Greetings from Z1 world. I'm hoping to join you in EX world very soon and I'm delighted to read about the SDHC solution. But I am slightly worried about this issue of hitting record before the TOC is finished writing.
Q. If I have shot 50 minutes of clips and then accidentally try to record before the green light and get this media error, have I then lost my fifty minutes or maybe just that last shot?

I certainly hope not, but if so, that would scare the living daylights out of me.

A thought about SxS: While throwing out some old VHS tapes yesterday, I was amused to recall that the first blanks I bought around 1980 cost £13 a piece and latterly they were 50 pence! From here in HDV tape world (where my tapes are now only £1 or so) it seems what's needed is realistic pricing on SxS cards. Don't get me wrong, I'm really grateful to the people who have worked so hard on the adaptor / SDHC solution, which I will certainly be using, but isn't it a shame to have to compromise on error correction and the over-cranking facility which require the SxS cards for which the cameras are designed?

Ian,

Using memory cards just requires you to be careful when shooting, touch wood, I haven't lost any footage on a SDHC card, but I have lost footage with tape due to moisture on heads, tape snarl etc.

Once you get used to a tapeless workflow then you won't look back.

Even if you get the media error you shouldn't lose clips. You just need to restore and it'll fix the last clip. The only time I've ever gotten the media error was when testing the overhead on an SDHC card by overcranking. Even in that case the clip it errored on was restored.

The problem with the price of SxS is that it's proprietary media. It's always going to be low volume sales. JVC HM uses the same codec, works with all class 6 cards (I read NO COMPLAINTS) and even overcranks. Even Panasonic is moving to SDHC over P2 on some of their cameras.

The odd thing about the SDHC issues is that many brands that were reliable Sandisk Ultra II or Transcend Class 6 have become hit and miss. Yet I've heard some "lesser" brands working quite well but we don't have that documented in this forum (we should).

Just testing 2 8gb transcend cards today. Recorded right through and no errors, formated and recorded again and this time got the need to restore message. It restored on one card but the other card gave a message couldn't restore all clips. I formated the two cards and starting to test them again. Not very promising by the look of things.

Anthony, was your second test the same as the first?
If it formats and records straight through that shouldn't change from format to format.

Generally thought I don't reformat the cards but I can certainly that one may have to do this at some point and not expect the operation of an already tested card should change.

That results seems odd. Are you absolutely sure you didn't do something different the second time?

Hi Craig, yes, 2nd test the exact same. There must be something wrong with the card in slot B. I watch for the change over and card A seamed to record OK, again it looked as if it recorded through without error, I switched the camera off and on again and got the media restore message. I'm recording to card B for now just to see what happens.

Card B recorded to end then, Media Error, Media needs to be restored. Looks like card B is faulty.

I'll test the other card now and get back.

Looks like the other 8gb card is faulty too. Once the card was full I got the media needs to restore message.

Thats a first for me. I'll try and return the cards.

..Generally thought I don't reformat the cards...

Craig, do you just format the card when new and "delete all clips" each time after that.
Is formating the card each time wrong.

Thanks in advance.

Anthony,

I've had horrible luck with brand new (a month ago) Transcend cards. They don't seem to be as trusty as they used to be. Others are reporting many problems too. I would try a Hoodman card. They are more $$ but I have 4 and not one problem yet.

Anthony,

I've had horrible luck with brand new (a month ago) Transcend cards. They don't seem to be as trusty as they used to be. Others are reporting many problems too. I would try a Hoodman card. They are more $$ but I have 4 and not one problem yet.

Paul, I think your right about the transcend cards, wonder how Sandisk cards are holding up?

Hoodmans cards might be worth looking into. Wonder what the cost is to send a few over to me.

Thanks.

Paul, I think your right about the transcend cards, wonder how Sandisk cards are holding up?
Thanks.

I had my first CF error on a Transcend 16GB card which usually spends its time in my wife's D90. The error occured in the D90. Personally, I'd rather spend top dollar for the best flash memory. I don't know the foundry for the Lexar or Transcend parts, but we do know that "floor sweep" parts exist for lower reliability due to manufacturing mistakes. For graphics chips, a part with one or more faulty shader engines is simply remarked as a different, lower end product sold and sold for less. I suppose that Transcend and the other budget flash distributors know that their consumer market won't figure out that their part lasts for a year.

