HXR-FMU128 arrived!
 

Ordered on the14th of January from ebay an HXR-FMU128 (the 128 GB SSD drive you can attach to an EA50). In the Netherlands the thing costs 1000 Euro, now I payed 500 Euro + 140 Euro taxes etc. Today it finally arrived. (Customs in New York and Amsterdam chewed both on it for 10 day's each) I attached the tiny little drive to my Nex-EA50 and it worked like a charm. Now I can dual record. Copying via USB goes quite a bit faster from the FMU128 as well.

An example: I recorded a couple of minutes and got a file of 1.3 GB. Attached both card and drive to my Windows 8 (64bit) laptop and made the comparison.

SanDisk Extreme 32 Gigs: 11 MB/sec and took 117 seconds to copy the file
Sony HXR-FMU128: 30 MB/sec and thus the same file copied in 43 seconds. Nice!

Bert.

Re: HXR-FMU128 arrived!
 

after a few "horror histories" in the Brazilian forum i participate, with people loosing events on damaged/dead cards (not with this camera, but many others), im sure i will try to get one as soon as i can... for dual recording...

When Canon unveiled their newest cameras, they had 2 CF slots, with "dual recording". i thought: THAT is what i need!. the AE50 not having 2 memory slots is a downside, but as the FMU "compensate", i can't complain ;)

Re: HXR-FMU128 arrived!
 

The ea50 does have dual record possibility using just one memory slot but you need to get one of their new mirroring card, their are 2 cf chips attached to one card.

640 euro for the fmu128 is a good deal Bert! Being able to dual record is one of the best features and the fact that the ea50 was specifically build to hold the fmu. It is still quite expensive when you consider you can get 128gb worth of recording space for about 180 euro with sdxc cards but then you"ll loose the dual recording option.
I just googled for a price of teh 64gb (32gb mirror) cards and only found one site that listed it for 281 euro, that's ridiculous expensive considering you only get 32gb worth of recording space in mirror mode, in that case the fmu128 is a bargain.

Re: HXR-FMU128 arrived!
 

The dual card is a nice idea, but it's still one card. So if it breaks, get stuck in the camera or the contacts let loose you still have no data. The dual card I got with the camera is still in it's package and will probably stay there until I sell the camera in the far future.

Bert.

Re: HXR-FMU128 arrived!
 

If you don't trust your recording media that was designed to give you safe backup option then it's best to use several camera's filming the same thing or find another hobby :)
Even with a fmu and a separate card something might go wrong, you only know for sure once you get home and view it on your pc.

Re: HXR-FMU128 arrived!
 

All I'm saying that a safety backup on the same card isn't the smartest solution.

Re: HXR-FMU128 arrived!
 

You are right that the fmu128 AND a 2nd cf card is the safest recording back up as you would be recording to 2 separate mediums at the same time, I have been working like that with my xh-1 and a hvr-dr60 for years.

But saying that the mirror cf cards from sony is not the safest option is just a guess, how do you know it's not safe? Have you seen user reports claiming that is the case? Those cards will even tell you when it's time to replace them because it's a known factor sd cards will fail eventually if you use them a lot. Only pricewise it's smarter to get a fmu as it seems to be cheaper, also there is the risk that the cards could be giving you a message to replace them even if they can last much longer, but you never know and would you take the risk. Sony could force users in that way to buy replacement cards faster.

I most certainly will be using the supplied card first in every paid shoot in mirror mode and when that one is full start to use my normal cards I bought. If I shoot anything important I always have a small handicam attached to my belt just incase my main cam would lock up during a shoot. Even with dual recording solutions your camera could still refuse to boot or give you a warning message and shut down (happened to me once with a sony camera using a generic battery) and then the only option left is to have a backup camera on standby.

Re: HXR-FMU128 arrived!
 

Well I reduce the risk by using 16GB cards during the day and multiple cameras during the ceremony and speeches - Photographers normall use many smaller cards rather than one big one. It's a hassle to change cards (they seem to run out at the most inopportune times) but worth it IMO

Re: HXR-FMU128 arrived!
 

The reason I got one 64gb card was only to get longer continuous shots without interruption should I need it, but I also prefer to use smaller 16gb cards and/or multiple camera's.

Re: HXR-FMU128 arrived!
 

Well one less thing to worry about on the big day would be nice but that price - way to expensive for what it is considering my old Datavideo DN-60 did sort of the same thing (although onto compact flash) for half the price. What we need is for Transcend or Sandisk to bring out their own mirroring SD cards to break Sony's monopoly and get the price down

Re: HXR-FMU128 arrived!
 

Sony always has been expensive when it comes to accessories, my hvr-dr60 was 1400 euro for a 60gb harddrive when I was buying it and I managed to find a grey import one for 1000 euro in 2009. Also the fact that the fmu fits so nicely against the camerabody is a big plus as well. The price of that unit will come down more for sure but it can also be that with the EA50 they have a new reason to keep the price high, in Belgium it's still 900 euro which is ridiculous expensive.

Re: HXR-FMU128 arrived!
 

That seems quite slow for a usb 2.0 transfer, if I use a simple usb 2 reader I get around 20mbs.

Re: HXR-FMU128 arrived!
 

Just for interest GlobalMedia Pro currently have them advertised for 414 Euro which isn't too bad ...that's about $530 in my money but of course I would have to add on 10% tax to that price.

I wonder if these are grey imports??? My local dealer wants $855 for the same thing but that's from Sony Australia with a local warranty too. I must admit I have never had a card fail on me in 10 years (I was on tape before that!) so I feel pretty confident about cards working well but I do replace them every few months and use a special set of 8 cards just for weddings rotating them and renewing in pairs and it's still a lot cheaper than tape. If the one camera died I can always rely on Cam's 2 and 3 as backups as well!

For me something like 12GB on a 16GB card (from Cam 2 yesterday) took 10 minutes to copy but that's from a card reader in the computer out to a 2.5TB external USB2 drive.

Chris

Re: HXR-FMU128 arrived!
 

From CVP.com in England a 120gb SSD disk is £110 while the HXR-FMU128 is £678. Almost 6 times the cost of the drive! Wouldn't it have been cool if Sony just had made it possible to pop in any 2.5" drive in that compartment instead? That would have been a killer feature.

Re: HXR-FMU128 arrived!
 

The price of the FMU128 is like that of hearing aids, ridiculous. SSDs prices are dropping like a stone. To pay $600 is out of control for 128 gigs. Within a couple of years, the price point will be 25% of what it is today and, SDHC cards are reliable and cheap with 128gb just around the corner. I'll wait on this one for sure..