SxS 8GB or 16GB
 

OK, I am trying to figure out what would be best, two 8GB cards and two 16GB cards or 4 8GB cards? After watching the EX1 DVD workflow section it was suggested that using 8GB cards was a very good workflow due to the easy backup to dual layer DVD. The drawback to 16GB cards is having to split the files in the folder up in order to archive onto a dual layer disk.

Question is what are others using and are there drawbacks of splitting the files in the folder to be able to archive on dual layer DVD. I like the idea of having more record time with the 16GB cards and if the split is not a big deal I am leaning toward using 2 8GB cards and two 16GB cards.


I am open to other suggestions as well.


Thanks!

I've gone ahead and bought a 16Gb card, and I'm glad I did.

Back up wise, the cards, for some reason use FAT32 formatting, but this turns out to be useful because it means that the shot video is already split into segments under 4 Gb, so two DL DVDs can be used for back up, plus an external hard drive for double security.

I am going with mostly 16 GB cards Jason. They are more cost effective.
Also, you'd rather have lots of storage while shooting and worry about the archive element offline.

Besides Blu-Ray discs are going to probably be like 5-8 dollars 'or less' very soon (25 GB). I have already seen them on sale for 9.99 in many places. Regular price is around $12

When you think of it actually - this is still cheaper than Sony HDV tapes. I buy the master tape and paid $19 a pop for those.
That means about $125 a wedding - for all the raw footage. I'd have to change out tapes early sometimes to avoid running out of tape.

With Blu-Ray (BD-R) - that boils down to only $50.00/Wedding for long term storage. I just pass that cost to the customer :)
In about 3 months I suspect that cost will drop significantly. I wouldn't be surprised if BD-R disks are $5 a pop by summer.
Then you can go HDD for temp storage and BD for archive

Naturally - you can also store to HDD for the meanwhile and wait for prices to drop. I've picked up new 500 GB Seagate drives on sale for $100. That's about $20/Wedding short term storage

BTW - I see Sandisk cards already being advertised in the USA and Canada which are less expensive. About $675 for the 16GB. They are the SXS cards on the EX1 brochure. They are not in stock anywhere though.

Paul

Peter & Paul, thanks for the replies! That is good info. I will go with two additional 16GB cards to add to the two 8GB cards that come with the camera. Yes I rather have more recording time and worry about archive on the back end. I would eventually like two 32GB cards in camera and then sell the ones I am not using any longer. I like the idea of not having to offload the cards until I get home or at the very least back to the hotel. I did not realize the formatted card was fat32 so the data is broken into 4GB chunks? How does the description file get sorted? The file that describes each clip captured and camera settings...Does it need to stay with the MP4's? Can you create a copy of it store a copy with each batch of clips? BD-R will be the way to go for sure, I hope to see those prices by this summer that would be great!

Thanks again!