Yes, I too am using a separate dedicated adapter for each SDHC card.

How do you transfer the clips to your computer?

The SD cards are very robust and cheap enough.

I transfer the cards back at base to 2 hard drives using a Mac Book Pro. For one project I also transfer to HDCAM from the EX1 HDSI output and retain the original time code. This makes a future on-line conform straightforward. For some jobs I keep the SDHC card as well as the cost is not a lot more than HDCAM tapestock. Having recently been commissioned to produce a documentary from 10 year old Digibeta 16-9 material that has been sitting in my library I have found it pays to look after camera originals whether old tape or the new BPAV folders.

Thank you for your detailed workflow Bruce. What I actually wanted to know is how you transfer your files, do you use a SD USB card reader or do you use and Express card slot. Either way you are surely going to create wear and tear on cards or reader or computer or even the camera itself.

I personally use a USB reader and place the cards in it, if they wear out then £27 for a new !6gb card won't break the bank. Wear and tear on a tape head is a far more expensive excercise.

I use the express card reader in MBPro. My other reason for using this workflow is so that as each SDHC Transcend 16gb class 6 card is in its own MxR there is consistency that can be traced back to a particular combo if there are any prpblems.

I had an interesting experience the other day. I went to my local camera vendor to pick up a Monfrotto magic arm for my smallHD monitor.

I was asked by the vendor about my thoughts on the Hoodman bundled SDHC card and card reader. What i found interesting was the vendors feedback.

The vendor has stated that several(meaning more than 3) of his customers had come back for a refund for their Hoodman card combos.

Reason was, combos continually gave a ( Restore media) warning and or unable to recognize media warning. From a statistical stand point, i think thats a rather high failure rate.

The vendor is seriously thinking about pulling the Hoodman SDHC card combos from the shelf. Guess the comfort level is not there.

I'm certainly not convinced about Hoodman SDHC. It could have been a bad batch but given that Hoodman is "selling" their QC that's not a good sign.

I have 2 Sandisk 32GB cards I've been using since January and have NEVER had a "media restore."

I think the reason Sony never followed through on their certification is that SDHC card manufacturers have a wider tolerance of acceptable and weren't about to go through the expense to tighten them.

My advice is run your cards through a torture test so you know which make and which need to be exchanged.

Hoodman Help
 

EX Gentlemen:
Lou Schmidt from Hoodman here...

Thanks for bringing the media restore issue up for us to respond too. We have a FAQ & troubleshooting link that explains the media restore notice. I have placed a link below for future reference.

Hoodman Corporation Memory Adapter FAQ

Our experience has found three things cause the media restore notice.

First, if you only eject the SDHC card and not the entire adapter... the camera wonders where the media went because the link is broken but the adapter is still plugged in... an easy fix, just eject the entire adapter, insert the new SDHC card and then install the adapter with new SDHC card in the camera.

Secondly, while inserting the adapter into the camera, you may inadvertantly trigger the spring loaded eject mechanism by hitting the back of the SDHC card with too much pressure. Another easy fix... when installing the adapters, just press on the outer corners to avoid ejecting the memory card.

Lastly, if the issue is still present, the adapter will need to be replaced... the contact points are missaligned.

In all three cases, it is not the memory card that has an issue... Since our dealers are going up their learning curve on this new memory solution, we will do our best to help bring everyone up to speed so that they can help you guys out. I would be grateful to Mathew Hurley if you could give me the name of the dealer so we can help them understand what is happening. Please email it to me... Lou@hoodmanusa.com

I encourage everyone to review the FAQ & troubleshooting link above... you will get many details that only come with using the system.
We will be pleased to answer any other questions you may have in detail if you want to give us a call... 800 818 3946.

Thanks for your time!

That's a good FAQ Louis.
I think you should emphasize the red light green light issue as I think that's a common mistake.

You note 1) Ejection of the card and 2) write speed of the card is too slow.

