SDHC substitute for SxS cards

[Steven Thomas]

Originally Posted by Gary Barr

One works brilliantly, even with overcranking at 50 fps(is it meant to?), and the other is a little bit tempermental - about 3 times now has given me the needs to restore message. Swapped around the cards and Kensingtons and it seems to be the card not the reader. Will keep testing as obviously don't trust it yet.

Don't trust it?
Why are you relying on overcranking with SDHC.

The ONLY reason we used overcrank was to determine the amount of datarate headroom we have over HQ mode (max is 5MB/s). When you overcrank at 40FPS (24P), this is approx. 8.3MB/s. This gives us decent headroom for error free HQ mode recording.
When you are hanging around 40FPS overcranking 24P you are very close to the top datarate which could error at any time.

If you need to overcrank, throw in your SxS card.
By the way, I've been using SDHC for two months everyday and have never seen one error. I own four Kensingtons.

[Erik Phairas]

yep, by the time my kensingtons wear out I'm sure the SxS cards will be cheap enough not to care anymore.

[Ross Herewini]

I received the UNITEK card, bought on ebay Australia, which Marek said worked, and it does.

So that means there are three cards that work, Kensington, the one from the Philippines and now the Unitek.

Now for the non-brand sdhc cards....

[Steven Thomas]

Yes, with new cards hitting the market all the time, it's only a matter of time when we find a card that allows the memory door to close on the EX1.

[Dan Chung]

Is anyone brave enough to try disassembling an SD card and seeing if the components can be permanently fixed into a Kensington card reader? might be worth a try if you are brave.

Dan

[Buba Kastorski]

I did, no good, there is no room at all to shave it off,
I sliced couple of cards (will post pics tonight) sandisk and panasonic, there is very thin plastic border around the board, maybe 1 mm, no more than that;
so I guess will have to keep the door open :), but for the price of the combo I'm OK with that,
cheers

[Ted OMalley]

I don't have an EX1. But, for the sake of my compadres with doors that don't close, I did some tests on a 64MB card (tiny!) that I had. There is a metal frame (EDIT - I was seeing the edges of the circuit board) that prevents additional shaving, but I did this with a small x-acto blade. Here are the results. I appears to gain about 1.5mm-2mm - how much do you need?

Once again, I find myself in need of an EX1 for testing. I'm working on designing a shoulder/tripod mount for one of those as well, but without one in my hands, I'm kinda stuck. Would someone like to give me one?

[Perrone Ford]

Looks like what you shaved off there would be enough I think. Maybe someone else will test it. I have no need to close the door and I have no spare cards to try it with anyway.

-P

[Ted OMalley]

Who in FL (Tampa?) has an EX1 to test this card?

[Alex Raskin]

Folks, don't do it.

I just tried shaving the Transcend card off.

Yes, plastic is too thin, you need to shave a bit of the circuit board inside.

I was betting that there's nothing at the very edge of the board, so I kept shaving until the combo fit with the door closed.

I bet wrong. The card stopped working. Duh...

Bottom line: can't fit the card with the door closed on EX1.

I'd imagine going the other route, such as shortening the Kensington adapter itself, would work better. (I ain't trying it myself, kids! :)

There seems to be no need for such a long adapter body to accommodate the tiny SDHC card.

[Ronn Kilby]

What Kensington needs to do (or sandisk) is make an SSD card with the innards of a sandisk SDHC and the outtards of a Kensington reader. We know it works. How many would you buy at $60-70 each?

Duh.

[Ted OMalley]

Not sure I'd buy any.

Frankly, I'm not against working with SD cards - I can keep track of the little buggers by using a nice card holder and labelling them. Also, I like the added flexibility that I can remove the SD card and slide it into my card reader on the front of my workstation or the SD card slot on my notebook. I think I may just keep buying $40 16GB cards, and eventually maybe a couple 32GB cards.

[Peter Kraft]

Originally Posted by Ronn Kilby

What Kensington needs to do (or sandisk) is make an SSD card with the innards of a sandisk SDHC and the outtards of a Kensington reader. We know it works.

No-one will gonna do that, facing just lots of legal problems, patent claims and so forth.
What would be the benefit for the manufacturer? More business? How much to justify the hazzle involved?


Why not go the other way round and build larger camera door? That must be cheaper
then any other solution, fit SxS cards as well as SDHC solutions and would not interfere with Sony's patents :-)

[Steven Thomas]

I'm willing to bet we find a new expresscard SDHC reader that allows the EX1 memory door to close in the next few months.

As it stands now, there are already a few that allow it to close. They just are erratic and error.
Also, many could care less the door closes. Some even buy the Sony PHU-60K for a LOT more. This also does not allow the door to close.

[Ethan Piliavin]

Anyone tried these on the EX1?
A-Data E704 32GB Dual Interface Flash Drive - USB 2.0 and ExpressCard! A-Data 70CBEC0016