If I'm understanding the manual correctly it indicates on Page 104 (US English) that you can record to an external media device. I assume this would be a portable hard drive connected to the camera's USB port, and formatted FAT32 (via the camcorder's format function). There is a 2 TB drive capacity limitation. If you had a long event to record this would be a great way to do it. I assume that files exceeding 2 GB would be split. I wonder if the camera would provide power to a portable drive, or if you would need external power. Right now I don't have a portable drive that I can reformat to test.

As I understand the manual, you can only offload data from SD card or FMU to an external drive, not actually record to one.
The recording options are SD/Memory Stick and/or the FMU128. Or via HDMI to a Atamos Ninja or similar.

Btw, the FMU128 is rediculously overpriced, don't you think?

Dmitry it looks like you are correct. The manual says "saving", not "recording."

The FMU128 is expensive for what appears to be 128GB SSD. A 64 GB SD card provides 305 minutes of recording time (dolby audio), plenty for what I shoot. A quick search showed average pricing at around $1/GB.

Btw, the FMU128 is rediculously overpriced, don't you think?

These type of recorders are usually that expensive and especially if it has the brandname "Sony" printed on it, your much cheaper off just buying sd cards or even those new dual recording sd cards, I have here a sony hvr-dr60 external harddisc for hdv camera's with a firewire connection, it's 64gb and also costed 1600 euro when it came out...

The FMU is overpriced big time now that 64gb cards are selling for about $70.

I got my FMU128 when I bought my NX5U which at the time had a discount which ended up being about $400 for the FMU128. At that time ( 3 years ago) wasn't a bad price for that amount of memory. It still transfers to PC almost 3 times faster than a class 10 SD card which if you do a lot of transfers may be worth considering. Transfer speed is about the same as the hard drive in my XR500 about 10 or 11 mins for 2 hours of video. Takes my CX700 almost 35 mins for the same video transfer whether I use a SD card and card reader or the on board memory.

Ron Evans

Noa - by 'dual recording SD cards' do you mean the new Sony mirroring memory cards? They are hellish expensive at £177 for essentially 32GB! (64/2)

Yes I was, and didn't know the price yet, not sure if it is "that" expensive considering it seems to be a highly reliable recording solution. A fmu 128 is 900 euro here, if you would use the mirroring cards as a single 64 card and buy 2 they cost about half of what the fmu costs so I rather would say the fmu is very expensive.
I have read it several times that a card has a limited write span and also the fact that the mirroring cards will tell you when it's time to change is better I guess then finding out your data is corrupt. Only we don't know if Sony has hardcoded the replacement time sooner then needed or if the card itself checks if everything is still ok or not, if Sony determines it themself they might try to force you to buy new cards even if it's not needed.
Personally I feel the recording media is equally important as the camera itself, I bet prizes will go down soon.

what it needs is for 3rd party manufacturers to produce them - then the price would drop :)

yeah, but I wouldn't be surprised if Sony has build in a mechanism to prevent those from working, just like they do with generic batteries.

900 euro is expensive the FMU128 is about $650 here still expensive but convenient. The combination , like the NX5U will give you full backup though. For a little more the Ninja 2 would be a much better choice if one is going to spend that sort of money.

Ron Evans

yes, welcome to Europe and our overpriced accesories. :) The Ninja 2 is 960 euro here so yes, in our case a better investment.

I am not going to go with the mirroring cards. I am a big fan of backing up everything I can. Backing up on the same piece of SS Media as your main file does not impress me. Maybe that's why Sony demands such a high price for the FMU, to make guys like me take it against our will.

Steve

the mirroring card is actually a backup, it does not record to one "chip" but to 2 different "chips" which are "embedded" onto the same card (if that makes any sense :D), that's at least how I understand it.
It is technology that still has to proof itself but I know Sony usually makes very reliable stuff.

Thank you. I spoke out of turn. That is a better system than I thought. I believed it was basically a partition on the card.

Steve

Here is some more info about it:

Sony Global - Memory cards - Mirroring Memory Stick (http://www.sony.net/Products/memorycard/en_eu/px/index.html)

I've searched for pricing on mirroring memory stick nothing comes up. Anybody found a source? I got a 16Gb with my 50.

Sony MS-PX64 (MSPX64) 64GB Mirroring Memory Stick compatible with NXCAM camcorders including NEX-EA50 (http://www.creativevideo.co.uk/index.php?t=product/sony_ms-px64)

Really expensive - currently my cameras are MiniDV with Datavideo DN-60 recording to CF cards. I'm uneasy relying on one recorded media but ouch - that price!!! I'm guessing they'll stay expensive until Sandisk or someone else starts to make them

Pete