After experiencing quite a few dropouts using a HDV tape based cam at Burning Man this year, I'm curious if these hard drive / card media cams are for all practical purposes " dust proof " operation wise? How do they hold up under adverse conditions?

Thanks. Craig Peer

The card can certainly tolerate dust better than any tape, as long as the contacts remain clean.

But whether the lens can tolerate fine dust is a big question.

That said, my Sony EX1 has never ever had any kind of dropout. There was an incident in which I got a media error but now I make a habit of formatting the card in the camera, rather than simply erase the files with a computer.

Whereas there is no tape transport mechanism that could be affected by dust, there are still however various moving parts such as the zoom rocker etc which might malfunction - although, if you are going into extreme conditions, you might find that a camera rain cover might help protect it...

going to desert I would get an ewa marine, even if you're not planning to dive :)

Hey Craig, burner here too! My camera held up wicked at burning man. Check out this video of temple of boom i just posted; YouTube - Temple of Boom (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtZ8dSXbVQc)

Nice Mark. That place made my ribcage vibrate.

Think I'll have to pick up a AVCHD cam. I have a cheap plastic " dive bag " to try too, although I'll need to modifiy it to attach an external mic for sound. Might be more convenient to sacrifice a not to expensive AVCHD cam instead.