Hold on there. You might want to wait a couple of months for the PXU-MS240.
With one of these, most people could get by with only two or three SxS cards.

PXU-MS240 Mobile Storage Unit From Sony

Something else to put in the camera case, must get a bigger case.

I have been using 16gb SDHC Transcend cards without any problem, and they are a lot cheaper than SXS cards.

At a recent Sony seminar I did question Sony on the high price of SXS cards and pointed out that I made my EX3 purchase decision based on the fact that I could now purchase media at a realistic price, I am sure many others have too. Why hasn't Sony been quick of the mark to market their own SDHC cards and reader combination?

Been using the SDHC cards (more specifically, my single sandisc 16gig class II) for all of 09 without a single failure.. I'm good.

As far as I know you cannot undercrank or overcrank to SDHC cards. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Dave

I went to a Sony seminar that stated that the cameras and their full functions are based on the spec of SxS cards. Future products with enhanced features are in the pipeline and the SxS spec is needed for these. I see that SxS prices are coming down and so it will be possible to have peace of mind on important jobs by owning more of these cards. Having said that I have been using mainly MxR with Transcend 16gb class 6 since February for standard HQ recording (no slomo) without any problems.

Ok, you're wrong. You can undercrank fully, and you can overcrank to 40fps -42fps.

Interesting to know...thanks.

I've just been told by the UK EX product Manager that the 16Gb cards will continue to be sold and there are no plans to discontinue them.

Since I don't shoot using 24FPS, I have full functionality with the SDHC. I can overcrank without problem. The one thing you can not do with the SDHC is overcrank from 24FPS to 60FPS. Overcranking from 30FPS to 60FPS works just fine.

Thanks -- this thread should be re-titled then. I'm open to suggestions.

And the cards can be backed up to DL-DVD at $0.XX each in their pristine originalness, preserving the all important BPAV structure.

There may come a point where an 8 GB SxS card could cost the same as a HoodMan 16 GB SDHC with adaptor. And at that point, given a clean slate, I'd be tempted to go the 8 Gig card route having had absolutely no issues whatsoever in shots spanning cards.

Yes, I know, sounds like heresy from Mr SDHC-supporter, but having worked with 16x 16GB SDHC cards with the record currently standing at one shot over 5 cards, backing up to optical is a little cheesy. Was it Mr Seaman who pointed out the DL-DVD route? It's getting mightily appealing!

Why not backup to a hard drive? 1.5TB hard drives go for about $120. DVD-DL is far less reliable that one would imagine. Do you backup to DVD-DL with a verify? I found this to be a very unreliable process with Sony, Plextor and Pioneer drives when the verify revealed a few write errors. The only DVD-DL drive that worked perfectly for me was the BenQ, and that is no longer made.

I do. Twice.

I currently archive stuff that I or my clients really don't want to lose onto Blu Ray too. And it's handy for off-site backups.

Try giving a Mac formatted hard disk with EX rushes on it to a PC based Avid editor. A DVD-ROM of the BPAV plus ClipBrowser for Mac & PC on an ISO is a 'safe' option.

The 'how to back up EX footage' has been debated elsewhere so let's not hijack the thread.

Nonetheless, talking of off-site backups, the place I stored mine got involved in an arson attack. All the backup CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs were melted. So 90% of my archive is only on hard disk now.

I've been using DL-DVD since I first started using the EX. It so simple and I have found it to be reliable but you do need to verify your backups. I tend to use a mix now of DL-DVD and Blu-ray for my long term backups and USB drives for short term. The beauty of DL-DVD is that the discs can be read by the vast majority of PC's and Macs without having to add any additional hardware.

This is very good news for me doing location work. Thanks for bringing it up. I'm sure it will be simple and reasonably fast. Exactly what I want on location. And since it's Sony it should be reliable and work happily with EX. I don't want to play with laptops or hook up USB devices on location. Great news.