Hi Shaun,

You know I've heard a lot of people from around Sydney use words to describe the Northern Beaches and the people that live there, but I don't recall any of them using the word humble.

I try to get along to the AVPA (Australian Video Producers Association) meetings here in Sydney, which are held every three months or so, maybe I could buy you a Crownie there.

You are right of course Ross. Having lived in the Northern Beaches myself for 15 years before moving up the coast, humble isn't a word best describing the Beaches. Perhaps I should have placed inverted commas around it!

I am not a member of AVPA, but I have been considering joining for a while now. Meeting you may just be the impetus I need!

Ola, never a problem with either Sandisk Ultra II's (http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&keywords=B0012W7HQK&tag=mo7iescom-20&index=electronics&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325) or the cheaper but perfectly fine Transcend (http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&keywords=B0015AOK1O&tag=mo7iescom-20&index=electronics&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325) cards here.

Using with Kensington and cheap 16-in-1 Taiwanese adapters from eBay. Life is good.

I'm sure Ross's adapters are fine too, judging by the early reports of users who bought them.

Ola, never a problem with either Sandisk Ultra II's (http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&keywords=B0012W7HQK&tag=mo7iescom-20&index=electronics&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325) or the cheaper but perfectly fine Transcend (http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&keywords=B0015AOK1O&tag=mo7iescom-20&index=electronics&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325) cards here.

Using with Kensington and cheap 16-in-1 Taiwanese adapters from eBay. Life is good.

I'm sure Ross's adapters are fine too, judging by the early reports of users who bought them.

Hm... I wonder if it could be one of my Kensingtonadapters. Really strange that I've had problems with two cards and nobody else. I'll report back when I get my Ross-cards.

Cards work brilliantly .. had no problems over cranking 50 frames with 16 GB ultra ll's.
Great product thanks Ross for all the effort.

Received two and both work.. haven't much tested overcranking but with sandisk ultra II 42/25P works.. 45/25P gave error after 15 minutes or so.

Testing MxR with Sandisk Ultra II 32GB cards. They cost $150 US each.
Card shows 118 minutes when formated.
Did a series of quick start top records. No problems.

Set to 720p30 and tested overcranking. At 720p30/60 it would result in Media Error just before 30 seconds. This was consistent on several attempts. Clip itself played (was not corrupted though).

I can not play ANY clips back in camera. 3 second record review results in error and a black screen. Going into playback mode on camera and the icons show but any attempt to playback results in media error and black screen.

Anybody else actually attempt to playback clips from Sandisk Ultra II? This might be frustrating if client wants to review takes.

Recorded one super long clip the full 118 minutes and there were no record issues.

Once recorded I inserted the Sandisk Ultra II 32GB card in a Sandisk 12 in 1 card reader hooked up via USB2 to my MacPro 8 core. Using ClipBrowser with CRC checking on it took a few seconds over 1 hour to copy (1:00:30). Basically it was 2x realtime. Doing a straight drag and drop of the BPAV to my hard drive took 26:30 to copy which was just over 4x.

Craig, it's possible the reason why you had trouble playing back those takes was due to the media error you intentionally created overcranking at 60 frames. Reformat the SDHS card and use it under HQ mode.

I've been playing recording and playing back (on the camera) takes on a half dozen Ultra II cards without any problems.

Steven, standard clips, not over cranking would not playback. No clips of any duration and standard frame rate would play back even when card had no over cranked clips at all.

In other words, reformatted card, one 1080p30 clip 10 to 15 seconds long. It won't play back for example. No clips play back under any circumstance. All generate a media error. This is on a clean reformatted card.

I don't think there have been many tests with 32 GB Ultra II cards. In theory the reads should be easier than the writes but nothing plays back in the camera. I tried this with two MxR cards tested at varying times in either A and B slot. I've only tried one 32GB card though. I do have another to test.

Hi Craig,

I wish I could test a 32GB card so I could follow along to find where the error, is. Unfortunately we won't be getting the cards here in Australia until 9 Jan.

I did try to purchase from some of the suppliers I have seen people mention, but none of them will supply to us here in Australia. Which if you recall from one of my earlier posts was the reason we produced the MxR card.

So, I was wondering if you could try a couple of tests for me, to see if we can work out where it is going off track.