I think you need to add a 3rd. Going back into record before the card finishes writing the TOC. In other words it's not just ejecting the card but going back into record while red that can cause the issue.

Hoodman Thanks
 

Hi Craig,

Thanks for the input... I will add your comments to our FAQ list.

Absolutely Craig! I was just going to mention that. When I first got my cards, I said "Lets run some tests since it's the new cards that are failing" (so I've read here). I inserted cards (Both Hoodman and Transcends), formatted, and then hit "record", then stop, then hit record right away to lay down some clips. Lo and behold, the dreaded "Media needs restoring"! Crap I thought I have bad cards! Wrong! I was not giving them time enough to finish writing after I hit stop. They seem to take a little longer than my SONY SxS cards on the tail end to finish writting. You have to ALWAYS make sure the red light is green before recording again. In the field, it usually takes the 4 or 5 seconds to reframe and record more, but when doing these "card tests", I bet some are doing the same thing I did. (Or maybe it's just impatient me!)

I almost returned 4 cards before realizing what was happening!

Since I figured this out, they have ALL performed flawlessly.

32
 

Hello Louis, and all.

I'm about to get an EX1, and the Hoodman Turnkey kit. You probably get this a lot, but what is the ETA on some quality 32gig cards? 64?

And to all who scoff at worrying about using cards with an up to 3% acceptable fail rate: Are you kidding? If you do this for a living the cost savings from buying a sandisc is nothing compared to losing work done in the field. If you're a hobbyist then sure, take a risk. But if you have a crew you are paying, you don't want to have to pay them a second time to re do some shooting. But I guess if it was that important we should use the SxS cards. I think the record of the RAW cards speaks for itself and I feel more confident using that at least until I can afford some SxS.

Anyhoo... will 32 gigers be a reality this year?

Chadfish

Hoodman problems
 

I wonder if success is spoiling Hoodman? I ordered 4 "turnkey" SxS card kits on June 30 and just got HALF the order this Friday, some 3-weeks later. They included the card adapters but not the SD cards. When I called there it took them a while to figure out they needed to get me what I'd ordered.

I hope the cards are worth the premium but my research tells me they're only a tad more expensive than Sandisk and alternative cards and a hellova lot cheaper than the Sony cards. I got 4 16G (well, I WILL be getting 4 16G cards soon I hope) for about 2/3rds the price of the Sony media.

Also, heard that the Belkin adapter had been compromised NOT to work with the PMWEX3 by some secret agreement between the two companies. This comes from a reliable source in an unnamed large NYC photo department store (wink, nod).

I can get Sandisk Ultra II cards for about half the price of Hoodman SDHC. Of course I'm not sure if any of the news Sandisk cards work with EX adaptors. Transcend certainly work and those cards are often less than Sandisk.

I'm not sure how Belkin is relevant. MxR and Hoodman adapters all work reliably. If Belkin was ever in the game it was only by coincidence and designed incompatibility only removes them from that market that others are providing.

I have been using 2x 16GB Transcends with MxR adapters, and 4x 32GB Transcends with MxR adapters. Have had no issues. Everything works smoothly.

----
Sony XDCAM EX3, Mac Pro 8 Core, Final Cut Pro

Hoodman
 

Well, turns out Hoodman is out of 16G cards so I'm going to try Transcend...thanks all

MacBook Pro missing express card slot
 

OK, maybe I'm just looking for trouble, but I was a little surprised and disappointed to find my new 15" MacBook Pro is missing the Express Card 34 slot and has only the SD Card slot. I know the SD cards can be removed from the card adapters and read directly in this port but I kind of miss the beefy protection the larger cards provided. SD cards seem to be so small and fragile. I guess a case is in order.

Funny thing is the Apple support guy I spoke with on the phone took a really patronizing tone about this saying "in the future, we won't be using express cards." Well, no Eddie... But for now, we ARE!

Looks like I'll be adding another flimsy adapter (express card 34 to USB) to my gear bag.

