SDHC substitute for SxS cards

[Steven Thomas]

Jason,
It misses closing by maybe 2mm due to the SDHC card protruding from the Kensington..

Yes, the door has to stay open, but if you put it in the rear slot, you can close the door right up to the SDHC card sticking out.

[Steven Thomas]

Jon,
Well you can leave the Kensington Reader in the EX1 and just pull out the SDHC card. This is what I'm doing and it works great.

[Jon Braeley]

Originally Posted by Steven Thomas

Jon,
Well you can leave the Kensington Reader in the EX1 and just pull out the SDHC card. This is what I'm doing and it works great.

OK sounds fine. I just saw reviews that mention the Macbook Pro cannot sleep after using the reader - but this probably while the card is inserted only right?

[Steven Thomas]

I have a feeling many still have not figured out that with the new 1.1 EX1 firmware , or current EX3, you can use the Kensington Expresscard adapter 7-in-1 and certain SDHC cards (see thread) for a really inexpensive solution instead of SxS cards.

In fact, when the 32G Ultra II 15MB/s SDHC cards are released (very soon),
for under $400 USD you can have two Kensington expresscard readers each fitted with 32GB SDHC cards.

So for $400, you will have a by far cleaner solution for 64GB storage over the PHU-60K drive.
Yes, you will not be able to close the EX1 memory door, but the PHU-60K also MUST have the door open too, not to mention you will have a drive tethered off your camera.

Having said that, there will be some who will stay with using only SxS for several reason.
1. Tried, true, and tested
2. Already spent an arm & leg.
3. Faster read support when saving to your PC.
4. S&Q mode support


It's been over a week of testing an have NEVER had one error or media restore (that the PHU-60K is known to have)

Also using the Sandisk Extreme III 30MB/s or SanDisk Ultra II 15/MB/s, these yield 40% headroom over HQ data rate. Based on Alister's report, the Transcend has less than the Sandisk cards I mentioned, but still maintains reasonable headroom.

[Keith Moreau]

Originally Posted by Alister Chapman

Shooting in 25P S&Q mode I am getting very similar performance from both these cards. At 52 FPS both will give media errors pretty quickly, at 50 FPS I get occasional media errors on long clips and at 48 FPS both are error free. Both are quite a bit faster than my 8Gb Transcend cards which only make 38 FPS (still plenty fast enough for regular HQ mode).

Alister, I've been testing with the 16GB Transcend cards, and I'm not getting the performance you report. I've only been able to get reliable up to 24P / 38FPS slomo. Beyond that I'll get occasional errors. I don't think there are different models of the Transcend 16GB, but what model are you using? That being said, for the price and for non-slomo shooting the Transcend 16GB seem fine. However I'm ordering the 16GB and 32GB Sandisk Ultra 2 for comparison. I'm intrigued by the 32GB for the nearly 2 hours of shooting time.

Today I did my first real shoot with my EX1 with an 8GB SxS card in slot A and the Transcend 16GB in slot B. In this shoot I did need to do some slomo, but remembering to use Card A wasn't difficult. The only strange error I got was when I was on card B (Transcend) and I switched the video format from 720P to 1080 30P. The LCD had some strange error message, E=12345 (I don't remember the number but it was 5 digits.) The EX1 wasn't really operable at that point, I could switch menus but I don't think I could switch card slots or record.

With a bit of trepidation I removed card B, and turned the power off to the EX1. Repowering, I inserted card B. No errors, no request for media restore, worked fine. Was able to transfer the media over to my hard drive fine not glitches or anything.

[Alister Chapman]

I'm using a simple USB to SD adapter and it works great.

[Steven Thomas]

Keith, do you have a list of EX1 error codes? wonder what this was.

It may of been something else. It does not appear to be the "typical" memory related error.

Also, I'm wondering if the Transcend is maybe not quite up to par as the SanDisk Extreme and Ulta II.
I do know the Sandisk can overcrank at a higher data rate. 40FPS at 24P


What do you think?

[Keith Moreau]

Originally Posted by Steven Thomas

Keith, do you have a list of EX1 error codes? wonder what this was.

It may of been something else. It does not appear to be the "typical" memory related error.

Also, I'm wondering if the Transcend is maybe not quite up to par as the SanDisk Extreme and Ulta II.
I do know the Sandisk can overcrank at a higher data rate. 40FPS at 24P


What do you think?

Steven, I have no idea about the error codes or what it meant. I've never seen it before. I was shooting in full sun, the EX1 case was pretty hot at that point.

I did a lot of testing of the Transcend, filling a whole 16GB transcend card at 24P slomo- 38, 39, 40 FPS several times. At 38FPS never an error. At 39, sometimes no error all the way, sometimes an occasional error. At 40, errors at least once, sometimes early, sometimes several minutes in. On the Extreme I was able to get to 43FPS with no errors (although I didn't test it as much as the Transcend.)

Using XBench, which is a Mac benchmarking utility, it's clear that even with the Kensington Expresscard adapter and USB 2.0 as the potential bottleneck, the Extreme III is the fastest, with write speeds using 256k blocks of 13.53 MB/second, my older Sandisk Ultra II 4GB (not the 15MB/sec model) at 8.87 MB/sec, 3rd is the Transcend at 8.42 MB/sec, and , so the old Ultra seems faster than the transcend. Of course the Sony SxS card, unfettered by the Kensington and USB 2.0 blows them all away at 43.96 MB/sec. I've ordered the new Sandisk Ultra II 15MB/sec model, we'll see if that's faster, and that might be the compromise between the Extreme and the Transcend.

So it seems that the Sandisk Extreme is the 'luxury' SDHC card at the moment, but the Transcend is the 'best buy.' I'm going to keep using the Transcend for a while until I find it's unreliable.

[Steven Thomas]

Right now, I only have a SanDisk Ultra II 4GB SDHC(yes, 13 whole minutes of HQ! LOL),
but it works as well as my 16GB SanDisk Extreme III 30MB/s version SDHC.

I have never seen an error and I've been trying all HQ modes.

I'm looking forward to when the SanDisk Ultra II 32GB SDHC ($150) comes out. Which is suppose to be any day now.

[Ted OMalley]

My card and reader arrive tomorrow - I'm lookiing forward to playing with 16GB of memory! I can't believe how much cheaper this route is!

Next, let's all work on alternative fuels.

[Mike Mona]

Hey guys,

How do I read the LEXAR 8GB SSD if I do not have an ExpressCard reader in my computer? Does the Sony SXS reader works with the LEXAR too?

Thanks,
Mike

[Erik Phairas]

I'm not allowed to post a link to Office Depots website am I? I couldn't find the model number on their site but I did find the 7 in 1 reader... is that the same one?

[Steven Thomas]

No to your first question and yes to your second.

I'm willing to believe you will find a Dvinfo sponsor. Take a look.

[Erik Phairas]

Originally Posted by Steven Thomas

No to your first question and yes to your second.

I'm willing to believe you will find a Dvinfo sponsor. Take a look.

thanks man, still learning the style of the site. I'll check out the sponser links.

[Brian Rhodes]

Originally Posted by Mike Mona

Hey guys,

How do I read the LEXAR 8GB SSD if I do not have an ExpressCard reader in my computer? Does the Sony SXS reader works with the LEXAR too?

Thanks,
Mike

Sony SXS reader des not work you have to use a lap top with express reader.