Same problem here as Brian, I have two new 16gb transcend cards one works fine but other fails after about 4 to 5 clips (restore media message). Tried restore/ reformat but still same problem. Have returned this one to supplier. Hopefully this is not going to become a common problem.

As a future EX1 owner, this little thread just saved me over $1000! Had no idea there was an alternative to the over-priced Sony cards (what from Sony isn't ).

I have some comments after reading this investigative and educational thread:

First, I didn't find Jamie's comments insulting at all. He asked a legitimate question that was based in the conversation. It might have been a tough question, but wasn't one just for reaction or ill-spirited. I thank you for asking it.

Secondly, after reading everyone's comments theres just no way that I could trust a Sandisk for Professional use. I have many Sandisk cards for my consumer point and shoot camera which i'm very happy with. Many great drunken madness pics have been captured with them. But to many people are having issues with class 4 & 6 that I wouldn't touch them on a professional shoot.

It would be great to have a representative from Transcend addressing the failure issues but without that, personally, I'm leaning heavily towards Hoodman. For $50, that piece of mind and insurance is cheap! If I lost data from a shoot, the cost in gathering a crew back, resecuring a location, bringing actors back would make me seem like dumbo for trying to save a messily $50 ( after already saving $500 by not buying an SxS card).

And thanks to those that sent emails and made calls and reported back with your findings. Greatly Appreciated!

Thats my 2 cents.

Nice sales pitch from Lou, but..... What I would like to see 2 things. First of all how the data on card failure was collected? Second question would be what is Hoodman's card failure ratio? All electronic equipment suffers from failure, regarding of the brand. What I am interested in, is how Hoodman can support it's claim of fail free cards?
Seems to me there was a lot of hot air blowing in this sales pitch. 25K pictures, 3% failure and so. Would be helpful to see the raw data, rather then "urban legends".
BTW all upper end Nikon and Canon (accepted by stock agencies) write to CF not SD cards. Therefor there is hardly any point of mentioning still photography as it uses different product all together.

Seems to me there was a lot of hot air blowing in this sales pitch.

First - This has already come up once before in this thread. Please refrain from this kind of language on this forum, especially when referring to comments by a dealer about his equipment. Dealers fund these forums. Their input is extremely valuable. Its wise to always take it with a grain of salt but there are respectful ways to voice your doubts.


Second - After reading of all the Transcend and Sandisk problems on this thread, I've decided to take a chance on the Hoodman combo. Time will tell whether they really are more reliable , but $50 is a small price to pay for peace of mind . Also the Hoodman Turnkey comes with a plastic holder and USB adapter which narrows the cost difference.

Lenny Levy

I don't see the value in the hoodman cards. You can get a 32gb SxS card for $860. To match that with the hoodman, you need two 16s, at $100 ea, plus one or two adapters, at $50 ea- total of 250-300, or 1/3 the price of the SxS. Considering the risk you're taking with unsupported media, the lower performance, and loss of workflow efficiency (offloading sdhc takes forever), it just doesn't add up to me unless you're talking about bigger savings. With reliable Transcend cards at $40 ea (including a usb reader), I've been using them as backup, whenever I run out of my SxS. But if it was only a 3:1 savings, I'd buy more SxS.

Well, it depends on how reliable the hoodman's turn out to be, how much the $ difference is to you and what your workflow is.

Its still a significant savings to me, and frankly I don't really want cards that record for 2 hours so perhaps the trade off is better on 16G.

I don't see the value in the hoodman cards. .

I spoke to soon. After reviewing all the info, and threads and pages I too couldn't justify Hoodmans price, 60% more then Transcend. They may have a few more hick ups but I observed that if its gonna fail, you'll know right away. And my deciscion was made easier by there website adds sales tax AND shipping one combo runs $13 ! Wow! Must be amazing quality control there too. Ended up buying a Hoodman SxS adapter from B&H (no tax, upgraded shipping was a whooping .50) and bought 2 transcend cards with free shipping from another online retailer.

Total price, including tax and shipping for 1 Sxs Adaptor, 2 16gb sdhc cards and 2 usb readers was $136.50. Really wanted to buy from Hoodman, appreciated there response here but couldn't account for their claims and thus the higher price.