1. Start with a fresh card, or one where you have gone in using Explorer / Finder and removed the BPAV directory.
2. When you insert the SDHC into the MxR and into the EX1, (how's that for some acronyms), then you should get a format media message. Go ahead and format.
3. Set recoding to HQ, and record one clip. Let the record light above the card go from red to green, usually takes about 5secs on Ultra II 16GB.
4. Now try and review the clip, by firstly using clip review in camera mode, and then try play clip in media mode.

I'd like to know if you get anything at all here.

A) If you do can we go to a new test, same as above but try overcranking but limit it to 45frames for now, and try the same as above.
OR
B) If you see nothing after the first test, do you have another card that we can use to test. I'd prefer to use a 16GB Ultra II as this eliminates the MxR functionality, and means we can concentrate on why it doesn't work for you on 32GB.

I did read elsewhere where one of the forum members had tried the 32GB card and it had worked successfully. I'll post him and ask if he has tried the same thing you have attempted.

True Craig, I do not have the 32GB Ultra II cards. I'm using the 16GB cards.

Also, could you run the Crystal Disk Mark free program to measure the 32GB read/write data rates?

Hi Craig,


So, I was wondering if you could try a couple of tests for me, to see if we can work out where it is going off track.

1. Start with a fresh card, or one where you have gone in using Explorer / Finder and removed the BPAV directory.
2. When you insert the SDHC into the MxR and into the EX1, (how's that for some acronyms), then you should get a format media message. Go ahead and format.
3. Set recoding to HQ, and record one clip. Let the record light above the card go from red to green, usually takes about 5secs on Ultra II 16GB.
4. Now try and review the clip, by firstly using clip review in camera mode, and then try play clip in media mode.

I'd like to know if you get anything at all here.


Ross, I've done the above several times. Same results.
1. Remove BPAV
2. Reformat Card
3. Set to 1080p30 and records about 10 seconds
4. Set camera for 3 second clip review and show media error
5. Set camera to media mode and I see pic icon. Attempt to play and get media error

Note that when remove SHDC card from MxR and putin Sandisk 12 in 1 reader and connect to computer via USB, ClipBrowser sees and plays clip straight from card.

Card can playback the clip. Camera can't.
I'm also noting that sometimes the card fails format on the first try and always makes it on the 2nd try.
I'm testing the same card in both MxR and both A and B slot in camera.

I have a 2nd Sandisk Ultra II 32GB card to test. A friend of mine also has Sandisk Ultra II and Transcend cards he'll bring over for me to test later.

Just to be clear, the recordings are fine. They can't playback in camera. The SDHC itself can playback the recording when hooked to Computer through Sandisk 12 in 1 reader (sans MxR).

A) If you do can we go to a new test, same as above but try overcranking but limit it to 45frames for now, and try the same as above.
OR
B) If you see nothing after the first test, do you have another card that we can use to test. I'd prefer to use a 16GB Ultra II as this eliminates the MxR functionality, and means we can concentrate on why it doesn't work for you on 32GB.

I did read elsewhere where one of the forum members had tried the 32GB card and it had worked successfully. I'll post him and ask if he has tried the same thing you have attempted.

I recorded overcrank 720p30/45 for one minute. Again the clip generates media error when attempting to playback in camera.

Someone did mention they "successfully" used 32GB card but did they try playing back in camera? That's the issue. Recordings are fine. Playback in camera is not working. I'm noting that format often doesn't work on first attempt. Reinserting MxR results in successful formating.

Could it be a "contacts" issue with MxR? Again testing with 2 MxR cards. I'll try 2nd 32GB card and additional cards from friend so we can narrow this down.

I'll also try the speed test utility recommended a couple of posts back.
I don't think it's playback speed of the SDHC card because the card plays back the clip without issue when hooked to computer (ClipBrowser) with 12 in 1 reader (sans MxR).

!!!

I'm seeing same issue with SxS cards! Can someone post how to reboot the camera? Is it simply the All Reset in the bottom menu or is there something more fundamental?

Received my 5 cards xmas eve day... didn't touch them until yesterday... formatted four out of the five with sandisk sdhc 16gb cards with no probs whatsoever... haven't recorded anything yet, but I plan on shooting over/undercrank with SxS so don't anticipate any issues.

Thanks for a affordable solid state recording solution.

Greg

!!!

I'm seeing same issue with SxS cards! Can someone post how to reboot the camera? Is it simply the All Reset in the bottom menu or is there something more fundamental?

