That's right, I remember now. Yes, I saw these at Frys too.

Fade in:

ECU, Alan Greenspan. Preparing to speak before Senate hearing on $7Billion bailout.

Big Al: "Lance, be sure to put my supply of Kensington Readers in the vault. After this, I'll need some liquidity."

Lance: "Aye, Captain."

I've been using the Kensington and an Extreme III card on my EX3 for a couple weeks now. Overcranked to 52 I've never had an error. (At 54, it errors out within 30 seconds.) I was curious why I was getting better results than others.

Today, I received my Ultra II in the mail - it was time to test again. I started with a bunch of short clips - starting and stopping as fast as I could. Then, let the camera roll. I've been rolling (crap, another film term to replace) for about a half hour overcranked to 52 with no errors.

My guess, since the Kensington card adapters have proven to be capable of more, is that the EX3 bus speed is slightly faster than the EX1. I don't know if this is the firmware or what. The EX3 was designed to work with the 60GB HD out of the box, so perhaps it was given more headroom than even the EX1 firmware was able to allow for.

Actually that 60GB drive throws restore media errors even in HQ mode, so that's not it.

The EX3 may have a tad higher data rate for USB than the EX1, but as your numbers show, it's not much.
My Kensington will run 45 on the EX1 without errors and 50 it errors, so it may run 49 for all I know.

Based on recent info from testing and Alister's info, the bottleneck for the Kensington / SanDisk SDHC is the EX USB limitations, not the combo. The Kensington/ Sandisk offers a sustained datarate on over 15MB/s, we only need 12.5MB/s to overcrank 24P at 60FPS.

That makes sense, Steven.

I tried a lot of different things as I was trying to push the envelope. At first, I just wanted to hit 45 - halfway between 30 (i was shooting 30p) and 60. When that was successful, I tried for 50. Then I incrementally increased the speed until it gave me an error.

At 52, I'm getting nearly 75% of the overcranking ability - i.e., running at 175%. The reports I'd been reading indicated that people were getting ony 40 safely - 33% overcranked, or running at 133% (if shooting at 30p).

Due to a shipping error, I have two extra Kensington 7-in-1 adapters. If anyone is interested in buying them, send me an e-mail for details.

SOLD --thanks!

Email sent. Hard to get these in Australia at the moment.

I call Kensington US spoke to someone in the marketing department they were clueless that the reader worked with the EX1, also ask if they notice an increase in sells. The Rep inform it was not a big selling item and it was no longer on their web site but the bar code was still active. I ask if I could buy the readers wholesale, she replied if I had one lying around I would send it to you we do not show any stock for that item.

I hope the Rep was wrong.

Amazon just shipped me the Kensington adapter after a few days delay, so apparently there is *some* stock.

You can get the Kensington with ease in the UK. Amazon.co.uk have a load of them in from different sellers all saying in stock. Just orderd one and it should be with me early next week. perhaps US based people should look towards Europe if they want one.

I tried to order from each of the five stores listed as having stock on Amazon.co.uk - and each time I got this warning:

Important Messages
We're sorry. One or more items can't be delivered to your selected destination. Please sign in to change the delivery address or delete the item(s) from your order.

They won't ship electronics to the US - very odd.

Ted - did you try the link in my post above? That's US Amazon and 5 Kensingtons show in stock as of now.

I have been clicking on it all morning. It has consistently said Temporarily Out of Stock.

Where did you see that it said 5 in stock Alex?

John

It didn't show 5 in stock for me - but I ordered two anyway. My hope is that I'm in line and they'll ship as the receive/locate them.

Ron, any update on the i<dot>Connect 18-in-1 reader with the EX?

Would you say it is dependable as the Kensington 7-in-1?

If so, this "may" be our new favorite if the Kensingtons do not start taking stock.

I received the same message this morning but I figured that wouldn't send to Canada. I'll just have to be patient with my current backordered items. It's a "bugger" to have a new camera with only 8Gb of storage. Also waiting for my rebate 8Gb SxS card.

I light of the current economic situation, it may be a very long wait, especially if Kensington is one of the manufacturer's who have laid off its employees.

searched Kensington for europe. There are some on amazon, but unfortunately amazon shops are splitted into countries (.de, .uk., .fr) and you can't get the .UK shop delivering into the .FR (France) or .DE (Germany) region. So far, only Uk guys are lucky.
Tried a search on IT shop and found a few in france with stock, but nowhere else, all switzerland is out of stock for example.
Looks like Sony has already purchased all of them.....
Anyway locked 4 of them from 2 different French shops, so let's see. (i will get 2 of them for sale if all are delivered).

Interesting. The place where I bought my 7 in 1 reader (a major US retail office supply chain) says it has low availability but does not say it's out of stock. But if I try to add it to my cart, it says it is not available for my area.. Funny, but I thought that is what shipping is for? It won't even give me that option anymore.

Maybe Sony did pull a fast one..

