32GB SxS Pro vs. (for almost the same price) 64GB SxS-1
 

Hi there,
I'm thinking of getting another card. I see the 32 GB SxS Pro card is a little under $800, and the 64GB SxS-1 is a little over $800.
I've not strayed to SD cards because some posters on this forum continue to insist that SxS is the most dependable, and I'm happy to go along with that. But is the SxS-1 inferior to the SxS Pro?
Thanks for your advice,
Malcolm

I have use the 64Gb SxS-1 for a month now, currently owning SxS-1 32Gb (the old one), SxS Pro 16Gb and 8Gb. The new SxS-1 G1A have faster data transfer than SxS Pro, 1.2Gb/s vs 800Mb/s. Can spot the difference in the transfer, every little speed helps, I get 30-35Mb/s constant on my Vista laptop. The SxS-1 is claim to have 5 years of life if every day been recorded at full capacity and transfered. That is already good to me, I didn't shoot everyday, I guess mine guess could survive up to 10 years.

I choose 64Gb because I still feel my footage are best safe in the card itself, rather than transfer to my laptop and backup to an external HDD, and I'm still dreaming to get the PMW-500. A single 64Gb is sufficient for my ENG 3-5 days shooting. So for the purpose of my work, SxS-1 and SxS Pro get the job done, but I find SxS-1 delivers more value to me. I wouldn't sum it up by saying SxS-1 is inferior to the SxS Pro.

An interesting thing, being able to run 3 - 5 days of ENG shooting (non repeatable events) onto one card and reluctance to backup to a computer..

I run 3 x 8GB and 1 x 16GB SxS Pro cards and I back up to a computer at every given opportunity, in fact I am soon to buy a macbook pro 15" with an SxS socket built in specifically for in-field backup.

Not sure how I'd cope with all a weeks shoots on a single card if that card went iffy for whatever reason. I tend to finish a shoot and transfer immediately. I am tempted by the cheaper card options, but have not yet had the courage to try them. Not had any problems so far with the SxS Pro sticks iether.

Didn't mean I didn't transfer it. I still transfer all my footage by the end of the day, but without formating it when I have the 64Gb on my hand, and this is when I think I still have sufficient space to shoot on the next day. What I mean is I believe my footage are safer in the SxS more than my 4 years old laptop and the portable HDD. If I still have my other SxS to spare, I'm not formating the card at all until my next job. :-)

Sorry - I apologise, it was your comment "I still feel my footage are best safe in the card itself, rather than transfer to my laptop and backup to an external HDD" that I took to mean you preferred to have your footage on the card rather than transfer it to more robust storage media and therefore didn't. If you are backing up the card you are doing as much as most of us are doing.

If you are worried about HDD reliability in the filed you could try a solid state hard drive or a DROBO to backup to, depend on what you've got as power sources available to you. I backup to a 5 year old dell laptop that has a raid 0 array on it - so it's not by any means the safest to backup to (probaably the worst as I am relying on two hard drives being stable instead of one) but I still trust it sufficiently to wipe my cards and start again mid shoot..

That said, I am in the market for a good s/h macbook pro which I will probably stick a solid state drive in and have a safety external solid state drive as an addition in field.

Sony have recently offered £80 ($130 todays rate) for an 8GB stick surrendered to them against the purchase of the new 64GB stick - which sort of mmakes it more attractive.

No worries. Should have explain it much clearer. That offer is attractive, wish we could have the same here.

Everything I've read about the difference between the PRO series is the number of write cycles. You can look it up to get the figures but S x S-1 will last for years. I use (2) 32 gig cards myself.

Hi Dave,
Would you mind providing a link to that deal? It might just cause me to push the 'buy' button...
Regards, Malcolm

Interesting thread, but can I change the direction a bit? I am (very, very reluctantly) about to make the jump from tape to solid state. Can anyone recommend a light weight, reliable way to save 10 or 15 hours of memory card footage while out in the field. I dread carrying another 10 lbs of baggage as laptop, and hard drive, and reader and power source, as well as copying and reformatting cards before getting home and really reviewing the footage. Tape is so easy, so cheap and so convenient. Oh well, that's progress.

Sure, these two are offering the deal sponsored by Sony: http://www.cckmedia.co.uk/ /
Sony SxS Trade-In Promotion - News - Proactive

Is a good deal - I have three 8GB cards and would like the 64GB's but I still can't afford it - don't need it badly enough..

I had a Canon XL-H1 for a while that I hooked up a FireStore onto. When I found it was lacking in space I changed the hard drive to a 320GB which gave me about 11 hours. I guess I limited myself to the 11 Hours whatever it was by choosing the 320GB drive, if I had gone bigger...?

Maybe the same could be done with the Sony PHU 120K - it is a hard drive inside it..
Could also consider solid state replacement in the same unit?
You would of course have to forget any idea of warranty..

One of the Nexto units?

Yes, Nexto looks like a perfect solution. It isn't large and he fact that you can quickly review footage removes a lot of anxiety.

Thanks Dave. Unfortunately, I live in Canada, and I don't think I can get that rebate here.
Malcolm

I went and checked the online claim form - it only lists European countries, thats a real shame..