Dang, Bruce, you beat me to it (grin)!
Sony does not officially support using non-PCIe cards in the SxS slot (other than the PHU-60K disk drive unit) but they “do not discourage experimentation” with USB-based options. My Sony contacts say they’ve tried both SD cards and Memory Sticks in the appropriate adapters, and had success with both, though some cherry-picking is required (read/write speeds vary even between cards from the same vendor with the same speed rating). Also, as the cards fill up and the FAT32 file system gets fragmented, read/write speeds can slow down, so it’s definitely a “try at your own risk” sort of deal.
Still: long-form documentary work, with a pocket full of SD cards instead of SxS cards? Sweet!
Convergent Design’s Mike Schell writes that, “at this rate, CF cards will drop below the price of professional HD tape sometime in the next 6 months.” Alas, CF cards are too wide to fit into an ExpressCard34 slot (so any adapter would dangle the CF cards outside the EX1 or EX3’s body), but SD cards are following a similar pricing curve. It’s starting to look like the “what do you hand the client at the end of the shoot” problem will be going away for EX cameras (as well as CF card-using HDV cameras) in the not-too-distant future: simply hand the client Memory Sticks, SD cards, or CF cards, instead of tapes!
Posted by Adam Wilt on 10/17 at 10:42 PM
Hey Bruce, can we see your review of the EX here?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10/18 at 09:11 AM
What is the native file system on the SxS cards EX1 and EX3? You should not be limited to formatting the SD cards with other than FAT if the camera can write to it and read from it. I format pen drives to ext3 for Linux with no problems. Maybe there is a solution to the FAT limitations.
Posted by DanConklin on 10/20 at 07:39 AM
I’ve found that you can format SD cards to NTFS, which is readable in Windows 2000 and higher, but I don’t know if it’s supported in the cameras, and I don’t currently have one to test. It’s probably not, but you never know until you try.
Posted by DanConklin on 10/20 at 09:11 AM
This can have far-reaching effects well beyond field production. IF we were willing to commit to it, I bet WPT could put its entire archive on SD cards that would train to fill a couple of shelves. 50 years of stuff! We’ll never do that, of course, for several reasons, but it is a tantalizing proposition.
BAJ
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10/22 at 01:22 PM
I just purchased the Kensington ExpressCard Adapter and a 16G Sandisk Card. Inserted it on a MacBook Pro and it mounts as a drive. However, it seems that the camera does not recognize the media. Do I just need to update the firmware to the 1.11 version? Or will it work with previous versions? Where do I find the firmware version? I’ve looked through the entire menu… Or do I just need to format the card? If so, I have not idea how to do it on a Mac. Can anyone shed some light? Thanks!
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10/29 at 12:47 AM
I’ll revive this old thread with this
http://e-films.com.au/
Fits in the EX1 (and EX3) and allows the door to close.
Card is $35 plus shipping.
Sandisk Ultra II 32GB costs $150 and records 116 minutes.
Transcend Class 6 16GB can be had for $30 and records 58 minutes.
So at $30/hr it’s now lower than HDCAM tape.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/04 at 10:47 PM
alexa, increased control of depth of field - for example: film like shallow depth of field
Sandra Alex, you must have firmware 1.11 on the EX1 to use SDHC card plus adaptor. Keep in mind that NOT all adaptors or SDHC cards works.
The safe bet right now is buy the MxR adaptor $35 and either Sandisk Ultra II, Sandisk Extreme III (no advantage over Ultra) or Transcend Class 6.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01/07 at 11:03 AM
I purchased two SDCH Scandisk this week and tried to use one in my EX3. I got an incompatible error appear on the EX3 viewfinder, so i removed and erased using my macbook pro utilities. Once done I tried again in the EX3 with the same error appearing. I then updated the firmware on the EX3 to rectify this and it did with the second SCDH Skandisk Ultra card but not the erased one. This will start recording and then throw up an error which freezes the slot until removed.
Can anyone offer some advice as what I need to do to get the SDCH card working?
Posted by glynallen on 10/20 at 09:52 AM
Use Sandisk Extreme Class 10 cards, not Ultra.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10/20 at 09:55 AM
