B&H has a used fmu128 for $589
 

Saw this earlier today, and I'm sure someone will want to grab it!!
I would definitely buy it myself if I had the money :(

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/800710109-USE/Sony_HXR_FMU128_HXR_FMU128_Flash_Memory_Unit.html

Question
 

Just a thought, and this could be me being stupid but...

A new 16GB Transcend SD card goes for $ 39.50; $ 2.5 per GB.
The second hand FMU128 is going for $ 589; $ 4.6 per GB.

Why pay almost double for one block of storage compared to lots of bite-size chunks ? The only plus I can think of is transfer speed. The cons I can think of would be putting your eggs in one basket, paying more and not being able to distribute data storage amongst multiple cameras.

Just wondering, that's all.

Aaron, when you shoot LOOOOOONG shoots, having a hard drive that can shoot 11 hours of footage with out having to pause/change cards is an awesome tool. I am able to film 3 hour long conferences with out having to worry about the recording at all. Although... I must admit... I only spent 250 on it :-X I was fortunate enough to get the rebate for it, and am so happy that I was. But also, with the cards, you have to take them out/put them in and over time they ware out and break down, the harddrive is great because it just snaps in and, in my opinion, will last far longer (I have had many SD card failures in the past, not with this camera, just through out). I am not necessarily saying that the fmu128 is for anyone, but for videographers, I think it is an awesome tool that not a single one should be with out. Recently I was hired to do a wedding and we were on the clock for 12 hours. A lot of stuff goes on in 12 hours and I never had to worry about missing anything while changing a tape or card.

I can see it for loooong shoots but jeepers, how many shoots have any of us done that requires more than ten hours of continuous shooting from a single field camera? Seems a capability looking for an application to me.
And it does seem to be a problem with Sony's business model. Sony doesn't have the volume on this item to stay anywhere close to the market price for memory. We can expect the cost of cards to continue to drop making the FMU a worse and worse buy. Will Sony make a bigger FMU? Yes but by the time they do we will be sticking two 64 gig cards in the side.
I do think this connection may be a plan for more storage options going forward, hard drives, that sort of thing. And it wouldn't be at all surprising if this interface doesn't do more things on other cameras in the future, 3D storage, remote and robotic controls, transmitters, etc.

Marc, you make an excellent point
I definitely would not have bought the fmu if I didn't get it with out the $500 rebate. but I still love it. so far it has made shooting awesome. Another point I forgot to mention is that you cant simultaneously shoot to two cards at once. This feature is something that I love having as a videographer, able to have a back up of the footage and/or hand off the footage to another person if needed (client, editor, etc...) There's just so much you can do with it.

I second simultaneous backups as the biggest advantage of the FMU. Though I agree it's way overpriced, even at the used "bargain" price, but SDHC cards do fail. I got the rebate so it was well worth it for me. For those who didn't, Sony has you by the cojones, so to speak.

Tapeworks has the HXRFMU128 Brand New on sale for $650
Sony HXRFMU128

And Transcend 16GB Class 10 SDHC Cards for $59.00
Transcend TS16GSDHC10 16GB SDHC Class 10

Best Regards,
Scott Cantrell
Tapeworks Texas Inc - DVinfo Sponser
866-827-3489
tapeworksscott@sbcglobal.net