Anyone know the difference in transfer time with the HQ files between USB and Expresscard34? Mac books don't have expresscard but the smaller form factor is appealing.

I've read a few random posts suggesting Excresscard transfer is about 10x realtime and USB about 4x realtime.

Roughly 2x realtime for USB and 7x for Express, give or take. Depends alot on your hardware.

Im getting 3x real time using the sony card reader on my macbook.. quick enough for me.

I was in your shoes after the first shooting days on location with my EX-3 i used my iBook!!.
It was such a hassel to keep track of everything, (I used the camera for transfer)

I loved the size of my 12" iBook and thought of getting a MB.
My partner has a PC laptop with expresscard slot and I was full of envy everytime he emptied his cards.

I decided to go with the MBP instead, and having firewire is a real plus to me.
Another thing with the MB and USB card reader is that the card reader needs to be powered of the mains, so more stuff to carry and not possible to use on every location.

That said, I really think the MBP is BIG. I can´t just chuck in my laptop and go any longer. It feels like I have to "pack" it if you know what I mean.

When I got my MBP, the cheaper solutions like the MxR adaptor didn´t exist. Now it´s not as important to be able to off load footage in the field since it´s not too expensive to carry enough cards on a shoot.

I can´t really say by this or that, you have to wheigh up the the pros and cons. Hope this post helps

I was in your shoes after the first shooting days on location with my EX-3 i used my iBook!!.
It was such a hassel to keep track of everything, (I used the camera for transfer)



It's frustating, I really don't want a BIG laptop. Now the smaller Macbooks in addition to not having expresscards don't even have firewire!

I do have a MBP 15" but won't take it with me for a shoot unless travelling very far like Australia, Asia, S America or S Africa or for a very big shooting.
MxR gives enough flexibility for all other circumstances.
BTW, IMHO the 15" MBP is relatively small (lettersize A4) and not really heavy. To reduce the weight further down, I think to replace the internal HD
with a 256 GB 2.5" SSD, costs as much as 16 SDGC Ultra II 16GB cards. Very convenient, very fast, low power consumption, makes the MBP very
rugged against bumps etc.

With the sony express card reader and sony sxs card, i was getting 4 x transfer speed, going from the reader, through my pc and out to an external drive connected via usb.

With the express card on my laptop, offloading to my laptops internal drive i was getting about 10 x transfer speed. 3 mins for a full 8gb card.

Nowadays i use the transcend cards and usb reader so i no longer offload on the shoot, i have enough cards for 2 days shooting.

Just for experimenting purposes, i offloaded footage without using clip browser, just using windows, ie right click>copy, with the sdhc card in the adaptor in the express card slot, lots faster than sdhc>usb and clip browser.

Doing it that way though means i have to make a new folder for every card and then i have to rewrapp every folder individually after.

Paul.

With the sony express card reader and sony sxs card, i was getting 4 x transfer speed, going from the reader, through my pc and out to an external drive connected via usb.



Paul.

Is the bottleneck the external usb drive?

im getting 4 hour transfer times for 56 minutes of USB and no one can figure out why. so I am buying an express card slot for my PC. hope that fixes it.

2-3 x with USB from camera.
Expresscard 7 x

Ian!check out that You transfer uses USB2.0 connection.My lappy have for example 2 usb 1 and 2 usb 2 ports.


Regards

Raul

Is the bottleneck the external usb drive?

The bottleneck is usb wherever that is along the line.

Remember, a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link !

Paul.