Write performance degrades as the flash memory part fills to two thirds, from what I've read. Do we really know what happens to the Transcend when 50-100MB is left?

Bout to use these SDHC cards for the first time on a series I have coming up. Been researching a lot and been testing the Hoodman RAW cards. I know there more expensive then other alternatives out there, but am willing to pay that if they are more secure. Have been testing two of the cards and have worked great.

I guess I'm just asking for anyone's thoughts on the Hoodman cards, and is the higher price worth the piece of mind. Want to be sure before I purchase a number of these.

Thanks in advance.

How are people testing these cards? The Transcend 16 GB Class 6 (green stripe) worked well for me until they filled up in my Sony EX1. Flash cards have a very slow write performance as they reach write capacity.

I guess I'm just asking for anyone's thoughts on the Hoodman cards, and is the higher price worth the piece of mind. Want to be sure before I purchase a number of these.

Thanks in advance.

Take a look at the ATP Pro cards. They are more expensive than Transcends (and harder to source) but seem to offer better quality.

There was rumour of Hoodman cards being available in the UK shortly, however it might not be worth bothering with if Sony release a firmware upgrade so we can use their new adaptors and memory sticks.

... however it might not be worth bothering with if Sony release a firmware upgrade so we can use their new adaptors and memory sticks.

I think I'll wait for the Sony adaptors too.

I've knocked together a blog entry that sums up my findings for the ATP cards and where to get them in the UK. It's nothing that I haven't posted on here already but I felt it a good idea to try and get everything into one place. This might be useful if we manage to locate more UK suppliers:

SDHC Shooting on the Sony EX1 | Media2u Video Production Blog (http://www.media2u.co.uk/blog/?p=40)

I've got 4 of them now and Amazon (the only UK supplier I can find) seem to have them back in stock again. The 4 I have seem to be consistent in testing so I'm now in the process of weeding out any Transcend that takes longer than 5 or 6 seconds to clear the red light.

Marcus, I notice you're looking at the 16GB cards. Actually the prices for the 32GB cards are less per GB which may be odd but true for the prices I've seen.

$119 US
https://www.mydigitaldiscount.com/SPD/atp-32gb-150x-class-6-promax-sdhc-card-atp-32gb-pro-max-sdhc-card--800009FE-1241728748.jsp

€134
32GB ATP ProMax SDHC Class6 150x MLC (http://www.4memory.nl/32gb-promax-sdhc-class6-150x-p-1182.html)

While the 32gb cards may be cheaper per mb the problem is that in the UK the 16gb cards are already rare. The 32gb cards simply aren't out there. The blog entry was partly inspired by one chap from this very forum who actually phoned me to ask about the ATP cards and where he could get them in the UK.

Of course you can import them (as I did for 2 cards) but the entire process was so slow, painful and expensive it's just far easier to get the 16gb cards from Amazon. In short I got stung for hefty international shipping, import duty and a extra delivery fee by a UK courier!

I wish some enterprising UK supplier would stock the ATP cards. The MxR stockists will happily sell you Transcends even though we know there are issues. Then again when I looked at the MxR website last week they were still recommending Transcend cards despite the reported issues. I'd be interested to hear their opinion of why they still think Transcend cards are still suitable.

[edit] Just looking at the price on that Dutch site you provided, the 32gb card is way more than twice the price. Amazon are charging approx £44 delivered for a 16gb but that site charges 134 Euros which is approx £120. So the cost per mb is higher.

Marcus, mxmexpress dot com told me to contact Neil Hart from ProActive and convince him there is a need for ATP Pro cards.

I tried to get in touch with him but haven't spoke to him yet.

MxM Express (http://mxmexpress.com/)
and
MxM Express Australian Orders (http://mxmexpress.com/?page_id=5)
So it seems MxM sells them but only with Australia and New Zealand orders.

If you live in the US or other countries getting hold of the ATP cards appears to be pretty easy. I had no trouble locating a stateside supplier. It's the UK that is a problem.

If another supplier does crop up then that will be great but at least Amazon UK have them again. There's 5 in stock as of this morning and the indications are they will order more when they run out.

Topteks for ATP cards in UK.

Paul.

Cheers. No online shop on their site though. Are they happy to do mail order over the phone? If so I'll add their details in.