Saving PPs to an SxS card
 

I'm a recent convert to EX1R from Z1 so my apologies if my question seems rather basic.

I'm impressed with the EX1Rs ability to import PP settings from a card. My problem is that I need to import two profiles and apply them quickly to each of two EX1Rs we are renting for the day to shoot our weddings - we formerly owned three Z1s.

I note that each SxS card can only store one PP. I therefore need two cards.

I realise I could keep the PPs in my own camera and load each to an SxS card before each job ready to be loaded into the rental cameras but that's a palaver I'd like to avoid. Equally devoting even two 8Gb SxS cards to the purpose is a cost I can't justify.

So my question is whether I can use SHDC cards in an SxS adapter for this purpose or if the cards have to be actual Sony SxS cards.

I have copied all settings including PP's (8) from one camera to the other. I love this feature but just remember to change the file name you have set up, so if using two cameras you are not using the same file name on both cameras.

I am not sure why you felt you could only put 1 PP on a card.

As I warn on my training DVDs, you need to be careful when transferring picture profiles on the EX camcorders, due to the stupid design by Sony. You can’t pick and choose which PP file(s) to update. So if you decide to load a setup file, you won’t just be loading one picture profile, you’ll be changing all six of your Picture Profiles and almost every other custom menu setting on the camera all at the same time. So make sure that’s what you want to do before you do it.

Personally, I'd never load a setup file that wasn't my own. Too risky that something deep in the menus would get changed without me noticing -- or even if I did notice, it might take longer to fix all the other menus that got changed than if I had just done the PP settings by hand. If I really needed somebody else's PP, I'd program those settings manually one menu at a time.

Doug, I love your DVD training, worth every penny.

I agree its crazy you can not choose and pick, so I do like you mentioned and I have an A cam and B cam. I always make changes to the A cam and then back those up. I only have to make on change and that is to the file naming but I do this as soon as I copy the setup file. If its something simple I will just manually change it on both cameras.

I do love the fact that when I got a second EX1r, it took only seconds to have it set up the way I shoot.

Doug and Denny, thank you both. As you'll have gathered I was under the impression that PPs were saved individually, not all at once. That's fine because we want to have two PPs, one internal under tungsten and one external under daylight based on one of the recommendation we like in the spreadsheet.

And we want them both in all three cameras so a single file will do for everything.

That leaves only my first question please, can I use an SHDC card in a converter or must I devote a genuine SxS card for the purpose? ( The idea would be to retain the card unused solely for the purpose of changing the PPs on the two rented cameras to my selected ones).

Philip,
I can't answer your SDHC question because I refuse to shoot on anything but real SxS cards.
However, I would be very surprised it the SD cards didn't work for camera data files. I suppose there are lots of people reading this who can check it out for you.

What I do is store a copy of my camera data file on every one of my 6 SxS cards. That way I can always reload it from any card that is in the camera. However, if you go that route, then you shouldn't ever reformat your cards or that will also wipe out the camera data file stored on the card. That is the reason I haven't reformatted my cards in almost three years. I use the "Delete All Clips" command so that I can clear off the video clips without touching the camera data file and anything else I may have put on the card.

If by chance a card did get reformatted, no big deal. I could just resave the camera's current settings onto the card to replace the missing data file -- assuming the camera still had the original data file settings intact. And if it didn't, then I've got 5 more copies of it on my other cards and it's backed up on my computers.

Denny, thanks for the feedback on the DVD. That's what I like to hear!

Doug, thanks for the message and the suggestion. I've always reformatted the CF cards that I used in the MRC-1 simply because it's always been my practice, a sort of complete reset, but your recommendation seems the way to go.

I share your view about SDHC cards for normal recording, my consideration was only for the storing of the PP data.