e-Films Australia releases the e-LCR Expresscard/34

[Ross Herewini]

e-LCR Lockable Card Reader

E-films Announce e-LCR Lockable Card Reader

Sydney, Australia, July 2009 – As a result of ongoing research to improve the use of Sony EX1/EX3 cameras, E-films has released the e-LCR Lockable Card Reader. The SDHC card is semi-permanently locked inside the e-LCR ExpressCard/34 device, eliminating completely the chance of accidental ejection of the SDHC card while recording, transporting or downloading.

The original E-Films MxR card featured a push in / push out mechanism for insertion and removal of SDHC cards. The original concept was for users to buy two MxR card readers and then swap SDHC memory as they continued to shoot, in the same way they would use SxS memory. As SDHC cards are very affordable, this was an attractive solution.

“It soon became apparent that our users were buying 4 or 6 cards, and many bought ten or more at a time. They had realized that SDHC was too small and difficult to swap in the field, we received requests for a card where the memory could be secured when inserted into the card reader”, says Ross Herewini, head of Product Development for E-films.

“When we asked our users how they thought a lockable card should be implemented, the one common response was they did not want it permanently locked, that is to say, sealed permanently into the ExpressCard reader. Rather, they wanted the option to swap out the Memory Card, as requirements changed”.

The original E-films MxR already offered recording to Transcend 32GB memory cards, and the e-LCR extends support to the Sandisk Ultra II 32GB model as well. This means that the two largest suppliers of 32GB memory can now be used for affordable professional video recording using Sony’s EX1 and EX3 cameras.

“With the growing availability of 32GB cards, we wanted to be able to offer more choice of SDHC cards to our users. I love the fact that we are offering two great improvements to our MxR card in one go - more security with lockable functionality and a much bigger choice of mainstream SDHC cards to work with”, says Jeromy Young, Business Development Manager for E-films.

Specifications

The e-LCR supports all SD formats and all HD formats (1080i and 720P). The e-LCR uses the USB 2.0 protocol to record from the EX1 and EX3 cameras to affordable SDHC memory.

Price and Availability

The e-LCR will retail at $59.95 excluding SDHC memory and is available worldwide from 20 July 2009. To find your local value-added reseller please visit E-Films Video Productions for details on where to purchase the e-LCR.

About E-films

E-films began life as a video production house concentrating their efforts on the corporate and event video markets, winning many awards for their innovative video work. Leveraging this intimate knowledge of what video professionals really want, E-films now design, manufacture, and market products targeted at professionals like themselves. Dedicated to providing practical solutions for production professionals at prices that allow even the smallest production units to benefit, E-films identifies issues in digital tapeless workflow and engineers products to solve these problems.

Further product information can be found at e-LCR Product Information page.

[Dave Raizman]

I've got three MXR card readers that worked fine with 16gb Transcend (class 4) cards but have had "media restore error" problems when I tried to use the 32gb Transcend (class 6) cards.

Is the locking mechanism the only difference between the MXR and e-LCR cards or are there other differences that make the e-LCR cards better at handling the 32gb cards?

thanks,
Dave