Craig, I believe it's the ALL Reset.
That's odd.
Please report back.

Thanks. Just tried that. It didn't fix the issue. No playback from SxS either.

Thanks. Just tried that. It didn't fix the issue. No playback from SxS either.

Hi Craig,

Have you tried removing the BPU-30/60, then remove the Lithium Ion back-up battery. It is right under the bottom of the camera.

I had to do this on a shoot where I lost all zoom, focus auto and manual functions. It's probably not recommended, but I pulled it out to make sure I got a complete "Cold Reboot". I don't know how to remove it nicely, I was panicking when I did it during a shoot, so had no time to read the manual, or look for the right tool.



One other thing to check is which version of the Firmware you are running? You probably already know how to check it, but in case you don't, you hit the <Cancel> <Select><Menu> buttons together, and that will open the Maint Menu. Scroll down to <IF> and you will see it there.

Thanks Craig.

Ross, removing the lithium battery is a legit user function. It's on page 119 of EX1 printed manual.

I removed and reinserted lithium battery in the camera. Turning on camera asks for time/date which of course verifies the batter was removed and reinserted.

Unfortunately I still get Media Error after recording a clip for a few seconds and attempting to playback (SxS card).

When I go into Media mode after recording multiple clips I can see them all. I can get clip info and move from clip to clip in that mode. So it's clear the camera does see the clips and obviously can display the meta data on the clips. In Media mode when I hit play I get black screen and flashing read tally light on back of camera. The only way to get out of that is to turn off camera.

Ross - not to take focus away from the rest of the discussion, but wanted to let you know that I received my MxR in the mail today and shot some test footage using the SanDisk Ultra II 15MB/s card.

I shot 1080p30 (regular speed) and 720p60 over 30fps (overcranked). The latter was shot for about 1.5 minutes. No problems whatsoever. I viewed the footage in-camera after recording, pulled the footage using Sony's XDCAM Transfer and Clip Browser off my MBP (ExpressCard inserted directly into computer), and ingested the footage and played it back in After Effects to test some motion tracking stuff without an issue. Not a single issue anywhere during this test.

I have it loaded as my primary card at this point and will be shooting on it regularly as I shoot over the next couple of weeks (no major planned shooting right now, though).

Just a quick note to let you and others know that there's another success story out there, including full overcrank.

I foresee myself picking up another couple of cards from you in the near-term - this is a GREAT solution to the Sony SxS cards at 1/8 the price point (for 16G)!

Thanks again, Ross!

Ross, removing the lithium battery is a legit user function. It's on page 119 of EX1 printed manual.

I removed and reinserted lithium battery in the camera. Turning on camera asks for time/date which of course verifies the batter was removed and reinserted.

Unfortunately I still get Media Error after recording a clip for a few seconds and attempting to playback (SxS card).

When I go into Media mode after recording multiple clips I can see them all. I can get clip info and move from clip to clip in that mode. So it's clear the camera does see the clips and obviously can display the meta data on the clips. In Media mode when I hit play I get black screen and flashing read tally light on back of camera. The only way to get out of that is to turn off camera.

Hi Craig,

Can I just confirm that when you go from record to review, that the card has finished it's TOC writing, ie that the slot has a green light over it, not red?

We found that with slow media, like Lexar SSD, we ended up getting media errors when going to preview as the camera had not finished doing it's TOC writing.

Have you tried going into Media mode ie opposite to Camera mode and tried playback from the thumbnail screen? Do you still get the same errors?

Sorry if you have already covered these areas, just wanted to be on the same page as they say, because I hear there is a 3 week turnaround at some Sony places.

TOC done light is Green before playback is attempted.
In Media mode seeing and advancing through thumbnails works. Playback does not.
BTW this issue is BOTH SxS and MxR so I don't think it's your cards at issue.

My friend dropped by and we tried some "irrational" tests and we FOUND the pattern!

Turn YPbPr/SDI Out Select - OFF
Playback WORKS. Both SxS and MxR last clip review WORKS. Media Mode Playback WORKS.

Turn YPbPr/SDI Out Select - SD or HD
Playback does NOT WORK. Both SxS and MxR last clip review results in Media Error. This has no impact on going right back into record or anything else
Media mode playback does NOT WORK. Black screen when attempting playback. Cards is briefly accessed (light goes Red the goes Green and stays Green) and tally light flashes. Camera locks up and must be shut off.

