DSandisk vs. Transcend vs. hoodman Raw SDHC cards

Paul Frederick · July 9th, 2009, 08:00 PM

Absolutely Craig! I was just going to mention that. When I first got my cards, I said "Lets run some tests since it's the new cards that are failing" (so I've read here). I inserted cards (Both Hoodman and Transcends), formatted, and then hit "record", then stop, then hit record right away to lay down some clips. Lo and behold, the dreaded "Media needs restoring"! Crap I thought I have bad cards! Wrong! I was not giving them time enough to finish writing after I hit stop. They seem to take a little longer than my SONY SxS cards on the tail end to finish writting. You have to ALWAYS make sure the red light is green before recording again. In the field, it usually takes the 4 or 5 seconds to reframe and record more, but when doing these "card tests", I bet some are doing the same thing I did. (Or maybe it's just impatient me!)

I almost returned 4 cards before realizing what was happening!

Since I figured this out, they have ALL performed flawlessly.

Chad Johnson · July 12th, 2009, 09:37 PM

Hello Louis, and all.

I'm about to get an EX1, and the Hoodman Turnkey kit. You probably get this a lot, but what is the ETA on some quality 32gig cards? 64?

And to all who scoff at worrying about using cards with an up to 3% acceptable fail rate: Are you kidding? If you do this for a living the cost savings from buying a sandisc is nothing compared to losing work done in the field. If you're a hobbyist then sure, take a risk. But if you have a crew you are paying, you don't want to have to pay them a second time to re do some shooting. But I guess if it was that important we should use the SxS cards. I think the record of the RAW cards speaks for itself and I feel more confident using that at least until I can afford some SxS.

Anyhoo... will 32 gigers be a reality this year?

Chadfish

Tom Van Dyke · July 13th, 2009, 10:26 AM

I wonder if success is spoiling Hoodman? I ordered 4 "turnkey" SxS card kits on June 30 and just got HALF the order this Friday, some 3-weeks later. They included the card adapters but not the SD cards. When I called there it took them a while to figure out they needed to get me what I'd ordered.

I hope the cards are worth the premium but my research tells me they're only a tad more expensive than Sandisk and alternative cards and a hellova lot cheaper than the Sony cards. I got 4 16G (well, I WILL be getting 4 16G cards soon I hope) for about 2/3rds the price of the Sony media.

Also, heard that the Belkin adapter had been compromised NOT to work with the PMWEX3 by some secret agreement between the two companies. This comes from a reliable source in an unnamed large NYC photo department store (wink, nod).

Craig Seeman · July 13th, 2009, 10:47 AM

I can get Sandisk Ultra II cards for about half the price of Hoodman SDHC. Of course I'm not sure if any of the news Sandisk cards work with EX adaptors. Transcend certainly work and those cards are often less than Sandisk.

I'm not sure how Belkin is relevant. MxR and Hoodman adapters all work reliably. If Belkin was ever in the game it was only by coincidence and designed incompatibility only removes them from that market that others are providing.

Rodney Minott · July 13th, 2009, 12:27 PM

I have been using 2x 16GB Transcends with MxR adapters, and 4x 32GB Transcends with MxR adapters. Have had no issues. Everything works smoothly.

----
Sony XDCAM EX3, Mac Pro 8 Core, Final Cut Pro

Tom Van Dyke · July 13th, 2009, 02:31 PM

Well, turns out Hoodman is out of 16G cards so I'm going to try Transcend...thanks all

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rodney Minott

I have been using 2x 16GB Transcends with MxR adapters, and 4x 32GB Transcends with MxR adapters. Have had no issues. Everything works smoothly.

