I might be wrong but isn't the 800 Mb/s the theoretical bus speed of the SxS card and not the actual data transfer speed when reading and writing to the card?

Checking Sony:
SXS FAQs

SPEED

What is the read/write transfer speed?
The following results are realized under normal test conditions using benchmark software:
Read: approx. 800Mbps (approx.100MB/s)
Write: approx. 640Mbps (approx.80MB/s)

And, the following results are realized when copying a file. Transfer speed measured using a movie file size of approx. 6.6GB.
Read: approx.400Mbps (approx.50MB/s)
Write: approx.448Mbps (approx.56MB/s)

See wikipedia - ExpressCard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia .

SxS cards work via the PCI Express bus, and that has a maximum rated throughput of 2.5Gbs, or 3x what the SxS card is rated at - that's 800Mbs, or 100MBs.

I wouldn't like to try recording an 800Mbs data stream to it, but would expect it to cope well with (say) 400Mbs if everything else was up to it. That's still 8x the 50Mbs used by the PDW700.

That's why it's capable (if the hard drive etc are up to it) of downloading at so many times real time speeds. What this thread shows is that many users would like a choice between that level of performance, and a lower cost/lower performance option. Just be nice to have it via a native card, rather than adaptors.

[EDIT] Just saw your last post Steve. I think the actual results (400Mbs/448Mbs) are with one specific test system, so will vary with different hardware. Interesting to see more than 400Mbs actually being achieved.

Well, here's another combo that seems to work well:

Sandisk Extreme III 30MB/s (no surprises here)

plus this expresscard adapter:

Cables Unlimited Card Reader IOC-9750

(bought that adapter for under $16 on Amazon with free shipping; now the price jumped to over $33. Hmmm..)

Records HQ, including 1080p30, without a hitch.

720p24 overcranked to 40 - no errors; overcranked to 50, error after a few minutes. (After an error, the recording stops; but whatever the video already captured, is saved just fine and is perfectly useable.)

So its performance seems on par with Kensington.

Note that I only tested the combo for a few hours.

Also, oddly, *sometimes* when you turn the camera on, or switch from Camera to Media mode, the cam cannot see the adapter. Taking it out of the slot momentarily, and re-inserting it, solves the issue. It does not bother me too much.

Speed of transfer: filled the 16Gb card with 58min. of video. With Shotput software, transfer from the card/adapter using expresscard slot in my laptop to 2 locations simultaneously (one on local C drive, one across the network on a diff PC) took 42 min, including data verification. So it's a bit faster than real time. With one local copy it'd be significantly faster yet, but I wanted to test my real-world use scenario.

Writing from laptop to the adapter/card combo: 3.2Gb file took 4m 40sec. By comparison, Sandisk SxS 16Gb card took 2min 45 sec.

So it looks like this combo is, roughly, 40% slower than the SxS in terms of write/read.

Since it has a lot of headroom with normal HQ modes, I feel confident using it in camera now.

$160 bought me a 58min HD recording time on solid state media. Ain't that dandy :)

Thanks to all people who did a lot of original testing and research, and who suggested these choices at some point.

I tried the Cables Unlimited adapter. I was slightly flakier than the Kensington, although when it worked it did crank a bit higher and had slightly higher benchmark scores. You can see a previous post where I talk about it. I wound up settling on the Kensington, because it was more stable. They are basically exactly the same form factor but for some reason, in my testing I got less errors with the Kensington overcranked than the Cables Unlimited. It is cheaper though.

Paul where can you get them for this price?

Mark, i don't think i can post the name of the supplier on here, (unless chris says it's ok), because they're not a sponsor.
I just tried to pm you but you don't have any contact details in your profile.
Feel free to contact me though, my contact details are on my profile.
The card sellers are genuine people selling genuine cards, i just got myself another couple of 16gb transcends from them.
They also stated that they've got a load of kensington card readers on the way.

Paul.

Go ahead Paul. Thanks for thinking about me though.

Thanks Chris.
Ok guys the shop is called shop4usb, it's based in Bristol.

BUT hang on a minute.
I may have stumbled on a problem.

I just recorded a 1 long clip on the transcend 16gb.
The long clip has been split into 2 clips of 3.5gb and a each,and 1 clip of 700mb and clip browser doesn't see them. The short clip is there ok but not the 2 long clips. I know the long clip has been split into 3 clips, i looked into the bapv folder with windows.
VLC player sees and plays the clips ok though.
I'm copying the files (with windows) to my hard-drive now so i'll see if clip browser can see the clips then, otherwise we won't be able to rewrap. I didn't get this problem with the 8gb trancsend cards, even when clips spanned cards.

Paul.

Am i a plonker ? Panic over i think.
 

Clip browser is showing 1 long clip, obviously as it should be, one long clip.
However VLC shows as individual part.
I've never used vlc to play these clips before because it couldn't play, so when vlc showed 3 parts of the 1 long clip i expected clip browser to show the same, but clip browser shows it as it should be, one long clip.
I'm a twat, go and buy your cards. Sorry guys.

Paul.

Paul

Ive searched the site and can't find the cards? Also tried to ring but a recorded message said to email?

Mark

Here's the shop.
I presume it's ok to post a link as chris said it's ok to name them.

eBay UK Shop - shop4usb: Memory Card, USB Flash Drive, MP3 Player

Paul.

Thanks Paul

Do you think this would work?

Transcend 16 GB EXPRESSCARD/34 SOLID STATE DISK review cheap prices 16 GB EXPRESSCARD/34 SOLID STATE DISK Transcend best buy discount online uk shop

Mark

No. This will not work. We've been through this here and on other boards.

Got my two kensingtons, the camera ships tomorrow (very hard to clear enough credit for that, almost didn't happen). I will probably just get two Ultra IIs or IIIs. I am very happy with the reduction in cost over SxS and don't want to even think about whether I will get en error or not.

I hope before the camera gets here next week one of you gets to test the 32gb ultra IIs.