need advice on how many SxS cards to buy

[Ted OMalley]

Originally Posted by Francois Dormoy

Another question: when travelling by air I may only bring with me one carry on baggage. So that means I could not bring with me as carry on bag both the EX1 camera case and the laptop bag. And I would hate to let the laptop go into checked baggage.
So I am wondering if it is possible to find an external DL DVD burner, small enough to bring anywere with me, that I can plug into the EX1 camera (and powerplug it to a wall outlet in my hotel for example). In other words, can I use a DL DVD burner which is not built in a laptop and that can be connected to the EX1 to transfer the Sxs card data into a DL DVD ?

Typically, and unless something has changed very recently, airlines permit you one carry-on AND one personal item. For woman, this is frequently a standard carry-on suitcase and a purse. However, if you don't carry a purse, a briefcase is an allowed alternative to the "personal item" that you bring. So, your HDCAM EX in a stowable camera bag and your computer in a smallish "briefcase" style computer case should be completely acceptable.

[Paul Joy]

I recently purchased 2 x 16Gb sandisk cards as well as the two 8Gb ones I already owned. I could have purchased a Macbook pro for the same price but as most of my shooting is done on my own I really couldn't stand the hassle of carrying the laptop around with me as well as all the other bits and bobs that I seem to think are essential :)

I think it depends on what you shoot and how much time you have. If it's a leave the cam on sticks rolling type of shoot then a laptop would be fine, but if you need to be on the camera the whole time then constantly archiving to HD would be a real pain.

Paul.

[John Markert]

Originally Posted by George Kroonder

That won't work as you can't use it to offload SxS cards.

George/

P.S. You may be able to use this to offload Flash XDR/nanoFlash CF cards.

You can offload from Ex1 and Ex3 with a USB cable. Pretty neat alternative to the Sony drive, and very inexpensive! Now, how reliable is it?

[George Kroonder]

Originally Posted by John Markert

You can offload from Ex1 and Ex3 with a USB cable. Pretty neat alternative to the Sony drive, and very inexpensive! Now, how reliable is it?

Not sure if you mean that there's an "offload drive" that acts as a USB host and accepts USB devices (like a stick or an EX), but even then you have to switch the camera into data mode and you will only get ~5x real-time at best...

I guess that would be an option for offloading cards at the end of a shoot when traveling really light...

George/

P.S. How reliable such a single disk is, would be debatable.

[Francois Dormoy]

Originally Posted by Harm Millaard

My initial reaction would be to get 2 x 16G cards,

Well, 2 SXS cards with 16 Gb cost USD 1,800 whereas the PHU-60K hard drive with 60 GB capacity and connectable directly to the camera costs about USD 1,000. So why should we spent so much in SXS card to just get 32 GB versus 60 Gb with the PHU-60K?

[Alister Chapman]

Because the PHU-60 can only record standard frame rates. I won't do over or undercrank.

[Ted OMalley]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

Because the PHU-60 can only record standard frame rates. I won't do over or undercrank.

Now how is it that I never caught that before? That's quite a sacrifice!