----
Sony XDCAM EX3, Mac Pro 8 Core, Final Cut Pro

Tom Van Dyke · July 14th, 2009, 08:03 AM

OK, maybe I'm just looking for trouble, but I was a little surprised and disappointed to find my new 15" MacBook Pro is missing the Express Card 34 slot and has only the SD Card slot. I know the SD cards can be removed from the card adapters and read directly in this port but I kind of miss the beefy protection the larger cards provided. SD cards seem to be so small and fragile. I guess a case is in order.

Funny thing is the Apple support guy I spoke with on the phone took a really patronizing tone about this saying "in the future, we won't be using express cards." Well, no Eddie... But for now, we ARE!

Looks like I'll be adding another flimsy adapter (express card 34 to USB) to my gear bag.

Sigh....

Craig Seeman · July 14th, 2009, 08:47 AM

When I bought my 15" MacBookPro with Express port last year I was wishing they had a 13" with Express port. I really wanted small and portable offload. Now all you can get is 17".

Unfortunately Express port uses are a small and shrinking minority. At least now you can get a 13" with SD port.

Of course since moving from SxS to SDHC I no longer need to offload during a shoot so, in that sense, laptop with Express port is less critical.

I wish Sony would make additional firmware changes if possible so SDHC would support the same features supported in JVC HM series (and I want the same 3 second pre-record cache too).

Lee Matheson · July 19th, 2009, 02:42 PM

I've been using a 32GB Transcend SDHC card (class 6) in my Canon HF S10 for the past 2 months. The card works well, and I have no complaints about it.

Craig Seeman · July 19th, 2009, 02:54 PM

Which means little about their ability to work in EX cameras.

Ian Stuart Lynn · September 7th, 2009, 06:01 AM

Greetings from Z1 world. I'm hoping to join you in EX world very soon and I'm delighted to read about the SDHC solution. But I am slightly worried about this issue of hitting record before the TOC is finished writing.
Q. If I have shot 50 minutes of clips and then accidentally try to record before the green light and get this media error, have I then lost my fifty minutes or maybe just that last shot?

I certainly hope not, but if so, that would scare the living daylights out of me.

A thought about SxS: While throwing out some old VHS tapes yesterday, I was amused to recall that the first blanks I bought around 1980 cost £13 a piece and latterly they were 50 pence! From here in HDV tape world (where my tapes are now only £1 or so) it seems what's needed is realistic pricing on SxS cards. Don't get me wrong, I'm really grateful to the people who have worked so hard on the adaptor / SDHC solution, which I will certainly be using, but isn't it a shame to have to compromise on error correction and the over-cranking facility which require the SxS cards for which the cameras are designed?

Vincent Oliver · September 7th, 2009, 06:12 AM

Ian,

Using memory cards just requires you to be careful when shooting, touch wood, I haven't lost any footage on a SDHC card, but I have lost footage with tape due to moisture on heads, tape snarl etc.

Once you get used to a tapeless workflow then you won't look back.

Craig Seeman · September 7th, 2009, 09:20 AM

Even if you get the media error you shouldn't lose clips. You just need to restore and it'll fix the last clip. The only time I've ever gotten the media error was when testing the overhead on an SDHC card by overcranking. Even in that case the clip it errored on was restored.

The problem with the price of SxS is that it's proprietary media. It's always going to be low volume sales. JVC HM uses the same codec, works with all class 6 cards (I read NO COMPLAINTS) and even overcranks. Even Panasonic is moving to SDHC over P2 on some of their cameras.

The odd thing about the SDHC issues is that many brands that were reliable Sandisk Ultra II or Transcend Class 6 have become hit and miss. Yet I've heard some "lesser" brands working quite well but we don't have that documented in this forum (we should).

Anthony McErlean · September 7th, 2009, 09:52 AM

Just testing 2 8gb transcend cards today. Recorded right through and no errors, formated and recorded again and this time got the need to restore message. It restored on one card but the other card gave a message couldn't restore all clips. I formated the two cards and starting to test them again. Not very promising by the look of things.