Sigh....

When I bought my 15" MacBookPro with Express port last year I was wishing they had a 13" with Express port. I really wanted small and portable offload. Now all you can get is 17".

Unfortunately Express port uses are a small and shrinking minority. At least now you can get a 13" with SD port.

Of course since moving from SxS to SDHC I no longer need to offload during a shoot so, in that sense, laptop with Express port is less critical.

I wish Sony would make additional firmware changes if possible so SDHC would support the same features supported in JVC HM series (and I want the same 3 second pre-record cache too).

Transcend 32GB SDHC works well
 

I've been using a 32GB Transcend SDHC card (class 6) in my Canon HF S10 for the past 2 months. The card works well, and I have no complaints about it.

Which means little about their ability to work in EX cameras.

Red Light / Green Light
 

Greetings from Z1 world. I'm hoping to join you in EX world very soon and I'm delighted to read about the SDHC solution. But I am slightly worried about this issue of hitting record before the TOC is finished writing.
Q. If I have shot 50 minutes of clips and then accidentally try to record before the green light and get this media error, have I then lost my fifty minutes or maybe just that last shot?

I certainly hope not, but if so, that would scare the living daylights out of me.

A thought about SxS: While throwing out some old VHS tapes yesterday, I was amused to recall that the first blanks I bought around 1980 cost £13 a piece and latterly they were 50 pence! From here in HDV tape world (where my tapes are now only £1 or so) it seems what's needed is realistic pricing on SxS cards. Don't get me wrong, I'm really grateful to the people who have worked so hard on the adaptor / SDHC solution, which I will certainly be using, but isn't it a shame to have to compromise on error correction and the over-cranking facility which require the SxS cards for which the cameras are designed?

Ian,

Using memory cards just requires you to be careful when shooting, touch wood, I haven't lost any footage on a SDHC card, but I have lost footage with tape due to moisture on heads, tape snarl etc.

Once you get used to a tapeless workflow then you won't look back.

Even if you get the media error you shouldn't lose clips. You just need to restore and it'll fix the last clip. The only time I've ever gotten the media error was when testing the overhead on an SDHC card by overcranking. Even in that case the clip it errored on was restored.

The problem with the price of SxS is that it's proprietary media. It's always going to be low volume sales. JVC HM uses the same codec, works with all class 6 cards (I read NO COMPLAINTS) and even overcranks. Even Panasonic is moving to SDHC over P2 on some of their cameras.

The odd thing about the SDHC issues is that many brands that were reliable Sandisk Ultra II or Transcend Class 6 have become hit and miss. Yet I've heard some "lesser" brands working quite well but we don't have that documented in this forum (we should).

Just testing 2 8gb transcend cards today. Recorded right through and no errors, formated and recorded again and this time got the need to restore message. It restored on one card but the other card gave a message couldn't restore all clips. I formated the two cards and starting to test them again. Not very promising by the look of things.

Anthony, was your second test the same as the first?
If it formats and records straight through that shouldn't change from format to format.

Generally thought I don't reformat the cards but I can certainly that one may have to do this at some point and not expect the operation of an already tested card should change.

That results seems odd. Are you absolutely sure you didn't do something different the second time?

Hi Craig, yes, 2nd test the exact same. There must be something wrong with the card in slot B. I watch for the change over and card A seamed to record OK, again it looked as if it recorded through without error, I switched the camera off and on again and got the media restore message. I'm recording to card B for now just to see what happens.

Card B recorded to end then, Media Error, Media needs to be restored. Looks like card B is faulty.

I'll test the other card now and get back.

Looks like the other 8gb card is faulty too. Once the card was full I got the media needs to restore message.

Thats a first for me. I'll try and return the cards.

Craig, do you just format the card when new and "delete all clips" each time after that.
Is formating the card each time wrong.

Thanks in advance.