My guess is that there is either an issue with Sony's install of the new firmware or they screwed up the hardware.

Just confirming that with YPbPr/SDI Out Select - OFF - All playback and clip review works NORMALLY.

BTW there is over 3 week turnaround at Sony here locally. It does seem to be an issue with Camera and not cards though.

Hi Craig,
Just curious did you install firmware upgrade yourself or Sony did it? I know someone who did it himself and his camera lost some functionality. I suspect that there was a bug.

Sony did it since I needed battery drain and fading back panel also addressed. I'm wondering if Sony did a "funky" firmware install unless there's a bug in the firmware itself.

Hi Craig,
Just curious did you install firmware upgrade yourself or Sony did it? I know someone who did it himself and his camera lost some functionality. I suspect that there was a bug.

I shot 1080p30 (regular speed) and 720p60 over 30fps (overcranked). The latter was shot for about 1.5 minutes. No problems whatsoever.

Just a quick note to let you and others know that there's another success story out there, including full overcrank.



Ryan,
Actually if you had tried to overcrank 24P at 60FPS, it would of failed.

Overcranking 30P at 60FPS, takes less data rate than overcranking 24P at 60FPS.
24P needs about 20% higher datarate to overcrank.

Turn YPbPr/SDI Out Select - OFF
Playback WORKS. Both SxS and MxR last clip review WORKS. Media Mode Playback WORKS.



Wow... nice find.
This is odd since I've been monitoring using SDI and playing back on my EX1..?

Hi Craig,
Just curious did you install firmware upgrade yourself or Sony did it? I know someone who did it himself and his camera lost some functionality. I suspect that there was a bug.

This is the same software Sony installs. MANY have installed it themselves and have no issues.

Craig, this may need to be a new topic.

It's obviously important.

BTW, have you been viewing footage on the EX1, or was this your first with the new software 1.11?

It seems to work fine on my camera with 1.11. As I mentioned above, I've also been playing back media from the EX1 and viewing on both the EX1 and SDI out.

New thread started. It does not seem specific to MxR as SxS exhibit this too.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/sony-xdcam-ex-cinealta/140809-clips-dont-play-ypbpr-sdi-out-select-sd-hd-ex1-firmware-1-11-a.html#post988464

Craig, this may need to be a new topic.

It's obviously important.

BTW, have you been viewing footage on the EX1, or was this your first with the new software 1.11?

It seems to work fine on my camera with 1.11. As I mentioned above, I've also been playing back media from the EX1 and viewing on both the EX1 and SDI out.

Received mine yesterday (QC'd personally by Ross). Limited testing reveals all 4 units functioning just fine with Transcend SDHC6/16GB cards. The fit is a bit more snug than SxS cards (EX1) but doesn't appear to be a problem. And the door closes!

I never imagined we would have such inexpensive media within a year. $28 for almost an hour's worth of HD at best quality? I've paid a lot more than that for 60min BetaSP tapes. My P2 friends are amazed. Moore's Law with a vengeance!

Nice work, Ross.

I got my hands on 2 pieces with yr QC sticker. They r a little tight in the SxS slot and the SD spring mechanism is a little tight too. However they do work very well and the door closes!

NICE.. I wun be missing the kensington...

Now that Sony reinstalled the firmware on my EX1 I can report the two MxR cards are happily working. They are snug and the Sandisk 32GB Ultra II cards are a tight fit but I like that. I can insert MxR into camera and they feel like they make solid contact. Inserting and removing the Sandisk cards have just enough pop so they release I can then easily pull them out.

I've done short recordings as well as record 118 minute straight through on a single card without any problems. I haven't tried to span yet but I'd assume that would work.

It's nice to pop in two cards and know I have nearly 4 hours of record time. It cost 1/10 what SxS 32GB would.

And for clients who want their material at the end of a shoot, as Bill notes, Transcend 16GB are under $30 US. I tested one of those also as supplied by a friend of mine. Maybe it's obvious but a really important note is that I can now walk in to a local office supply store (like Staples for example) and buy another Transcend card if I run short during a shoot.

They are snug and the Sandisk 32GB Ultra II cards are a tight fit but I like that. I can insert MxR into camera and they feel like they make solid contact. Inserting and removing the Sandisk cards have just enough pop so they release I can then easily pull them out.

