SDHC substitute for SxS cards

[Brian Rhodes]

Originally Posted by Steven Thomas

I have a feeling these Delkin cards are hit and miss for working.

Out of the two I bought. One had an unknown media when I first used it.
It started working, but then stopped again. It may be the internal contacts.
I played around with it, but it's not working.

I ordered 12 Delkins four are defective. Be sure to test them before shooting a Job.

[David Heath]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

That's right -- a reliable, no-guess, no-fail working Express card adapter short enough to fit in an EX1 with the door closed. These guys already make high-quality SDHC cards, and they already have a world-wide distribution network, ..........

Very good news indeed as it stands, but the real icing on the cake would be the additional option of ExpressCards with adequate performance for basic operation in an EX (as the SDHC cards), and with pricing to match the SDHC cards. What's being offered is brilliant as it is, but I'd be prepared to pay maybe a 10-20% on the card costs for the ability to not have to use an adaptor.

If they already make SDHC cards, I wouldn't think this would be too difficult for them? Since we're looking towards the day when solid state becomes a consumable item like tape, rather than one or two cards per camera, the potential market could be huge.

[Alex Raskin]

Actually I think having an adapter and SDHC card separate is more flexible.

This way, you can upgrade to 32Gb cards, for example, some time down the road - without paying for a new adapter.

Which brings us to another question - what is the SDHC card capacity limit that the new adapter will recognize? Chris?..

[Peter Kraft]

Originally Posted by Brian Rhodes

I ordered 12 Delkins four are defective. Be sure to test them before shooting a Job.

I'll be waiting for Chriss'.
What is a week instead of months of frustration?

[Craig Seeman]

One question I have would this be an adaptor one puts an SDHC card in or would it be a unit with card built in. I think David Heath alludes to a combined unit.

Just curious what you're aiming for Chris.

Either of the above has good value though as long as it doesn't drive the price up too much compared to the Kensington + SDHC solution.

The other thing is a 32GB model.

BTW you'd think Sony would know about this stuff by now.

I finally got a break in the sched to bring in my EX1 for firmware upgrade and other minor issues. We drove to Teaneck NJ. The guy behind the desk said they are really backlogged with EX1s coming in for firmware upgrades. He didn't seem to know (or acknowledge) the SDHC solution.

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

That's right -- a reliable, no-guess, no-fail working Express card adapter short enough to fit in an EX1 with the door closed. These guys already make high-quality SDHC cards, and they already have a world-wide distribution network, so they're perfect for the job. Should know more this week.

[David Heath]

Originally Posted by Alex Raskin

Actually I think having an adapter and SDHC card separate is more flexible.

This way, you can upgrade to 32Gb cards, for example, some time down the road - without paying for a new adapter.

Maybe, but what I'm hoping for are ExpressCards that may be only 10-20% more expensive than the same size (and performance) of memory in SDHC form. No adaptors at all, simply cheaper than 800Mbs memory (equivalent to Class 6) in an ExpressCard form factor, and guaranteed for use in an EX. You can buy this category of memory in SDHC, CF, MemoryStick etc etc - why not ExpressCard?

It depends how you use them, but I'm thinking of their being treated as consumable, so upgrading never comes into it. Shoot, and give to client with material, rather than having to download and format, as SxS or P2 in the past. In which case, 8 and 16GB may be about optimum sizes (about 30 and 60 mins), and my interest would be in buying those sizes as cheaply as possible. If the shoot lasted 45 minutes, and a 16GB card was $40, a 32GB $80, it's obvious that it's best to use and charge for the 16GB card.

[Robert Young]

I may be just having an unusual run of good luck, but the 2 Delkin eFilm adaptors I got last week still seem to work perfectly for EX 1080HQ 60i with the San Disk 16GIG cards. I shot numerous 720p 30 sec duration, 60 fps overcrank shots on each adaptor with no error as well.
Keeping my fingers crossed.

[Paul Kellett]

I'm hoping that this new sxs substitue being developed is an adaptor which uses sdhc cards, rather than a one piece card.

A few reasons.
1. I've sold my sony sxs reader, so i now use use the transcend usb reader with the transcend cards, so if this new development turns out to be an "sxs" card how will i offload ?

2. With the price of the sdhc cards being cheap and getting cheaper all the time it's possible to just hand over the footage/rushes to a client on the card at the end of a shoot, but how will they offload if they don't have an express card slot on a pc ?
Whereas all pc's have a usb slot so the cheap sdhc>usb reader can be used by the client.
The readers are only £5 so one of those can be handed over as well.

3. If i do hand over the sdhc card then i can just wander up the road the next day and replace my transcend sdhc card.

I really hope this development is just an adaptor, if it is i'll buy a few, if it's a one piece card then i won't, i'll stick with the "kenny and tranny", tried and tested.

Paul.

[Mark Krichever]

Originally Posted by Robert Young

I may be just having an unusual run of good luck, but the 2 Delkin eFilm adaptors I got last week still seem to work perfectly for EX 1080HQ 60i with the San Disk 16GIG cards. I shot numerous 720p 30 sec duration, 60 fps overcrank shots on each adaptor with no error as well.
Keeping my fingers crossed.

I have similar experience shooting 1080 24p with both Kensington and Delkin cards.

[Chris Hurd]

What if it didn't have an open slot at the end (like a traditional adapter), but instead it's an Express card shell that you could open up, and install whatever size SDHC card you want inside of it? That way you could upgrade the card capacity easily... or remove it, whenever you need to... the adapter is still a separate piece, but a bit more secure without an open slot... thoughts?

[Vincent Oliver]

Do I sniff a dangling carrot Chris?

[Alex Raskin]

Originally Posted by Chris Hurd

What if it didn't have an open slot at the end (like a traditional adapter), but instead it's an Express card shell that you could open up, and install whatever size SDHC card you want inside of it? That way you could upgrade the card capacity easily... or remove it, whenever you need to... the adapter is still a separate piece, but a bit more secure without an open slot... thoughts?

Fine by me.

In fact, it is even better than some other adapters that employ push in - push out mechanism for the cards. Those pose problems since pushing on the card while the combo is inserted into EX1 would dismount the card but may produce EX1 communication error with the combo.

Chris's adapter would not have such problem.

Now, define "install" please :)

[Chris Hurd]

Just an idea for having the best of both worlds... Express card memory where you can change out the memory yourself, and that memory module happens to be an SDHC card... if it's easier just to have a traditional adapter with an open slot then so be it, but I thought a fully enclosed shell might have some appeal.

[Andy Wilkinson]

Personally, I think an end loading slot (Kensington style) for the SDHC is more reliable and rugged as a two-part express card adapter that you could easily open up risks damage. Each leaf would need to be quite thin and the hinge arrangement (or sliding arrangement or lug and catch etc. design) might make it fragile, maybe?

Also, pushing in the SDHC from the end gives a nice, almost 'self-cleaning' action as it slides home on the metal contacts of the expresscard's terminals within.

I'm no electronics designer but those are my thoughts.

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Alex Raskin

Now, define "install" please :)

It would be dead easy... I have a Kingston MobileMate USB card reader that fully encloses an SDHC card. Flip the lid open, and you slide the card in. There's a plastic thumb-push thingy that pushes it back out again -- see pics below (click for larger versions) showing the card fully inserted, and pushed out for removal. I was thinking the Express card shell could be made up in a similar way.