Craig Seeman · September 7th, 2009, 10:47 AM

Anthony, was your second test the same as the first?
If it formats and records straight through that shouldn't change from format to format.

Generally thought I don't reformat the cards but I can certainly that one may have to do this at some point and not expect the operation of an already tested card should change.

That results seems odd. Are you absolutely sure you didn't do something different the second time?

July 9th, 2009, 08:00 PM	#91
Paul Frederick Major Player Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: WestChazy, NY Posts: 291	Absolutely Craig! I was just going to mention that. When I first got my cards, I said "Lets run some tests since it's the new cards that are failing" (so I've read here). I inserted cards (Both Hoodman and Transcends), formatted, and then hit "record", then stop, then hit record right away to lay down some clips. Lo and behold, the dreaded "Media needs restoring"! Crap I thought I have bad cards! Wrong! I was not giving them time enough to finish writing after I hit stop. They seem to take a little longer than my SONY SxS cards on the tail end to finish writting. You have to ALWAYS make sure the red light is green before recording again. In the field, it usually takes the 4 or 5 seconds to reframe and record more, but when doing these "card tests", I bet some are doing the same thing I did. (Or maybe it's just impatient me!) I almost returned 4 cards before realizing what was happening! Since I figured this out, they have ALL performed flawlessly. __________________ www.paulfrederickproductions.com

July 12th, 2009, 09:37 PM	#92
Chad Johnson Major Player Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Arcata, Ca Posts: 750	32 Hello Louis, and all. I'm about to get an EX1, and the Hoodman Turnkey kit. You probably get this a lot, but what is the ETA on some quality 32gig cards? 64? And to all who scoff at worrying about using cards with an up to 3% acceptable fail rate: Are you kidding? If you do this for a living the cost savings from buying a sandisc is nothing compared to losing work done in the field. If you're a hobbyist then sure, take a risk. But if you have a crew you are paying, you don't want to have to pay them a second time to re do some shooting. But I guess if it was that important we should use the SxS cards. I think the record of the RAW cards speaks for itself and I feel more confident using that at least until I can afford some SxS. Anyhoo... will 32 gigers be a reality this year? Chadfish

July 13th, 2009, 10:26 AM	#93
Tom Van Dyke New Boot Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 13	Hoodman problems I wonder if success is spoiling Hoodman? I ordered 4 "turnkey" SxS card kits on June 30 and just got HALF the order this Friday, some 3-weeks later. They included the card adapters but not the SD cards. When I called there it took them a while to figure out they needed to get me what I'd ordered. I hope the cards are worth the premium but my research tells me they're only a tad more expensive than Sandisk and alternative cards and a hellova lot cheaper than the Sony cards. I got 4 16G (well, I WILL be getting 4 16G cards soon I hope) for about 2/3rds the price of the Sony media. Also, heard that the Belkin adapter had been compromised NOT to work with the PMWEX3 by some secret agreement between the two companies. This comes from a reliable source in an unnamed large NYC photo department store (wink, nod).

July 14th, 2009, 08:03 AM	#97
Tom Van Dyke New Boot Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 13	MacBook Pro missing express card slot OK, maybe I'm just looking for trouble, but I was a little surprised and disappointed to find my new 15" MacBook Pro is missing the Express Card 34 slot and has only the SD Card slot. I know the SD cards can be removed from the card adapters and read directly in this port but I kind of miss the beefy protection the larger cards provided. SD cards seem to be so small and fragile. I guess a case is in order. Funny thing is the Apple support guy I spoke with on the phone took a really patronizing tone about this saying "in the future, we won't be using express cards." Well, no Eddie... But for now, we ARE! Looks like I'll be adding another flimsy adapter (express card 34 to USB) to my gear bag. Sigh....

July 19th, 2009, 02:42 PM	#99
Lee Matheson New Boot Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Darmstadt Germany Posts: 23	Transcend 32GB SDHC works well I've been using a 32GB Transcend SDHC card (class 6) in my Canon HF S10 for the past 2 months. The card works well, and I have no complaints about it.