Agreed, the MxR cards have better contact with the SDHC cards. Nice work Ross!

Received mine super fast - thanks Ross!

I only own Toshiba 4GB SDHC cards, which all behave this way:

I can record on them just fine. After pressing STOP, it tells me that:

Media Error
Media (A) Needs to be restored

So I click from CAMERA over to MEDIA and it prompts me thus:

Media Needs to be Restored
Restore Media (A) Now?
Execute
Cancel

And I click Execute, and it counts up the percentage to 100% and then allows me to click PLAY on the clips.

When I do so however, it plays the clip just fine until about 2 seconds before the end of the clip. When I plugged the camera into the PC and viewed the footage there, I confirmed that the last (approximately) 2 seconds of footage was not recorded.

Is this a product of the Toshiba card? Or the adapter?

Also, my Sony SxS card reader does not appear to recognise the adapter. The little light does not go on when I place the adapter in there, which it does using the SxS card. When clicking on the SxS drive in Windows Explorer, it says "Please insert a disk into Drive G.

Removing the SDHC card from the adapter, I was able to transfer the footage directly from it via an SD card reader. But should the SxS card reader be able to handle the adapter?

So my questions are basically, is the Toshiba card or the adapter itself the trouble with:

a) final 2 seconds of footage not being recorded
b) not recognising the card in the Sony SxS card reader

I am going to order some Sandisk cards today but am worried that they may not behave any differently to the Toshiba ones.

NOTE: I have the new firmware, and I have two MxR adapters and multiple 4GB Toshiba SDHC cards, and they all behaved the same way in both adapters.

Maybe your Toshibas are not compatible with EX1 through MxR??

Hi John,
can't help you re the Toshiba cards much, sounds like a buffer or some such is not being flushed to the SDHC cards.

The MxR etc cards will not work in the Sony SxS reader as it only uses the PCI interface to the Express Cards, not the USB interface.

Anyone with a XDCAM EX EX30 VCR tried any of these card e.g. MXR in that?

I have one but it'll be a couple of days before I can get to it, curious to see if anyone else has tried this.

John, Not all SDHC cards can handle the same write data rates. At this point Sandisk Ultra II, Sandisk Extreme III, Transcend Class 6 are the only cards that work reliably. They are the only ones with fast enough sustained write times.

As noted above MxR is USB not PCI so they will not work in Sony Express PCI card reader.

Received mine super fast - thanks Ross!

I only own Toshiba 4GB SDHC cards, which all behave this way:

I can record on them just fine. After pressing STOP, it tells me that:

Media Error
Media (A) Needs to be restored

So I click from CAMERA over to MEDIA and it prompts me thus:

Media Needs to be Restored
Restore Media (A) Now?
Execute
Cancel

And I click Execute, and it counts up the percentage to 100% and then allows me to click PLAY on the clips.

When I do so however, it plays the clip just fine until about 2 seconds before the end of the clip. When I plugged the camera into the PC and viewed the footage there, I confirmed that the last (approximately) 2 seconds of footage was not recorded.

Is this a product of the Toshiba card? Or the adapter?

Also, my Sony SxS card reader does not appear to recognise the adapter. The little light does not go on when I place the adapter in there, which it does using the SxS card. When clicking on the SxS drive in Windows Explorer, it says "Please insert a disk into Drive G.

Removing the SDHC card from the adapter, I was able to transfer the footage directly from it via an SD card reader. But should the SxS card reader be able to handle the adapter?

So my questions are basically, is the Toshiba card or the adapter itself the trouble with:

a) final 2 seconds of footage not being recorded
b) not recognising the card in the Sony SxS card reader

I am going to order some Sandisk cards today but am worried that they may not behave any differently to the Toshiba ones.

NOTE: I have the new firmware, and I have two MxR adapters and multiple 4GB Toshiba SDHC cards, and they all behaved the same way in both adapters.

Hi John,

I bought an 8GB Toshiba to test the speed of the card. The results were that the card is not fast enough to sustain the EX1 writing to it.

The media error arises because it took too long to write the TOC after you buttoned off. The data is usually written in this case, but requires a Media recovery to be read. In your case it didn't complete writing the data.

My tests of the 8GB Toshiba, led me to rank it alongside the Lexar SSD, and really only suitable for HDV/SP, and even then I wouldn't trust it.

