Of course, this assumes that you will have a handy PC.

Not necessarily. The existing cards are 8GB each. More of a pain for long form work than anything.

I have a conference to shoot in December. A three hour morning session followed by a three hour afternoon session. With two 32GB cards, I would have been covered for for the morning with no swap. Same with a 32 and a 16. However, with two 16s, now I MUST hot swap a card in, and potentially two swaps since they are just short of an hour. Adding an 8GB card in the mix does nothing for me other than increase the number of swaps.

After the morning session, it will be necessary for me to offload the cards, and then resume for the afternoon session. I have an hour to try and do that. So the question will come, can I offload three or potentially four 16GB cards in an hour? We will see, as I am going to time my transfers from my session today.

Great post Alex... and Jay for the update.

Amazon won't ship the Kensington adapter or the Transcend 16Gb cards to overseas. Are there any known sources in the US that ship overseas or does anybody know where to get them in Europe?
Thanks.

Hi, Amazon.de just let me know they would ship my kensington to arrive sometime between nov 17 - 21. As it seems, they are to get new stock in early november. Do have the same info from cyberport.de .

And this is the most performant SDHC Card I found: SANDISK SDHC Card 16GB 30MB/s eXtreme III
SDSDX3-016G-E
Price: 107,66 € @ www.pixmania.de


Hope this helps. Pe.

i found the Transcend 16Gb for cheap here
.: Webshop von PC-HIGH Computers Eichmann :. in switzerland
50 Frs or $43 or 34 euros.
the sandisk ultra II (16G) is 63 Frs, 43 euros, $55.
i still need to test to see if they are not cheap copy.
the 32Gb sandisk is listed everywhere, but no shop indicate they have stock.

What's the difference between these 2?

Thanks Peter.

Different sellers through Amazon......"Bingo" and "HelpdeskIT"

John

Has anyone figured out how to non destructively remove the SxS "door" on the EX1??
I don't so much mind the door being open, but the way it slides forward, it gets in the way and is just begging to get snapped off.

I wish someone would figure out how to replace the Camera - Off - Playback switch with something resembling a real one. In fact I'd settle for a toaster oven switch over the piece of garbage switch they put on these "professional" cameras.

John

I was very surprised to see that weirdo little thing that is impossible to get to the Off position without using precision instruments to do so :)

On the other hand, I heard that EX3's switch is designed better?

OK, I've used EX1 and have EX3 and yes they redesigned the switch - but it's no better, believe me.

Now to my point.

This is a HUGE long thread about cheap alternatives to SxS cards - what a wonderfull thing! Might I politely suggest we don't make it even longer by discussing stuff that is best placed in other threads on this forum that have already covered issues like the switch. Please don't get me wrong, I don't mean to be rude (Honest!) but a cheap alternative to SxS is a very big deal and I spent hours and hours pouring through this thread earlier this week deciding what I needed to buy. I just don't want others to have to spend even longer on the same thing. The excellent posts (a few back) that summarised the main points was very helpfull - just wished I'd waited a day longer so I could have benefited from that!

Anyway, for the benefit of all (going forward) let's try and keep this thread on what works and what the limitations are with various SDHC Flash Memory/Expresscard 34 Reader options etc. alternatives to SxS as they come along and get tested by all you good fellows. 32GB SDHC cards next???!!!!

Chris, and all, sorry for the "mini-rant" but if I've got this wrong please say so and I'll shut up again!

Hey Andy, you are right of course. We are only human though :)

Now, the 32Gb cards you've mentioned seem to be a bit of a mixed bag - which is why I did not mention them in my mini-review posted here on Sat morning.

On one hand, last time I checked, their cost was higher than two 16Gb cards. And, their availability was not immediate.

On the other hand, having 2 hours of footage on one card means that you can lose that much now by misplacing the card, or by a glitch/defect that is possible to occur in the card.

So to me, 16Gb cards by either Transcend or Sandisk seem like a sweet spot right now.

vanishing clips-reappear
 

:... you can lose that much now by misplacing the card, or by a glitch/defect that is possible to occur in the card."

Alex,

I tested the overcranking with an 8 gb transend and kensington reader.
1080 24p @48fps. got error message.
1080 24p @ 38fps, error message sat there and, the overcranked and all previous clipson the card shot at normal speeds seemed to be GONE ! Nothing showed up in camera on the card.

I put it in the laptop express card slot and used sony's clipbrowser and All the clips were still there. the 48fps recorded for 11 seconds and then choked and the 38 was fine for the 20 seconds or so I ran it. The camera went dumb blind but the chip retained the info. Still it is a lesson learned not to try an overcrank with any critical shots on the card. Glitch defect syndrome.

I got a call from SanDisk today the 32GB cards will be out Mid DEC. They will be sending me one for review as soon as they are available.

Brian, have them send me one too and I can test if being closer to the equator effects the chip... :]

I forgot to add in my previous post that the camera now recognizes the "lost" clips. Although I did not remove and reinsert the setup when I was in initial shock at losing the clips so I don't know if the camera just might have re-recognized them on its own.
Than again, 'Lost" is filmed in Hawaii so it just might be an equatorial thing...
Aloha

Just noticed just how cheap Transcend 8gb sdhc cards are now Newegg.com - Transcend 8GB Secure Digital High-Capacity (SDHC) Flash Card Model TS8GSDHC6 - Flash Memory

Has anyone been using them successfully since the thread started? I have 6 of the 16gb cards but might compliment them with some of the 8gb ones.

