Link: Why changing HDV workflows is a bad idea

Picked up via FreshHDV.com, Josh Oakhurst relates the story of Tommy D. -- a DP who tries out the new Panasonic HVX-200 with the P2 storage cards on a documentary shoot and manages to get into extreme hot water:

"3. But what do you do when the director wants to look at something, oh, four cards ago… Oh, you just hook up the P2 Store to your Mac and view them, right? Not with the P2 Viewer, as it’s only a PC product (?) now. Guess you’ll have to import them into FCP on your Mac.

4. Better have FCP 5.0.4. because 4.5 doesn’t give you a P2 import option. Ok, so say you have FCP 5.0.4, transferring this footage (ie, translating it into a QT takes time. By this time it’s pushing into lunch. Director’s focus has changed from wanting to see something from 4 cards ago, to wanting to *know* that the footage resides somewhere in that little black box of a P2 Store. Can you blame him?"

(read more)

This is a cautionary tale -- not of the Panasonic in particular, but of introducing a new workflow before you've had a chance to test it fully.