Anthony,

I've had horrible luck with brand new (a month ago) Transcend cards. They don't seem to be as trusty as they used to be. Others are reporting many problems too. I would try a Hoodman card. They are more $$ but I have 4 and not one problem yet.

Paul, I think your right about the transcend cards, wonder how Sandisk cards are holding up?

Hoodmans cards might be worth looking into. Wonder what the cost is to send a few over to me.

Thanks.

I had my first CF error on a Transcend 16GB card which usually spends its time in my wife's D90. The error occured in the D90. Personally, I'd rather spend top dollar for the best flash memory. I don't know the foundry for the Lexar or Transcend parts, but we do know that "floor sweep" parts exist for lower reliability due to manufacturing mistakes. For graphics chips, a part with one or more faulty shader engines is simply remarked as a different, lower end product sold and sold for less. I suppose that Transcend and the other budget flash distributors know that their consumer market won't figure out that their part lasts for a year.

Write performance degrades as the flash memory part fills to two thirds, from what I've read. Do we really know what happens to the Transcend when 50-100MB is left?

HoodMan
 

Bout to use these SDHC cards for the first time on a series I have coming up. Been researching a lot and been testing the Hoodman RAW cards. I know there more expensive then other alternatives out there, but am willing to pay that if they are more secure. Have been testing two of the cards and have worked great.

I guess I'm just asking for anyone's thoughts on the Hoodman cards, and is the higher price worth the piece of mind. Want to be sure before I purchase a number of these.

Thanks in advance.

How are people testing these cards? The Transcend 16 GB Class 6 (green stripe) worked well for me until they filled up in my Sony EX1. Flash cards have a very slow write performance as they reach write capacity.

Take a look at the ATP Pro cards. They are more expensive than Transcends (and harder to source) but seem to offer better quality.

There was rumour of Hoodman cards being available in the UK shortly, however it might not be worth bothering with if Sony release a firmware upgrade so we can use their new adaptors and memory sticks.

I think I'll wait for the Sony adaptors too.

I've knocked together a blog entry that sums up my findings for the ATP cards and where to get them in the UK. It's nothing that I haven't posted on here already but I felt it a good idea to try and get everything into one place. This might be useful if we manage to locate more UK suppliers:

SDHC Shooting on the Sony EX1 | Media2u Video Production Blog

I've got 4 of them now and Amazon (the only UK supplier I can find) seem to have them back in stock again. The 4 I have seem to be consistent in testing so I'm now in the process of weeding out any Transcend that takes longer than 5 or 6 seconds to clear the red light.

Marcus, I notice you're looking at the 16GB cards. Actually the prices for the 32GB cards are less per GB which may be odd but true for the prices I've seen.

$119 US
https://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/SP...1241728748.jsp

€134
32GB ATP ProMax SDHC Class6 150x MLC

While the 32gb cards may be cheaper per mb the problem is that in the UK the 16gb cards are already rare. The 32gb cards simply aren't out there. The blog entry was partly inspired by one chap from this very forum who actually phoned me to ask about the ATP cards and where he could get them in the UK.

Of course you can import them (as I did for 2 cards) but the entire process was so slow, painful and expensive it's just far easier to get the 16gb cards from Amazon. In short I got stung for hefty international shipping, import duty and a extra delivery fee by a UK courier!

I wish some enterprising UK supplier would stock the ATP cards. The MxR stockists will happily sell you Transcends even though we know there are issues. Then again when I looked at the MxR website last week they were still recommending Transcend cards despite the reported issues. I'd be interested to hear their opinion of why they still think Transcend cards are still suitable.

[edit] Just looking at the price on that Dutch site you provided, the 32gb card is way more than twice the price. Amazon are charging approx £44 delivered for a 16gb but that site charges 134 Euros which is approx £120. So the cost per mb is higher.

Marcus, mxmexpress dot com told me to contact Neil Hart from ProActive and convince him there is a need for ATP Pro cards.

I tried to get in touch with him but haven't spoke to him yet.