P2 is Panasonics tapeless HD workflow. A greener way, if you will. You capture directly onto solid state P2 cards while you are shooting. P2 uses the DVC Pro HD or AVC-Intra 100 compression format, which each use a 100 Mb/s data rate. This translates into 60GB per hour. One of the big advantages of DVC Pro HD is that the files are not super compressed, so working with them is pretty easy, as long as your NLE supports P2 workflows. DVC Pro HD records 720p footage as 960x720 and 1080i footage as 1280x1080. AVC-Intra 100 gives you full 1920x1080 HD resolution in full 4:2:2 color space. Editing AVC-Intra 100 compressed video requires a much faster computer then DVC Pro HD, so you'll want to make sure you have the horsepower to handle it.
The latest versions of Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, Apple Final Cut Pro and Grass Valley Edius support AVC-Intra and DVC Pro HD P2 workflows (Older versions will support DVC Pro HD only). Unfortunately Sony Vegas does not support P2 workflows and because it's Sony vs. Panasonic, we don't think it ever will. Avid Media Composer 3.5 supports native editing of AVC-Intra without any transcoding or file conversions.
Unfortunately P2 media is still pretty expensive. A 32GB P2 card will store only a half hour of footage but it will run you almost $1,500! While new, cheaper P2 cards were introduced at NAB, I'm not that excited about them because they have nowhere near the useful life or long term reliability. The Focus FS-100 DTE recorder is made specifically for use with P2 camcorders and gives you 100GB of storage for under $1,000.
Recommended Reading
Panasonic has an excellent micro-site loaded with info about P2 HD workflows http://www.panasonic.com/business/provideo/p2-hd/white-papers.asp and an easy to read FAQ http://www.panasonic.com/business/provideo/p2-hd/faqs.asp
~Sampson
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