Vaughan, I'm not really surprised about local customer support not having a clue about SxS etc They are likely just kids out of school getting $10/hr there to help people put Flash cards in the cameras and computers etc...
For some time I imagine that the best option for SxS cards will be importing them from the US. Maybe online Flash shops like powerinnumbers.com.au will eventually carry such stuff at good price. First up the other option will be vendors like VideoCraft etc but I still think gray imports will be cheaper initially. |
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None of this can be 100% certain until the product actually ships, of course. But it would all make sense. The SxS and EX announcements should perhaps best be thought of as two separate (but strongly linked) items - SxS is a spec with a lot of room for growing into and may be targeted with broadcasters and future high end cameras (HDCAM equivalent) far more in mind than the EX and it's average user. It would allow for much higher bitrate recording than XDCAM disc ever will. SxS will obviously work in the EX, but may be unnecessarily high in performance (and cost) most of the time. Why pay more than you need? A bit like buying designer clothes to do the gardening in.
This would be more analogous to the current situation with solid state memory in forms such as Compact Flash. Fast cards are available for demanding applications, cheap ones for run of the mill uses. It will also be very interesting to see what other manufacturers (JVC and Canon being the obvious two) come up with in the next year or two. Hopefully not another format! (ExpressCard does have a lot to commend it, as so many laptops now come with the slot as standard.) IBC is not that far away now. |
Perhaps a S x S card is just a raid version of the SSD cards. The P2 cards actually are raided flash cards so they can run fast enough. Perhaps S x S just is a short form name indictaing 1 SSD card + 1 SSD card raided together and stuck inside the same shell for faster bandwidth. It would mean that the SSD cards would work no different then a S x S card. It would be like using an external USB2 drive on your PC or using a external USB2 drive that has two internal drives raided together for faster sustained bandwidth. A Expresscard slot is basically a PCIExpress x1 slot so no single device could ever run fast enough to fill the bandwidth of the slot itself. The only way to really get cards that could use more of that bandwidth would be to use some type of raided device.
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So don't cross that single device off your list just yet. (grin) -gb- |
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The many questions he refused to answer are corporate policy. Japan hasn't given the okay for everyone to spill all the beans as yet. -gb- |
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And that's why I believe the presenter when he talked about cards currently on the market for about $200 that can be used in the EX. He was clear that Sony would have cards with faster xfer times (he would NOT mention how much faster for example) but the $200 would certainly work.
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BTW this alludes to another key issue.
It seems clear that, unlike P2 cards, one will be able to buy a cheap (slow xfer) card that one can hand to the client after a shoot (tacking on the reasonable cost of such card to the price of the shoot). The client would be able to use the card in a modern laptop without the need for any special decks (or the equivalent like an XDCAM disk player). |
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Good point about having a choice between SSD and SxS - and I see Transcend is already shipping a 32 GB SSD card for about $500.
As far as RAIDed versus non-RAIDed memory is concerned, why not just use two slots and put the RAID controls inside the card reader? Ah well, that's up to the manufacturers to decide... |
I can go into the Office Max a block from my place and buy a 4 GB SSD card right now. The things are very small. Smaller then a miniDV tape I would say. Although the 4 GB card wouldn't hold a whoe lot of video it is only a little bit more then $100.00 at the store. Buy it online and it should be even cheaper. My whole point is that is you only ever shoot quick short shots a 4 GB card may be all you need for now and it wouldn't really add that much more to the cost of the camera. The card should fit about 15 minutes worth of video which is pretty good for indie productions.
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Whilst even $153 may still be too much to write off or make an extra charge for, it is certainly low enough that you may be able to give away the card for a few days, say. And also low enough for many clients to fork out for enough cards to issue to cameramen as required. Large, fast expensive cards may suit some scenarios - smaller, slower, cheaper ones may be more appropiate for others. ExpressCard cameras may give you the choice. |
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Let\'s not forget the fact that using a camera in a professional situation means [ij]it has to work.[/i] That being said, I wouldn\'t necessarily trust just any storage solution out there. I\'ve already lost some JPGs to a corrupted SD card. So I know from personal experience it can happen. -gb- |
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