Re: Considerations and Consequences of P2 technology

Hi Luis, and thanks for your detailed post!

[Luis Caffesse] "A lot of people are anticipating the release of Panasonic's new P2 camera, myself included. ..."

Kinda like a spaceship launch .. will it "go" or will it "blow"? Thank goodness these things usally go more often than blow! May the best (several) format(s) win!

[Luis Caffesse] "... But, there has been a lot of negativity thrown at Panasonic over the use of a P2 only camera. ..."

Certainly some negativity, but mostly I've seen caution born of experience. Everyone brings different experiences to the pasture. Big corporations have millions to spend on marketing & hype (and thank goodness for that or some of us would be out of a job!), but for the rest of us, all we've got is this shiny new pasture dotted with an occasional brown patty (which if you keep reading my message you might just step in ...) :)

[Luis Caffesse] "... The issues seem to revolve mainly around the cost of P2 cards. ..."

Yes indeedy, that's _is_ the whole point and nothing but the whole point. In 2 or 3 years (sooner we hope!) much of this converstaion will be moot because P2-style solid-state video-recording memory will (hopefully!) be so inexpensive many users will use it as an expendable, exactly like we currently use tape.

So, while my blabbering on about backing up & verifying & logging & securing (all in realtime) is temporarily important (IMHO), and Steve M.'s stenorously (is that a word?) doing his bit is temporarily important (IMHO), in a year or two the basis of much of this argument goes away. It doesn't make it unimportant today, but it surely becomes less important eventually. But only when P2-style _media_ is cheap.

Meanwhile, P2-style media ain't cheap, and a simple wave of a marketing hand >poof!< it's "memory"! -- well, I've been to the carnival a few times and I've seen this kind of shell game before. Now, before anyone gets their feathers ruffled, I don't mean "marketing hand" or "shell game" in a negative sense! Hardly! As I said a minute ago, some of us make our living constructing marketing and shell games!

"P2 isn't media" isn't a passage in the Bible. It's Panasonic's opinion/belief/positioning statement, and some of you may believe it, and it may even be true, but that doesn't mean it isn't open to debate.

More to the point, it might just be semantics. It's a breath mint/It's a candy! To-mah-to/To-may-to! Media/Memory! Whatever?

[Luis Caffesse] "... P2 cards require a shift in thinking. ..."

A bit perhaps, but be careful: If while your head is "shifting" you're not being distracted from other equally important issues. I'm not implying that you are, but just cautioning here.

Especially if (if) it can be argued that P2-style chips are in fact media, not memory, then there's little or no shift involved. But then there's a different kind of shift involved, one involving large sums of cash being removed from your wallet -- at least for awhile, until P2-style chips come w-a-y down in price.

However, I understand a perfectly legit business case has and can be made for P2-style media _today_, even at its current pricing! I have no problems with that: If you can afford it (and some can) then it's a beautiful thing!

[Luis Caffesse] "... Panasonic has rated the P2 cards for use up to roughly 100,000 times. That's the equivalent of 1667 60 minute DV tapes. So to compare the price of one P2 card to one tape seems to be missing the point completely. ..."

Yes, digital hardware generally lasts a long time, and as long as (but only as long as) P2-style media remains relatively expensive, folks will use it more like a digital data memory chip than a digital data storage tape. But comparing a camera's memory reuse to how many videotapes you won't have to buy seems a bit silly. For example, in the case of my digital snapshot _still_ camera I don't buy real film anymore and have never gotten a wet-process old fashioned print made from any of the snapshots, but I sure am buying heaps o' paper & ink for printouts and stacks o' blank CDs & DVDs to make backups!

So, sure, with P2-style chip media we'll gradually buy less & less videotape (eventually), but we'll instead buy heaps o' other stuff: optical disks, data-tape, harddrives, network capacity, and so forth.

Saying P2-style chip media will save money or time is like saying office computers will save paper or time. It just isn't true! It's not a reason not to use P2 or computers, but IMHO it's a false arguement.

[Luis Caffesse] "... A 4gb P2 card DOES NOT COST [some large number].
... The current price of a 4GB P2 card is about [some large number], and the 2GB P2 card is now under [some slightly less large nuber]. Prices are expected to drop ... The point here is that many seem to be bashing this new camera based on the cost of P2 memory a year ago. ..."

Bashing? Bashing? Who's bashing? Me, I'm just trying to sort out this brilliant, blinding new future being thrust in our laps -- damn!, where did I put my sunglasses _this_ time?!

Whatever the cost of P2 cards this week, or last, or next, everyone agrees they're curently more than "free" and less than what they'll eventually be. And it's fair to say they cost w-a-y more than even the most over-priced & hyped tape-based media. For the time being. Tune in next month. ;-)

And I hope for the sake of better quality TV news coverage -- for a while at least I can see stingy news producers & executives screaming about the current high cost of P2 chips, and exorting their crews to "do more with less!", much to our news-watching detriment -- the intro of a new, small P2-based camera while cause at least some downward push on P2 pricing.

But I sincerly hope the chips inside a P2 card are actually similar enough to (or the same as?) the chips Mom & Dad & Grandma & everyone else puts in their digital _still_ cameras, because in the near term that's the only hope we have of P2-style chips comiong w-a-y w-a-y down in price anytime soon.

As for "P2" itself being an open standard that other company can manufacture: I hope this is true, but again this hasn't always produced miracles in terms of low, low prices. So the jury is out on this one; here's hoping.

[Luis Caffesse] "... A 4GB card will hold more than 5 minutes of DVCProHD footage if shot at 24fps. ...""

I've seen those projections, and they seem sensible, but until the specs of the new cam are released all these numbers are wishful thinking -- wishes I sincerely share!

Actually, speaking of "shifts", I sure "wish" there'd be more talk about why or why not this cam (or any cam short of a Viper) should have a (reasonably-priced option or built-in) high-speed digital data port which enables output of _RAW_ image data! This is in addition to a compressed data stream like which we're already accustomed to. Give us _all_ the data recording capability we paid for when we bought the camera, please!

In these digital times, now _that's_ a feature a computer geek like me can warm up to! But it's probably just wishful shifting on my part ...

All the best,

- Peter

P.S.: Tape Is dead -- Long Live Tape!
P.P.S.: Oh, and: P2 is gonna rock our world! (Already has?)