looking to move to pro-sumer tapeless HD workflow--which camera should I get?

Sorry if this is a little long--I felt like I'd get the best recommendations if I gave you the big picture!

A little background:

I work in a Marketing/Ad agency doing video and web production. We've been using the HVX200 for the past couple of years, and I love the tapeless workflow. I've got everything down to a set of guidelines that I use to help transfer/edit/archive projects, and I'm very comfortable with that. We do everything from :30 TV spots to long-form documentaries, to 3-5 minute web videos to various DVD projects.

Types of projects that I do as freelance:

On the side with my own equipment, I do a handful of video projects each year. Usually 1-2 live events and/or weddings that I tape and hand off to clients for editing. Usually 1-2 promo/corporate/fundraising videos (talking heads, b-roll, etc, etc). And then maybe another project or two that could be something more along the lines of a longer-form (30-60 minutes) documentary. I've actually got one of those latter types of project on the docket for the next 2 years for a local non-profit (low budget!). So over the past 3-4 years in this arrangement, I've averaged 3-6 projects on the side. I anticipate that staying about the same for the forseeable future, maybe towards the low end of that estimate given the state of the economy. That's plenty for me--I have a busy life even without the work, but I like the money.

As I look at getting a new camera to replace my 5-year-old dvx100, I'm kind of lamenting going to a tapeless workflow, simply because some of the work I do is just easier shooting tape. Since I hand off footage for some clients to edit, it's just been very easy to do so when shooting tape. But, I don't want to fall too far behind with the technology, and I'd like to move to HD, since at least certain parts of the technology are finally settling down.

Editing setup:

Mac Pro 2.66 quad with 9gb ram. Plenty of drive space, but will probably need to upgrade to 1tb or 1.5 tb drives in the next year or so. Final Cut Studio 1

Budget:

I'd like to keep my out of pocket expenses to about $3500 (less would be great). I'm thinking I'd probably sell my dvx100 which should bring about $1000. Depending on the format, I may need to upgrade to FCS, but that's fine. If I go tape-less, I'll also need to purchase flash memory, but I can handle that as well (as long as you don't recommend a P2 camera!). So, $3500 for a camera.

I like the new Panny HMC150, but I know that right off the bat I'd be looking at a FCS2 upgrade, and losing my capability to shoot tape if I sold my dvx100. I haven't looked too much at any of the HDV models, simply because I had initially thought tapeless was where I want to be. But as a technology, I guess it's been out now for a couple of years, and it's definitely more established/mature than some of the tapeless workflows. I've noticed that HVX-200's are going for around 3 grand on ebay, and that's tempting because of the DVCPRO codec, but I don't know if I can justify the expense of moving to a P2 workflow for my limited projects.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

Panasonic HMC-150. Shoots AVCHD (AVCCAM) to Flash cards. Very clean codec. I am actually looking at one of these myself, well, the consumer camera. The ProSumer camera has higher bit rate codecs that easily outperform HDV. MPEG-4 and GOP, but better than MPEG-2 GOP.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Shane Ross Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Panasonic HMC-150. Shoots AVCHD (AVCCAM) to Flash
> cards. Very clean codec. I am actually looking
> at one of these myself, well, the consumer camera.
> The ProSumer camera has higher bit rate codecs
> that easily outperform HDV. MPEG-4 and GOP, but
> better than MPEG-2 GOP.

For 4k might as well buy a used HVX200

ChrisMoriarty Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> For 4k might as well buy a used HVX200

Like I said, I love the hvx, but I can see the costs of a p2 setup getting out of hand pretty quickly with needing to get P2 cards and some way to download them. That 3 grand HVX quickly becomes 4500-5000 for a couple P2 cards and a laptop. I love the quality of the HVX, but I just don't think I can justify 5 grand for a complete setup. Now, if hvx's dropped another grand, it would definitely be a tough choice.

Like Clay states...when you start to factor in the cards the prices shoots WAY up. Two 16GB cards and you are at another $2500. With the HMC-150, a 16GB card that holds like 3 HOURS of record time (90 min of high quality) is $90.

Something like that.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Quote
AVCCAM

So, what are the recommended workflows to conform that video, and (assuming a quad core G5, fast drives and lots of RAM), how long does it take to conform an hour of AVCCAM (for example) once downloaded off the cards?

If it's close to real time (I have no idea) then the old tape workflow (which has automatic archiving) still looks pretty good.

I am in the same decision-dilemma space myself, hence the interest.

You conform it to ProRes via Log and Transfer. How long it takes, I'm not sure.