My thought was that there's room for both, for as well as, not instead of.

I accept all you say about the desirability of an adaptor/SDHC card for some situations, but there are other times when a one piece card may be more appropiate. Handing over media with shot rushes may be just such a case, the form of ExpressCards seems more robust and the larger size may make it less easily lost than SDHC.

There again, it may not be possible to develop such a one piece card for less than the combined cost of an adaptor plus an SDHC card. In that case, you may as well hand over adaptor and SD card together, and in this case Chris's suggestion of an enclosed adaptor would be preferable.

True,

The bottleneck is how Sony is handling USB 2.0 over the expresscard slot.

If the card was designed for PCIe, then we would be able to reach the given SDHC card's datarate used. Since the SanDisk Ultra II is capable of sustaining 15MB/s, it "probably" would work fine for the top overcrank datarate. I believe the required rate is around 12.5MB/s for overcranking 60FPS @ 720 24p.

MxR Expresscard is born!
 

I received the final production version of the Expresscard adapter I was referring to in my post of 28/11/08.

This isn't a prototype, this is from the first batch off the production line, ( although we didn't have the final artwork ready for this small batch, so please excuse the temp label for now ).

If you watch the video below you can see the card in action.

The first design consideration was to ensure that with an SDHC inserted, the EX1 door would close. - Done.

The second was It is designed to ensure that the SDHC will not eject from the Expresscard while it is in the camera, unless by deliberate and concerted effort by the user, not by accident. You can see where it slightly moves but does not eject or disengage from the Expresscard or camera, even after sticking my big thumbs in there to try to. - Done.

The third was performance - that it should meet at least the performance of what other cards were already doing. The card will crank up to 48fps, which as we understand from many on this thread is the limitation of the USB implementation on this camera. - Done.

The fourth was that it would be reliable, that it should work each time and every time. So far it has been recognised every time by several EX1 cameras and hasn't dropped one frame. - Done.

The last consideration, not a design one but just as important, that it didn't cost any more than other cards already on the market. - Done.

The price? $US35 + postage which will be approx $10 to the US, and $12 for Europe.

We will be offering quantity discounts on freight as most people appear to be ordering more than 1 at a time, with orders of 10 or more being freight free.

We'll be putting up the website to take orders on Friday this week, and we expect to start shipping 19/12/08 ( 12/19/08 for our US friends ). There shouldn't be any shortage of cards as we have already committed to our first production run of 20,000 cards to be delivered over the next two months.

Oh and one last thing the name? MxR Expresscard Adapter. I wanted to use "Efilms Expresscard Adapter", because "Efilms" has been my trading name since 2001, but I thought it would confuse people.

If you have any questions I'd be pleased to answer them, just remember we're in Sydney, so if you don't get an immediate response it's because we are catching some shuteye, too much excitement for one day.

http://www.efilms.com.au/streams/SDHCExpress.wmv

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/attachmen...1&d=1228737851

Fantastic, Ross -- congratulations! Is it using the USB interface, or is it or PCIe?

This is most likely worthy of a new thread...

edit: added to http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/sony-xdca...sxs-cards.html

Great work!

I'll buy a few and give you a plug in one of my articles!

Looking forward to your site going live...

Hi Chris,

We used USB for this version, but PCIe is definitely on the radar.

That's really fantastic, I'm in for a few.

Dan

Waiting for a "Link"...
 

Waiting for a link... My fingers are ready....

The entrepreneurial spirit at its finest. Well done! Count me in...

What a tease! Now you got me wanting the PCIe version!
I do a far amount of overcrank so I'd hate to have to keep popping in the SxS card for that.

What great affordable stocking stuffer. Although with shipping from Australia to USA it'll probably arrive after the holidays. You're gonna have a hard time with production and fulfillment for a bit I'd imagine. You know you're going to get a lot of orders.

Wouldn't the hinged door break off after using it like that for awhile? It's only a plastic flap I assume.

John

John, I made this point yesterday.....

.....Once again I see this thread going round in circles......

Chris, just a suggestion but why don't you close (and lock?) this thread? People can refer to the summary pages and then start new, specific threads about different aspects of SxS Substitution. I think it will make it easier for everyone to access good info without the endless repetition that this thread has evolved into because of it's shear enormity.

Not having a go at anyone here, just think it will make everyone's lives a bit easier!

Well, it's not even made yet (and in all honesty, it may no longer need to be made, since Ross now has a solution ready to go). So no, you can't assume it would have a plastic lid.

I have a feeling now that Ross has posted about his working adapter, this thread will probably die down all by itself. Once his adapter is shipping to customers, it will definitely have its own thread (might even happen before then).

Hi Ross i'm in Sydney when can I place an order or pick some up. I have a long shoot this week out in the bush and can't find any SXS cards anywhere in Sydney, can you help me out?
Regards
Simon

While this is no longer the only other working option - kudos to Ross!! - I can now report that HK adapter also works.