Recommend as others have said, the Sandisk Ultra II range, Sandisk Extreme range, (more expensive but no performance increase), or Transcend, quite a bargain, but not as well made as the Sandisk.

I tried Kingston, one worked well the other did not. I also tried aData, that was slightly slower than the Kingston. Both cards would be happier in HDV/SP, but not HQ. I personally wouldn't record anything commercially on them though. They are just too slow.

The Sony SxS ExpressCard Reader/Writer - SBAC-US10 from what we have read will only read and write to SxS cards, not to cards which have a USB interface such as the MxR.

We haven't used the SBAC-US10, but we found a product that can do the same job at substantial savings, cheap enough to allow you to download more than one card at a time. If you can wait until next week, we will be releasing the product on our website.

Anyone with a XDCAM EX EX30 VCR tried any of these card e.g. MXR in that?

I have one but it'll be a couple of days before I can get to it, curious to see if anyone else has tried this.

Hi Bob,

I went down to Videocraft in Artarmon yesterday, and Rob Fluoro was very helpful in letting me try out the MxR in their EX30, and EX3. It was recognised immediately and we were able to see it on their Mac setup, no problem.

It was recognised in just the same way as the Sony SxS 8Gb I took with me to test.

That looks like a sweet deck, I'd love to have a longer play with one, but I didn't want to wear out the welcome.

We haven't used the SBAC-US10, but we found a product that can do the same job at substantial savings, cheap enough to allow you to download more than one card at a time. If you can wait until next week, we will be releasing the product on our website.

Hi Ross.
I have a question for you about the device you're planning, for offloading multiple cards at once, if that's ok.

I can plug multiple sdhc cards into my pc at once, using multiple usb slots and the cheap little sdhc>usb readers, the ones which came with my transcend cards, however, i can only open one instance of clip browser at a time, so can only offload one card at a time.
I suppose i could offload multiple cards at once using just windows but i'd prefer to use clip browser.

So my question to you is how will we go about offloading multiple cards at the same time ?


Thanks.
Paul.

I went down to Videocraft in Artarmon yesterday, and Rob Fluoro was very helpful in letting me try out the MxR in their EX30, and EX3. It was recognised immediately and we were able to see it on their Mac setup, no problem.

It was recognised in just the same way as the Sony SxS 8Gb I took with me to test.


So Ross...does your adapter fit properly in the EX3 just like the EX1? I read a few posts earlier that somebody mentioned that it was a challenge to pull it out of the EX3 slots (A or B slot...don't remember). Would you enlighten us as to your findings about this?

And again, many thanks for a delightfully inexpensive SxS alternative solution!!

Hi Bob,

I went down to Videocraft in Artarmon yesterday, and Rob Fluoro was very helpful in letting me try out the MxR in their EX30, and EX3. It was recognised immediately and we were able to see it on their Mac setup, no problem.

It was recognised in just the same way as the Sony SxS 8Gb I took with me to test.

That looks like a sweet deck, I'd love to have a longer play with one, but I didn't want to wear out the welcome.


You can have an extended play with ours anytime you like.

Hi Ross.
I have a question for you about the device you're planning, for offloading multiple cards at once, if that's ok.

I can plug multiple sdhc cards into my pc at once, using multiple usb slots and the cheap little sdhc>usb readers, the ones which came with my transcend cards, however, i can only open one instance of clip browser at a time, so can only offload one card at a time.
I suppose i could offload multiple cards at once using just windows but i'd prefer to use clip browser.

So my question to you is how will we go about offloading multiple cards at the same time ?


Thanks.
Paul.


Hi Paul,

There you go wanting to spoil all the fun for everyone else.

Next week, I promise...

Ha ha.

I suppose what i'm getting at is, will we be limited by clip browser, ie one card at a time ?
And will we be able to transfer multiple cards at once safely ?

Thanks Ross.

Paul.

Finally received MY (4) SCANDISK 32GB CARDS yesterday shot 118min with the MxR no problems with recording or play back. Its good to have 4 hours of recording on each cam.

So Ross...does your adapter fit properly in the EX3 just like the EX1? I read a few posts earlier that somebody mentioned that it was a challenge to pull it out of the EX3 slots (A or B slot...don't remember). Would you enlighten us as to your findings about this?

And again, many thanks for a delightfully inexpensive SxS alternative solution!!

