Finished a month in China with x70. Reflections on my Plusses and Minuses

[Roland Achini]

Quote Mark: "Furthermore, what I recall happened to me is that it wouldn't relay record to the "B" card until I removed the 'full' that had the 600 files." End Quote

Because Relay Rec does not work, I set Simul/Relay Rec to Off. This way, changing from Slot A to B is quicker, removing the full Card is not necessary.

[Andy Wason]

Good info here. I've been shooting with two 128g cards in relay mode, but never really got to the point where there's data in the second card. I also toyed with the idea of leaving the data from the previous event I shot, just as a backup. I know now that I'll need to reformat before every shoot.

[Ray Paula]

Originally Posted by Mark Goodsell

600 scenes. I recall seeing 113 minutes recording left when it suddenly showed "Card Full" on the LCD. Later than night I noticed the number of scenes was 600. Many of the scenes I shot were under 8 seconds, some even just a second or two (mistakes which I should have deleted), but there were also scenes which were a couple minutes long. Bear in mind I was using the original firmware., I'd be interested to know if that has changed with the new firmware.

Please refer to Pg. 115 of the manual (under 'Tips'):
"The maximum number of movie scenes that can be recorded is 600 in XAVC HD, 3999 in AVCHD, and 9,999 in DV."

I was using 128G cards. The Card A filled up as described above and wouldn't relay to Card B. As I recall (going off memory here), I was not able to get slot B to work until I removed the full card., which is what I ultimately did. That is the part that gave me momentary confusion and I was concerned there might be a problem with the 'full' card, or perhaps even the camera. Bear in mind, I was in a busy market at the time with lots of people swarming around, getting good shots (or trying to), so it was a confusing situation. In checking, it appeared like I had relay recording set up properly but being a new camcorder, up to that point I hadn't actually relayed between cards yet (but I am familiar with relay recording on other camcorders). I imagine the same issue might occur if one had two 64G SD cards in their camcorder and 600 short clips between them. Anyway, I'm just reporting what I experienced. If there is something I could have done different, I am open to suggestions or criticism.

I had 4x 128G cards in total, which I calculated to be enough storage based on past similar events. But in a new place with feature-rich shooting like China, it's amazing how quickly a card can get filled up. After the second card filled up faster than I had anticipated, with nearly 2hrs of unused recording time (according to the LCD), I realized I would be short on storage. The biggest issue was that even in a big city like Beijing, finding a suitable SDXC card in a camera store was extremely difficult. In smaller cities, even a greater challenge (language wasn't a problem). Most people there use smartphone cameras (which use Micro SD cards), or buy pro gear online. Even when you find a large selection of cards, I only found one or two shops which had SDXC cards, but only 16 or 32G for $50. I guess I violated my own mantra of bringing more storage than I think I'll need, because 128G cards add up in cost $$. We made due by deleting unnecessary shots on the existing cards to maximize the space available, modifying our shooting style (e.g. shooting close-ups and landscape shots together in the same clip), being more selective what we were shooting, and,utilizing other SDXC extra cards we had intended for DSLR use. But all the extra time managing the cards, looking for additional cards, and shooting less was a huge waste of time when you consider I paid about $75 ea. for premium quality Sandisk cards. Suddenly $75/card seems cheap. So, be sure to take more than you need just in case, and be aware of the number of scenes you've shot.

I have since bought the transfer cable and next time will utilize the back up to hard drive feature. I should have read the manual a little more closely initially.

Hi Mark... Great review! Fairly new to the x70 and I'd like to know more about the transfer cable and the "backup to hard drive feature?" I couldn't find any info on it in the manual. I'd like to simply backup my footage off my 64g SDXC cards on one of my 2tb portable external hard drives at the end of the day. I believe all I would need to do is open the SDXC card Private-XDROOT-Clip folders and drag and drop the clips from there into my external hard drive. I just want to make sure of the proper method without losing any footage. In addition, I see the MXF file and a MO1 document for each clip. I don't understand what the MO1 doc is for? Would I need to download both? I'd like to add, I haven't installed Catalyst Browse yet due to moving up to an iMac in the very near future. Any help would be sincerely appreciated for this Newbe, Thanks, Ray

[Mark Goodsell]

Hi, Thanks. I bought the cable but haven't tried the xfer option yet. It's in the manual. Maybe someone here who's done it a few times can provide more information on the specific mechanics of how to do it.

[Tom Grushka]

Mark,

Any chance you might be willing to upload some samples of your footage for us?

[Ray Paula]

Thanks.... I went ahead and created a thread in regards to transferring. Thanks again, Ray
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/sony-pxw...ml#post1895947

[Mark Goodsell]

Any chance you might be willing to upload some samples of your footage for us?

I may, however, since I returned, I haven't had a chance to even touch the camcorder or even look at much of the footage due to home construction, work, family. As soon as I do, I will definitely post something.

[Tom Grushka]

No prob, look forward to it.