Where do you find prices?
I´m thinking of buying them from the US as I´m sure they will be cheaper there. That´s if I get the camera;-)

No one in US has card prices yet. Sandisk did have a press release with MSRP prices in September but apparently the dealer suspect that will change and I'm not sure Sony has said anything either.

Given how much lower the camera prices are now (about $6699 from various dealers) compared what the could have been at Sony's "under $8000" I think some are hoping the card pricing may go the same route.

It would be nice to see the "$900" 16GB cards actually going for $700-$750 but that's all just my speculation.

I'm sure someone will jump on the forum as soon as B&H or AbelCine have a price. AbelCine sent me an email this morning saying they still have no price.

Good ting so far from my prospective is that B&H will at least ship the SxS card reader to Norway, so I guess that will apply to the cards as well. (They won´t ship the camera due to restrictions from Sony, makes sense and any way it´s NTSC)

I just got a quote from the Sony dealer in Norway.
They ship the EX1 with to 8GB cards for 54000 NOK ($10000)
That´s down 11000 NOK ($2000) from what I was quoted when I pre ordered in August.
At least that´s good news

The Camera is both NTSC and PAL. Sony is keeping very tight reigns on grey market for this. Apparntly the dealer must register who they sold too and the buyer must register to receive the 2nd 8GB card.

Sony SxS MSRP Price
 

Odd but I hadn't seen the following link before
http://bssc.sel.sony.com/Broadcastan...EX_media.shtml

It states a price of 400Euro for 8GB and 700Euro for 16GB from Sony.
The really odd thing is the is from Sony USA site and it doesn't have anything about USA price.

It also mentions how they tested the transfer speed (Sony Vaio specs with 80GB x2 Raid 0).
800mbps / 100MBps

That would mean 80 seconds to transfer an 8GB card.

80 Seconds! Now we are talking. I will use a MBP, no raid. How much slower you think that will be?

All theoritical but I hear it might be closer to the 2-3 minutes range to a laptop/hard drive. Hard drive speeds seems the be the biggest bottleneck. Throughput is otherwise fast. That's why I'm too worried about offload. It can be a little slower than changing a tape but you can keep the camera running with another card.

In theory you can copy and probably start a disc burn in the laptop and go back to shooting.

I am really disappointed by these prices. When Sony announced using non propritory expresscard format I was delighted and looking forward to getting 3 of these cameras:
Transcends expresscard prices at release using the usb bus:
16GB $162
32GB $337
http://ec.transcendusa.com/product/p...ressCard&exid=
I had hoped the price for the same cards using the PCIe bus would be about the same.... a full days filming on 4 or 5 32GB cards for $1350. Now it looks like the cards will be atleast $950 for 16GB and hence $7500 for a full days filming. No way can I afford upwards of $22,000 for a days filming on 3 cameras. (I can't unload on to laptop during the day.) This doubles the cost of the camera and puts it miles out of reach for me... Great Camera but looks like sony's going to make all the money from the cards... and it looks like its tape for me for a long time yet :-(

Paul....
As I see it, It's not an issue for filming. They are used to dealing with reels and short record times.

I could see that having two 32GB cards would be nice for event footage.
That's almost 3.5 HRS @ 1080P 35mb/s non stop.


Also, remember this is the entry price for this memory. This starting point is a heck of a lot cheaper than the P2 rollout!

Hi Craig, you say hard drive speed will be a bottle neck.
Do you think it will make a big difference to get a 7200rpm hard disk in a laptop over a 5400rpm?
I will buy a new MBP to go with the camera and your thoughts will as always be appreciated

Juan Martinez of Sony gave a presentation on the EX1 at the NY Pro Tech Expo today.

He made it quite CLEAR that the EX1 WILL BE ABLE TO ACCEPT THE LESS EXPENSIVE Cards (as he had said in the Spring at DV Expo East). He did say it WILL REQUIRE a firmware upgrade and Sony WILL HAVE TO CERTIFY the cards since NOT ALL of them will work.

He did show a current price of a typical 8GB card that will work with the EX1 once the firmware upgrade takes place at about $190.

He did NOT say when the firmware upgrade would take place nor any details about the certification specs/process.

Craig this is excellent news!
Thanks for the info

Juan Martinez is "Senior Manager of Technology, Sony Electronics." I thought I'd properly I.D. the source in case people start quoting sales reps claiming otherwise.

190.00 for 8GB will be Great for extra cards to have on hand in the field.