Yeah, I had the same trouble.

I can't really imagine Sony doing that - it would be such a temorary fix! I mean, if it sells, suddenly a bunch of brands start manufacturing them. Sony can't buy them all!

I bought one of these at Fry’s a while back MY Ex1 would not recognize it.

I was in circuit city yester day they had SanDisk 8gb Duo cards for $34.99 got to the register range up $109.99 the sign was in the wrong place so they gave it to me for $34.99, there is also $20.00 rebate from SanDisk. I bought it for my son's PSP decided to try it with the Kensingtons formatted the card and it works, but you have to use the SD Adapter sticks out slightly further than the SDHC card.

Hmm..
Brian, I wonder if that idotconnect card was defective, or some how a different card than Ronn mentioned?

Did it have a large Star on it with the manufacture PPA?

May have been defective. I check Fry's here in Houston Yesterday they do not have them in any of the stores, and I think I read something about the idot on that other forum.

MicroCenter has them at some of their locations. They are not available for mail order.

Micro Center - 7-in-1 Media Reader for ExpressCard

Put them in the shopping basket and choose a location. It will tell you how many of them are available at that location. They had two of them at the North Jersey/Paterson location so I ordered them for in-store pickup and drove down to pick them up today.

They also had the 8GB Sandisk Ultra II SDHC cards for $34.99
Micro Center - Ultra II 8GB SDHC High Performance Card

The 16GB card for $69.99 was "on the skid, but not unloaded yet" according to the CSR. Maybe at your location they have them on the shelf.

Micro Center - Ultra II 16GB SDHC High Performance Card

John

I just received notice that my Kensington cards ordered through Amazon (even though they weren't currently in stock) are shipping.

The i-dot-connect card is working fine. No errors. Overcranking on Sony 4GB MemoryStick HG Duo cards up to 56 fps or so at 30p, 48fps at 24p. With Sandisk SDHC 16GB cards, no overcranking but HQ is fine, no errors. Your mileage may vary. :)

Meanwhile I ordered 2 Kensingtons from the Micro Center store in Orange County, and the order is confirmed.

Perhaps Sony should acknowledge a MemoryStick version
 

Ahh, now this is good.

Over here, across the pond, we had a little 'MacVideo Live' event where the SDHC method was discussed. The question was raised about Sony 'blocking' this workaround. Somehow.

But if MemorySticks in Sony adaptors can guarantee either as-good or better-than performance than the PHU-60K, then The Faithful can go that route. Okay, so they're not SxS - no error correction, maybe no guaranteed SloMo, but it would work where the PHU-K may stumble.

I've owned a FireStore, and as a result my ambivalence to such technology has crumbled in favour of solid state. SD vs MemoryStick is a Lilliputian debate by comparison.

So Ronn, the i-dot-connect card will not run 40FPS overcrank (24p) with the SanDisk Ultra II 15MB/s SDHC cards?

You are correct, sir. As stated earlier, it craps out after 15 seconds or so.

I called Kensington on Friday 10/24 and they told me that they do not have any in stock They also said they are still available and that they will be available around mid November. Told them they were popular amongst Sony XDCAM EX1 and EX3 users he seemed interested to know and that he would let his managers know. Maybe we should send them an email or call them to get their attention you know supply and demand.

I'm more interested in the demand/price quotient. I just put in an order for 2 more Kensington's today. My purchasing dept. said that it looked like they had stock. But we'll see. If so, I'll let everyone know where it is... (after mine ships!). :)

Mine shipped today from Micro Center.

My Amazon order shipped today - expecting on Wednesday.

Sandisk Video HD Cards
 

I received my SanDisk Video HD Cards 16gb today TESTED all HQ modes no errors
Stated over cranking out at 56 fps start stop recording strange no errors until I turn the cam off and on got a restore media. I will test at 48 fps and report back tomr.

Thanks for the update Brian.

Lexar 8GB Update
 

Was shooting yesterday with the Lexar 8GB SSD cards and got the dreaded media error, needs to be restored message several times. Did not lose any media but just the fact that it would stop recording made the cards useless. I have 4 of them and I did tests on all 4 after that, it was consistently making errors. I switched to SanDisk SDHC cards then Sony Pro-Duos and no problems. This after a week of no problems. :(

Never mind...

What's the latest word on the Sandisk 32GB SDHC cards? I have a shoot in 5 weeks and I am REALLY anxious to get on the ball with these.

Jay,

Why don't you keep them? If you have two loaded card readers in the camera, you have to remove the entire card reader (with flash card) to change cards. You can only remove and change only the flash cards (with the card reader left in the slot) if you have an SxS card in one of the slots. It would be easier to have 3-4 card readers ready to go. Just a thought.

John

I received another Kensington in the post this morning. Ordered it from Misco.co.uk on Saturday and it arrived today. they have them in stock at £12.99 each +VAT + £1.99 postage. they take Paypal.

Hey Jay
 

Thought those were sold?