I saw somewhere the list price for this is in the $2k's!! More than the price of a laptop. Why does SONY kill it's technology with such high prices? If the cards were cheaper we'd all be buying them. If this was cheaper, I'd buy one, instead, I'm all over the MxR route. SONY, it's a new financial world out there....price accordingly and you may move some units.

Max, that's exactly what I was thinking.

I'm even toying with the idea of using the cartridges as my long-term archive. At around $400 per cartidge, that might seem expensive, and I wouldn't argue with anyone who disagreed with that approach, but for me, I think it makes sense. Time is money. Peace of mind is priceless. This is my business, my reputation, and my livelihood. Saving a few bucks on media does not appeal to me. That's why I don't shoot on SD cards, either. That's just my two cents.

I have been assured that the street price of the unit will be $1500 or less including one cartridge.

As a side benefit, now that 13 MBP seems like it makes sense. It was disheartening to hear the announcement regarding the expresscard slot going away from the 15. Now with the Sony MS-240 I won't have to lug around my 17" MBP. The bloom has been off that rose for a long time. Thanks for the update Doug.

Dave

Amen Doug.

On MXR, I think it can serve some purpose as replacement media when shooting in remote locations or foreign countries. If for some reason the SxS are stolen, lost or destroyed while on a job SD cards are more available. So I keep one MXR adapter on hand.

8 gig SxS going away?
 

I just looked on B&H this morning and it shows the 8gig SxS card as "Discontinued". Could this be true? I realize that there the 16gig cards might be dropping price due to the availability of the 32's, but losing the 8's would make my archiving to DVD-DL a bit more clumsy. Anyone else heard anything about this from Sony or is it just poor labeling by B&H?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...B_SxS_PRO.html

False
 

I checked with my contact at Sony who oversees tapes, discs, optical media, etc. and he says the rumor is false. The 8GB cards have not been discontinued --- that is, as of today. Anything can change at anytime.

As both the EX1 and 3 are still being sold world wide, i would be hard pressed to believe sony would discontinue both the 8 and 16 gig SxS cards.

Then again, i have seen sony do some strange stuff in the past.

Interesting thread.. what about hoodman's adapter?
 

Who would even buy Sony SXS cards anymore though? when they have this:
RAW SxSxSDHC Memory Adapter-Hoodman Corporation

We've done extensive testing with the new memory adapter and the SDHC 16GB, class 6 chip. We found that 1920x1080 30p, 24p work fine for extended periods of shooting up to 1 hour on the 16GB.

- People doing 720p60 and 720p50
- People shooting slomo at 720p
- People who find it easier to give client (or archive) a BPAV burned to a DL-DVD-R
- People who have been spooked by SDHC
- People who find that 8 GB SxS are cheaper per megabyte than 16 GB SxS

Not everyone will find themselves in one of those categories, but hooray for choice, eh?

Good points.. It's up to you to make the choice.
Its worked great for us and our workflow. We do mostly corporate production and don't really need the pass raw files to clients or shoot in over and under-crank modes.
If your looking for a cheap alternative to SxS its the way to go.

Is there a problem with shooting 720p50 or 60 using SDHC cards?

I have just shot over three hours of material in Wales using 720p50 using four 16gb Transcend cards each in their own Kingston 7 in 1 adapter. I can't see any fault in any of the clips.

Nope all i shoot is 720P50 works well.

Doug, I just got an interesting response from B&H when I questioned their listing of the 8 gig SxS Sony card as "Discontinued". When I pointed out this discrepency, they wrote back with this:

"We would be carrying the 8GB card from SONY if it was available to us..."

Wonder if Sony is playing games with B&H? The rep did suggest getting the SanDisk card instead but since SanDisk doesn't even list their SxS cards on their site, have HAVE to wonder what's going on with these smaller cards.

Same here in Norway, the biggest retailers only stock the 32GB card now.

Almost true
 

I just got confirmation from Sony that 8GB cards have been discontinued, although some resellers may have enough in stock to keep selling them awhile longer.

16GB cards have NOT been discontinued.