purchases of the camera from Pansonic authorized dealers since 10/1/06 through the end of the year.

Check it out:

click on the below link > then click on "special offers" beside the HVX > Up pops a window about the promotion

http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/s...atGroupId=34401

Unfortunatly mine is two months too old to be eligible but it if yours is, jump on this.

Alfredo Melendez · November 14, 2006

Im pretty sure they will keep this offer since the p2 cards are useless compared to a hard disk like a firestore or similar where you could record 10 times the data that you do on a card.They made the hd available only by using the cards so you would have to buy them.But with products like focus firestore im preety sure they are not selling many.Maybe if they came up with a card with a firewire attached so you could record directly to your computer or an external hard disk.They also made the p2 so none of the dvx100 accesories will fit and you would have to buy everithing all over.The good news is of most prosumer cameras the p2 looks the best and has the most options. B)

Edited November 14, 2006 by Alfredo Melendez

Thom Stitt · November 14, 2006

You know, I've actually heard a lot of really bad things about the firestore. The overall lack of P2 support does kind of suck, I agree, but if you're a mac user there are plenty of options. You don't even need a hub in fact, if you have one of the macbooks with a P2 slot built in. And not to mention Final Cut Pro's built-in P2 import option. You can get a macbook with a P2 reader for around 900 dollars. Install the drivers and get FCP up and running, and/or P2 software like P2 genie, and you've got yourself a damned handy on-set weapon.

P2 cards work wonderfully in my (limited) experience with them, and I'd take them over a firestore any day of the week, based on several reports I've heard from people I trust who have tried both.

There's just no way, NO WAY, the P2 cards are useless compared to a hard disk.

EDIT: I realize I should add here that I'm specifically talking about dramatic filmmaking. If you're talking documentary, that's a different story altogether.

Edited November 14, 2006 by Thom Stitt

November 15, 2006

Two real quick thoughts about the usefullness of the P2 cards.

1. I own an underwater housing that is just snug enough for the camera and so there is no room for any external harddrive. And while I understand that is a rare occurance compared to the mass uses of this camera but its a big one for me.

2. The firewire harddrives don't support every format that the camera will shoot in. For instance you cant take advantage of the "Native" shooting formats of the HVX over firewire. Now, that said, Cineporter is putting out an external harddrive that will connect through the P2 slot effectively supporting every format and further reducing the need of the P2 cards.

and actually heres one more, any way to cut down the weight of the camera that is already bulky is a good thing. Being that all that weight is on you arm for handheld work as opposed to your shoulder like larger camera bodies, I would much prefer to limit the accessories on the camera more often than not.

Phil Rhodes · November 15, 2006

Hi,

No laptop in the world has a "P2 slot." What they have are PCMCIA slots; it's an age-old standard.

Phil

Michael LaVoie · November 15, 2006

I just wrapped a short on the beach and we were shooting with a Firestore. Everything was going great untill the cable connecting the camera and firestore got snagged on some rocks and the 4 pin firewire connection at the camera end broke and shut us down. A six pin connection would have been much better suited for fieldwork. Hopefully on the newer model. But if we had a P2 card, we could have kept shooting.