The card sticks out of it even farther than with Kensington, but hey - the door did not close either way on EX1 :)

Reliability: combo (how do we call it? HKxS?) was recognized effortlessly on all attempts. Video recorded uneventfully. Tried a couple minutes; then as frequent start-stops as camera could accept. No errors.

I was able to reliably overcrank it to 40fps. It produces media error while overcranked to 48fps eventually, just like with other adapters in my camera.

Please note that I just received those adapters today and all info is from the very limited tests I've just done.

Yes, glad they work for you too Alex. The shipping is really slow but cheap! I wonder if Ross's new card reader is a variation of the Hong Kong card as we both have these and they work flawlessly including long recording and auto switching of slots when 2 are in my EX3. Haven't been game to trim the SD Sandisk cards back yet though!

Evan

Ross this looks like the ultimate solution, so i will be in for a few.
Will you take Paypal?

As for the name, why not call it something which is clear and precise? Its made for the EX1 and EX3, so why not just call it the EX1/3 SDHC Adaptor. No one will then be confused!

How about ROSSxS? :D

With regard to other cards, I have 2 of the HK generics and they both work flawlessly (except, of course, for their unfortunate length).

I can report less success with the Delkins. I've ordered 3 separate cards, and twice received the incorrect model. The one "correct" model has a quality control problem, in that the spring loading mechanism continually attempts to eject the SDHC card.

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to Ross's custom designed, reliable solution.

Ross, does your adaptor have a spring type eject (push push)or does it need to be pulled out manually ?

I'm definately interested in a few, along with the rest of the crew i work with.
Hope you do paypal.

Paul.

Hi Simon,

See check your email.

Thanks

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the question, we are currently setting up the website to accept Paypal, should be ready for Friday.

It is designed as Push in / push out, and when the card is in the "Pushed in" position it takes deliberate force to pull it out unless it has been "Pushed" again to release it.

We will be accepting Paypal.

Wow!!!
 

Ross,
You should be decorated with "Videographer's medal of Honor".
Thanks for your enormous contribution.

Mark

Great job Ross. I could get a few for the Singapore gang. When will you start shipping?

Hi Sean, Ross indicates the shipping dates in his post. You can read it at

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/974576-post2.html

or http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/974556-post1284.html

Ross Congratulations!!!!
I wish I could buy you a drink.

Unless I'm missing something, You have solved the problem of documentary shooting with tapeless acquisition.

For not much more than $1000 ( at least at discounted prices) you can now shoot 20 hours of documentary footage -

- Never need to download ( though I would back up) and carry the whole damn thing in a bag not much bigger than a wallet.

The war is over and SxS has won.

All you guys who have been figuring this out are incredible. Thanks.



Lenny Levy

Actually, allies won, as far as I know :)

Delkin adapters
 

Just be aware that some Delkin 6 in 1 eFilm 34 adapters (old version) might not work from the start, out of the box, while some will work perfectly. I just receive one, tested and sent it back. Does not work - "unrecognized media".

Very true. I bought two Delkins. One worked, the other didn't.

It first have an unrcognized media error, but after playing with inserting an SDHC card in and out several times, it started to work, but gave restore media errors. I even tried contact cleaner, but no luck.

Topram 32gb class 6 sdhc card
 

Has anyone tried this card? It costs $121 on Amazon.

I am not sure as to why keep trying other combinations when Ross Herewini found the perfect combination and he says it will be available by this Friday for Sale?

Just wondering?

MARK I had the same problem with the new SanDisk cards. Tried a Trandscend and a older SanDisk same reader worked. I am still sending it back because my other Delkins read both cards.

I'm ready like a kid at christmas to purchase those readers, when will the site be up?

So Sandisk is listing the SDHC Ultra II 32GB on their site and there's a couple of reviews.
I assume some brave person here has ordered already.
SanDisk | Products | Imaging Cards | Ultra II SD Cards
I don't see them at B&H yet though.

Thanks Craig, so as I'm browsing through their site it seems that
Sandisk offers a 30MB/s SDHC EXTREME III as well:
SanDisk | Products | Imaging Cards | Extreme III SD Cards

On paper that's faster than the ultra II, isn't that supposed to be working with the Kensingtons too? or am I missing a detail here?

Attila - Extreme III does work with Kensington and other adapters fine.

But for our application, there is no significant speed advantage vs Ultra II or Class 6 Transcend in practice, unfortunately.

I have this card. No card with speed faster than what we're using now will make a difference. It's already been determined that the EX camera's datarate via USB over expresscard is limited to around 8.5MB/s.

I'm sure Sony did this intentionally.

Sometime tomorrow, Friday, during business hours US time, as he mentioned in another thread on the topic.

What is this another thread? Please let me know.

See http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/sony-xdca...-now-open.html