new 32 Gb card
 

Nice find, Jurgen.

This should mean that we, the poor(er) EX1-cousin owners, should hope now for a major firmware update - including the 32 GB card and the HDD support.

Pricing
 

At this rate, with current pricing structures, 32 and 64GB cards are going to cost an awful lot. It may be time for SONY to reconsider how long it can gouge people on media. The 32 card would cost in the order of 1/4 the price of the EX1 and the 64? Well, I think I'll stick to my 16GB cards and wait for a 'shake down' on price and more competition (if Sandisk, the OEM manufacturer of SONY cards, counts as competition).

Doesn't hurt that I intend to use CD's FLASH XDR and CF UDMA cards in the main though...

Jus.

I think Flash XDR will be the way to go for top end work. The cost of the Convergent Design unit seems reasonable when the recording media is so reasonably priced.

Prices will always come down, much like the P2 cards did. I remember falling to the floor when I saw the price of the 1st generation of P2s. Wow!

heath

You could also use the same analogy that the SLR still photo guys use....

If you damage or loose a 32gb card, there goes a whole lot of footage down the drain...

So the thinking is... more 8gb cards for less of a loss in case something happens...

Also important is the off-loading time required; the 8 GB card will be ready for recording to it again much quicker. I have just 3 x 8GB cards, and with my laptop, can shoot continuously for really long periods without too much stress.

32G cards do not make sense unless you happen to work in the oil business!

For the price of this card you can get a MacBook Pro - which does an awful lot more than this card can do. So you may have to swop out the cards every 30 minutes - but is that so bad. I mean we should start thinking like we are using film cannisters anyway which need to be changed every 8 minutes!

I'll wait thanks.

the future is in SSD drive anyway.

Yes.
 

This is how I see it. I've been extremely fortunate in being able to invest in a number of items recently, including the XDR unit and am excited by the prospect that it might increase the useful/competitive working life of the EX3 I also bought - by this I mean prospective output quality and concomitant 'legacy' issues (although sometimes I think this is a bit of a red herring for indies like me and HD certainly ain't 2K let alone 4K).

Naturally, as prices of SXS cards come down, I fully expect those of high capacity CF cards to do so too, maybe more so ;^)

Jus.

Hmmm
 

Maybe. However, I'd rather have dozens of inexpensive CF cards for archival purposes that I'll worry less about losing, damaging or replacing. Of course, this may all change in 5 years given the rate of change of all this digital!

Jus.

Just bought 4 ea 32 GB / 133X UDMA Transcend Compact Flash Cards for $119 each for our XDR.

Posted this for the purposes of value comparisons.

Well I record a lot of IT user group talks that are always scheduled for "55 minutes to an hour" and ALWAYS over-run so that I've not yet managed to get one to fit on a single 16GB card. For conference recording etc 1 hour is pretty much the norm and 16GB isn't quite enough, so 32GB is good news for me.

"The 32GB SBP-32 will be available from 11 August 2008'

Hmm, 3 days away.

Anyone know a price?

Cheers Vaughan

Data rate.
 

What data rate will they permit - all? I ask because I was under the impression that 300X were necessary.

Jus.

I would certaily be interested. 4 32Gb cards would do me for a wedding no problem.

My guess is that 8gb cards could disappear very soon.

300X required for data rates 100MBit & above.

133X tested good up to the 100MBit data rate.

These are the reported tests for the Transcend CF.

Ok
 

Thanks JR.

Jus.

Dear Justin and John,

Our testing, with the Transcend 32 GB 133x CompactFlash card shows that it works well at data rates up to and including 100 Mb. It is over 100 Mb that a faster card is necessary.

Over 100 Mb, or with the "Uncompressed Option", the much faster, but less capacity, Transcend 16 GB 300x card is required.

I must stress that these statements apply to the Transcend cards only, as these cards exceed their published specifications.

We do expect other fast cards (for their category) to come out.

We are expecting a 64 GB 300x card to be shipping before the end of the year, but still do not know the price.

If you do not need to run uncompressed, which most of us don't since 100 Mb (Long-GOP) is so good, then the Transcend 32 GB 133x should be a good choice.

For those that do not want "Long-GOP", and use the “I-Frame Only” option at 160 Mb, will need the faster card.

I am very comfortable making these recommendations, but as we get more units in the field
we may need to change our recommendations.

For example, we may find that in extreme heat or cold a faster card may be necessary.

Also, we will definitely change our recommendations as the technology advances and other great CompactFlash cards come on the market and we have fully qualified the new cards.

Personally, I purchased 4 of the 16 GB 300x cards so I would have the option of recording uncompressed, or 160 Mb I-Frame only. I consider this a luxury and not a necessity.

For those who do not want to, or cannot work with "Long-GOP" for any reason, the 16 GB 300x card is a better choice.

It is not obvious, but "Long-GOP" at 100 Mb is much better than "I-Frame Only" at 160 Mb, from a quality of image standpoint only. Our thoughts, and not scientific evidence at this time, are that "Long-GOP" at 100 Mb is probably close to "I-Frame Only" at 300 Mb. This is only theoretical as we cannot test "I-Frame Only" at 300 Mb.

I hope this helps.

As in, more cards increase the chance of mixing them up or losing them. For reliability and to guard against damage or loss, it would be cool if Sony offered a mode to write to both cards in parallel.

I'd be willing to pay for major feature upgrades in the Sony EX1, probably in the $100-$400 range. Their past model was to make money on media. With a closed system, they have an opportunity to make money on software (firmware) upgrades.

firmware V1.11 needed
 

Just been told that firmware v1.11 will be needed to recognise 32 gig cards.

Should be available in Australia next week.

Cheers Vaughan

Are you reffering to the EX1? Am I right in assuming that the EX3 already accepts the 32GB cards?

SxS = $expensive$

"Are you reffering to the EX1? Am I right in assuming that the EX3 already accepts the 32GB cards? "

Yes, the EX 1.
Don't know about the Ex 3 and it's firmware.

Vaughan