The only thing I can say to you is that I purchased 4 adapters for my EX3 and they fit perfectly on the A or B slots.

Hi Guys,

Here's an update on where we are up to.

I just got back from the factory with the first shipment of cards for immediate release.

Quality Control:

I took my EX1 with me, along with a small pile of Ultra II 16GB cards. Each of the first 500 cards were tested individually, by me. They even get a little sticker on the back to say so. I was going to sign each one just for fun, until it turned into being, well, not so much fun.

Results:

In the first 500 there were 2 cards that came up with "media error", the rest were not only recognised but also had 5secs recorded over them.

500 cards, 2 failures.

That took about 7 hours of non-stop testing to achieve. I really wanted to test the another 500 but it would have meant being there until midnight, and the prospect of not so happy manufacturing people.

We also conducted another random sample of 50 cards from the next 500, and none failed. If you get a failed card, please contact me and we will ship another at our expense, expedited, to you. Just show us proof that the card is back on it’s way to us. We will pass it back to manufacturing to find out why it failed.

When I get some time tomorrow, (well maybe the day after), I’m going to start a little mini-study on Poisson distribution. It never occurred to me to ask the question of how they could get the same level of confidence as my labour intensive, individual testing using sampling techniques. But it can be done.

So are we shipping tomorrow?

For International orders, (ie not Australian), YES, WE ARE SHIPPING 19 DECEMBER 2008 as promised.

All Australian orders will be dispatched Tuesday 23 December for arrival Wednesday 24 December. (We had to concentrate on the overseas orders first because it takes so long to get there). Sorry for dispatching one day late, we just ran out of hands.

If you live in Sydney metro, and are nervous that Australia post might let you down, (although I’d have to say they rarely do, and I send out things all the time to nervous brides), one of the little elves said he would take a personal run with the sleigh to warm it up on Wednesday, and hand deliver to you. All you have to do is send me an email, tell me your name and address, and put in the subject, “To Santa’s little helper”, and we’ll pull yours from the mail processing.

I’m going to print out picking slips and labels tonight before I turn in, and match them all up tomorrow. So I’m sitting here in my hotel room, typing this up on my laptop surrounded by packing boxes, cartons and cartons of MxR cards, a laser printer I begged off the factory, and labels I bought with me, and no prospect of a beer until they are all sent.

So I will be emailing the invoices to you all as soon as the dispatch process has been completed, over the next few days. If you need the invoice sooner than that, email me, I can’t promise anything, but email me anyway.

Thanks again for all your terrific support, and as a small aside, I pushed the button on the next batch of four thousand to be delivered between now and New Year, that’s this new year, so there won’t be any shortage. I hope you all enjoy many happy years of shooting with your MxR's. I’d be really keen to hear feedback, good or bad, mind you bad wasn’t what I was planning for, but it does happen. Let us know how you go.

Ross Herewini
E-Films Video Production.


Ps If I could get the darn blog and faq software to work in Wordpress 2.6, I’d tell you there are some really exciting things happening on the memory front. As usual can’t say too much, but then when the MxR thing started, I couldn’t say too much about this either.

PS if you know anything about Wordpress v2.6 blogging, or FAQ in version 2.6, I would be very grateful if you could help me figure it out. My Web developer has gone on walkabout, I think i might have offended his delicate sensibilities when he stuffed up the Us airmail thing.

Hello, I have a question. I've been looking at buying the Sony EX3 but couldn't get past the price of the memory cards. Could you please explain to me how your solution addresses the issue? I don't quite understand.

Thank you so much and I apologize for asking what seems to be an obvious question.

16GB Sony SxS - $750
MxR card - $35, Transcend Class 6 SDHC 16GB card -$30 - Total $65

32GB Sony SxS - $1425
MxR card - $35, Sandisk Ultra II 32GB -$150 - Total $185

Additionally one can
avoid the cost of laptop needed to bring to a shoot to offload on location
can sell the media to client who wants to walk with the camera masters instead of the additional cost of portable hard drive or optical disc and backup time on location.

After a slight shipping delay (no doubt due to the holiday rush), my MxR cards have arrived and work flawlessly with my EX1 (using SanDisk Ultra II). Congrats Ross on bringing this excellent product to the market!

My cards arrived and I am happy to report that all 5 work perfectly with my Sandisk 32gb cards. Thanks Ross!


Wishing you a prosperous 09!
Keith Anderson