First - This has already come up once before in this thread. Please refrain from this kind of language on this forum, especially when referring to comments by a dealer about his equipment. Dealers fund these forums. Their input is extremely valuable. Its wise to always take it with a grain of salt but there are respectful ways to voice your doubts.
Leonard, first of all I find the sales pitch from Hoodman offensive. Promoting a product by putting competitor's product down, using unsupported data is not the way to promote yourself. I asked a couple of very legit questions- how the data was gathered and what is Hoodman's failure ratio? I used SanDisc for years (CF) and I never had a failure. I looked up customer's feedback on sites like B&H, newegg and a couple of others. While there are some instances of cards not working Sandisc or Transcend were rated positively by vast majority. I could not find a single customer review, outside of Hoodman's web page! I have my doubts that the company sold more then a few thousands of cards. So the claim of zero failure is rather strange.
BTW, the only reason advertisers use this site, as a lot of people read it. It's a symbiotic relationship, not one way street, as you present it.


Second - After reading of all the Transcend and Sandisk problems on this thread, I've decided to take a chance on the Hoodman combo. Time will tell whether they really are more reliable , but $50 is a small price to pay for peace of mind . Also the Hoodman Turnkey comes with a plastic holder and USB adapter which narrows the cost difference.

Lenny Levy
Good for you. Personally I think 50 bucks is a lot of money. But honestly, I would never use unsupported media in EX. That's the reason I went with JVC.

Robert,
There are rules on this forum and I have seen posts deleted a number of times for exactly the kind of remarks you posted, (particularely for remarks about Sony that were probably deserved.) It behooves all of us to simply keep the discussion polite.

If you found Lou's statements suspect you have every right to critique them, I'm just suggesting that it should be done politely. I've often started to post something then thought better of it and re-written my comments. These forums are wonderfully valuable, but they can degenerate easily. I have seen manufacturers and knowledgeable people leave other sites because of rude personal attacks.

Re: Sandisk and Transcend failures , I've been worried by exactly what I've read here. I also scoured the web looking for other comments and didn't find too much. I called local camera stores as well and had mixed responses - though my own local store echoed what Lou said. I'm also skeptical that the Hoodman cards are failure proof but I made my own judgement.

You have every right to make yours and argue the point here if you wish. The point is just to do it without insulting people.

BTW my Hoodman card arrived this morning and it didn't have the plastic cover for the adapter card I was expecting. The person I spoke to misunderstood me. So now I have to buy a cover from the Abel Cine site. That's something Hoodman should offer.

I just posted a user video review of the Hoodman SxSxSDHC turnkey kit. Since I am a newbie to using these workaround cards I think it will be informative for anyone thinking about heading in that direction.

Hoodman SxSxSDHC Sony EX1/EX3 Adaptor Review on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/5213826)

BTW my Hoodman card arrived this morning and it didn't have the plastic cover for the adapter card I was expecting. The person I spoke to misunderstood me. So now I have to buy a cover from the Abel Cine site. That's something Hoodman should offer.

Lenny--I wrote to Hoodman a few weeks ago and asked whether the sxs adapter came in a plastic case and they said it did. Are you saying it does not, or just that there was a mis-communication in how you ordered?

I just got mine and there is a plastic case for the SDHC card, but not for the adapter. I thought they said yes also but it wasn't in my box.

Update - I just called them and they are sending it right out to me - in fact overnighting it as I need to go out of town.

Sounds like they have old packaging without the cover and I got that one - jut a guess.

I just got mine and there is a plastic case for the SDHC card, but not for the adapter. I thought they said yes also but it wasn't in my box.

Update - I just called them and they are sending it right out to me - in fact overnighting it as I need to go out of town.

Sounds like they have old packaging without the cover and I got that one - jut a guess.

The cases don't actually come inside the adaptor packaging. They are just put in the shipping box like a regular item. At least that's how mine came.

Re: Sandisk and Transcend failures , I've been worried by exactly what I've read here. I also scoured the web looking for other comments and didn't find too much.