Dan

I've got the transcend 8gb's, no problems with them, but to be honest i use mostly the 16gb's nowadays.
I can get the 8gb for £12 and the 16gb for £25 from a shop about a mile from my house, happens to be an ebay shop .

Paul.

Paul, good to know. I just think the 8gb size is good especially if you want to give disks to clients or editors to take away from a shoot.

Dan

Common argument with a common counter. It's easier to misplace one of several cards of the same total capacity.

Correct firmware update?
 

I am looking at getting a one year old EX1 ex-demo camera from a dealer. He states "The camera has had its firmware upgraded already so it is ready for the higher capacity 16GB & 32GB SxS cards". Does that mean the firmware is also Kensington/Sandisk ready?

Mark

Check the firmware #. It should be 1.11 (although I have not upgraded myself). 16GB isn't new.

Off topic but could not resist
 

Gints - you do know your name is an anagram for...

Mailing Stinks
Staining Milks
Stalking Minis
Malign Its Skin
Assign Milk Tin
Mint Ski Signal
Giant Slim Sink
Mini Gal Stinks
King Mist Slain

Among others.

Funny. The real nicknames were worse: Gintsmeat, Mint, Iron Balls McGinty and The Gints that Stole Christmas. For a real kick, try googling for Gints Fight Club

Gints, name your custom title (to appear below your name here).

Generic Expresscard reader
 

I bought three different Expresscard readers over ebay from Hong Kong. I tested using a Sandisk Ultra II 16G.
First two worked fine in the laptop but weren't recognised. The third runs fine. I have been able to record just like I was using the SxS card. Long blocks of 50fps no prob. Buttoned on and off quickly, not one error yet. Cost $AUS20 to my door.

It tested as
19.16 74.59
19.19 2.48
4.48 0,022
using Cristaldisk.

One more to come the one that Marek says works, the Unitek.

I also bought some 16GB memory from HK it was $AUS29 for sdhc card! I'll post the performance when they arrive.

So for $AUS50 I have an up and running 16GB card, way better than $AUS1100.

Ross,
please email me the link to the working card.

You will have to send a private message since ebay links are not allowed.
thanks

initial format errors
 

My Kensington 7-in-1 Expresscard 34 arrived today (my Sandisk 16GB Ultra II SDHC card arrived at the weekend).

Put it all in slot 1 of my EX3, closed the door .... :-) and then turned the EX3 on. So far so good.

Then I got a message asking me to format the card so I did. Then I got a "media error, cannot format" type error.... :-(

Turned it off, unplugged everything, re-mounted everything and after 3 unsuccessful goes at this it finally formatted successfully. EX3 now shows 58mins available in slot 1 ...back to :-) !!!!

Recorded a few quick clips and everything now seems to be OK. I'll certainly put it through it's paces before I'll trust it with an hours worth of important clips though.

Did anyone else get a worrying introduction to using SDHC like this?

Hope all goes well for you Andy. Why did you chose Sandisk, I thought Kensington 7-in-1 and Transcend was the working combination.

Mine went flawlessly - formatted successfully and perfect ever since.

Ted, what combination did you use.

I've only used the Kensington reader.

I've used both the SanDisk Extreme III 16GB card and the SanDisk Ultra II 16GB card.

I'm waiting to receive shipment on the SanDisk VideoHD 16GB card and the Transcend 16GB card.

Ross - How large is the Hong Kong-made adapter? Does it allow for EX1 door to be closed?

If link is not allowed (??) then please provide a search phrase to find the item.

Thanks!

Thanks Ted, wonder why Andys EX3 gave those messages.

Just received my Kensington 7-in-1 from Amazon.de,
made in China, waiting for Transcend and Sandisk SDHCs. Will report if any errors occur.

Again, the Kensington+Transcend combo has worked flawlessly for me so far. You can't beat the price!

With a fresh un-formatted SD card you need to switch the camera on then insert the adapter with the card already in it into the camera and then format it. I think the camera gets a little confused when you power it up with an unformatted SD card already in it.

Be sure you buy your SD cards from reputable sources as there are an awful lot of fakes out there. They might appear to work but could prove un-reliable later.

OFFLOADING the SDHC cards in the field - solutions
 

I thought this would warrant a separate thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/sony-xdca...ing-field.html

I've got 2 SDHC combos with the Sandisk Ultra II 16GB cards and 2 Kensingtons. (Amazon UK)

One works brilliantly, even with overcranking at 50 fps(is it meant to?), and the other is a little bit tempermental - about 3 times now has given me the needs to restore message. Swapped around the cards and Kensingtons and it seems to be the card not the reader. Will keep testing as obviously don't trust it yet.

My two Transcend cards arrived today. They are performing well. Each one asked to be formatted, then was ready in two seconds.

Express card readers
 

Hi Alex,

It sticks out as well, sorry about that.

I found mine on Australia's ebay, add ".au" on the end of the US one, then search for expresscard readers, mine came from the Philippines, if that helps you find it.