There have been a couple of instances I've read about where people have said their Transcend cards haven't worked properly right out of the box, and presumably they have had those cards replaced with properly functioning ones. No one should use an sdhc card in the field without testing it first. But I don't think anyone has made any claims about a functional Transcend card going bad, and I don't think anyone has claimed to have lost any footage from one. Obviously someone has to be the first, but I haven't seen any evidence that convinces me Hoodman is more reliable. And with a 150% price premium, I think the onus is on them to prove their value.

Look guys, we probably pretty much have as much information as we're going to get on this and we all have to decide what it means to us.

I went with Hoodman because bad cards out of the box spooks me and makes me worry about other cards going bad later. To me its not reassuring to hear that they only go bad at the beginning. Granted there are far fewer hoodman cards in circulation. If I start hearing about bad hoodman cards I'll change my mind. I'm not eager to spend more money.

I still do find it hard to imagine that Hoodman would charge twice as much unless they were spending something extra on quality, sounds like a bad business model - but maybe I'm a fool. Time will tell.

If others want to stick with the other cards I respect that reasoning. One thing for sure is that this thread has been very informative and I want to thank all the people who have contributed.

One thing for sure is that this thread has been very informative and I want to thank all the people who have contributed.

I'm with you on that. Still pretty amazed how the whole sdhc hack came together on these forums.

Here's a new wrinkle that will make you hoodman skeptics smile - My brand new hoodman adapter is getting stuck in my Macbook Pro expresscard slot. After a while I discovered that if I push down on the edge of the card while pressing it in ( if that makes any sense) it will release. However it is still disconcerting. I have a borrowed M&R adapter that doesn't do this at all and no other expresscard has ever done this.

If I run my finger along the front of the card (the side where the label is) up to the edge where the SDHC card enters there is a little lip which is higher than the one on the M&R card ( does that make sense?) It looks like this is where it gets caught in the expresscard slot.

Hoodman gets theirs from M&M so you can't blame them but is this typical of these adapters or is something wrong with mine?

I had the same problem with my MxR cards. The problem was the labels. I took them off and no more getting stuck in my Macbook Pro.

The label - wow last thing i would have thought. Thanks

I noticed a few days ago the ATP ProMax SD/SHDC 16GB Class 6 cards at AUD 99.

Link to the ATP Electronics site:

ATP ELECTRONICS, INC. (http://www.atpinc.com/newweb/p2-4a.php?sn=00000185)

I can't say how these will perform compared to the Sandisk or the Hoodman but ATP seem to consider their products a cut above the average with a 5 year warranty and a dust / waterproof rating.

Sorry if this question has already been addressed, but has anyone used the Hoodman adapter with the Transcend SDHC cards? Do they work well?

John

They'll be fine- same as the MxR adapters, with a different label.

Update on my sticking Hoodman adapter - I took off the label and that helped though its still touchier than other expresscards. Worked fine all weekend though.

Good news is I emailed Hoodman Friday about it and got a call from Lou's partner this morning trying to trouble shoot it. They are sending a replacement card already.

Can't knock that service.

Maybe the Hoodman label's are just a bit thicker. The adapters are identical products.

Hoodman just sent me a replacement that works fine so it looks like an anomaly

I have twelve Transcends with the adapters. I've shot close to 15 hours per card so far with no problems at all. I'd recommend them.

I've been shooting with two 16GB Transcends, MxR readers. No problems. Am thrilled.

I have two weddings a month and working only with MXR and transcend 16gb, no problems

Do you guys have a different adapter for each SDHC card or do you change SDHC cards in just a few adapters?

Are there problems using just one adapter with many SDHC cards (aside form download speed being slower in a USB adapter)?

I have an adapter for each card as I would not trust the SDHC connection strip for a lot of use. Also as others have said when out in the field the human error factor needs to be reduced as much as possible.

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

I have an adapter for each card as I would not trust the SDHC connection strip for a lot of use. Also as others have said when out in the field the human error factor needs to be reduced as much as possible.

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.

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 (http://www.hoodmanusa.com/SxSxSDHC_Memory_Adapter_FAQ.asp)

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.

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.

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

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

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



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

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).

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.