July 13th, 2009, 10:47 AM	#94
Craig Seeman Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA Posts: 3,841	I can get Sandisk Ultra II cards for about half the price of Hoodman SDHC. Of course I'm not sure if any of the news Sandisk cards work with EX adaptors. Transcend certainly work and those cards are often less than Sandisk. I'm not sure how Belkin is relevant. MxR and Hoodman adapters all work reliably. If Belkin was ever in the game it was only by coincidence and designed incompatibility only removes them from that market that others are providing.

July 13th, 2009, 12:27 PM	#95
Rodney Minott Regular Crew Join Date: May 2008 Location: San Francisco Posts: 35	I have been using 2x 16GB Transcends with MxR adapters, and 4x 32GB Transcends with MxR adapters. Have had no issues. Everything works smoothly. ---- Sony XDCAM EX3, Mac Pro 8 Core, Final Cut Pro

July 14th, 2009, 08:47 AM	#98
Craig Seeman Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA Posts: 3,841	When I bought my 15" MacBookPro with Express port last year I was wishing they had a 13" with Express port. I really wanted small and portable offload. Now all you can get is 17". Unfortunately Express port uses are a small and shrinking minority. At least now you can get a 13" with SD port. Of course since moving from SxS to SDHC I no longer need to offload during a shoot so, in that sense, laptop with Express port is less critical. I wish Sony would make additional firmware changes if possible so SDHC would support the same features supported in JVC HM series (and I want the same 3 second pre-record cache too).

July 19th, 2009, 02:54 PM	#100
Craig Seeman Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA Posts: 3,841	Which means little about their ability to work in EX cameras.

September 7th, 2009, 06:01 AM	#101
Ian Stuart Lynn New Boot Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Shanklin, England Posts: 8	Red Light / Green Light Greetings from Z1 world. I'm hoping to join you in EX world very soon and I'm delighted to read about the SDHC solution. But I am slightly worried about this issue of hitting record before the TOC is finished writing. Q. If I have shot 50 minutes of clips and then accidentally try to record before the green light and get this media error, have I then lost my fifty minutes or maybe just that last shot? I certainly hope not, but if so, that would scare the living daylights out of me. A thought about SxS: While throwing out some old VHS tapes yesterday, I was amused to recall that the first blanks I bought around 1980 cost £13 a piece and latterly they were 50 pence! From here in HDV tape world (where my tapes are now only £1 or so) it seems what's needed is realistic pricing on SxS cards. Don't get me wrong, I'm really grateful to the people who have worked so hard on the adaptor / SDHC solution, which I will certainly be using, but isn't it a shame to have to compromise on error correction and the over-cranking facility which require the SxS cards for which the cameras are designed?

September 7th, 2009, 06:12 AM	#102
Vincent Oliver Trustee Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Chislehurst, London Posts: 1,724	Ian, Using memory cards just requires you to be careful when shooting, touch wood, I haven't lost any footage on a SDHC card, but I have lost footage with tape due to moisture on heads, tape snarl etc. Once you get used to a tapeless workflow then you won't look back. __________________ Eyes are a deaf man’s ears. Ears are a blind man’s eyes

September 7th, 2009, 09:20 AM	#103
Craig Seeman Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA Posts: 3,841	Even if you get the media error you shouldn't lose clips. You just need to restore and it'll fix the last clip. The only time I've ever gotten the media error was when testing the overhead on an SDHC card by overcranking. Even in that case the clip it errored on was restored. The problem with the price of SxS is that it's proprietary media. It's always going to be low volume sales. JVC HM uses the same codec, works with all class 6 cards (I read NO COMPLAINTS) and even overcranks. Even Panasonic is moving to SDHC over P2 on some of their cameras. The odd thing about the SDHC issues is that many brands that were reliable Sandisk Ultra II or Transcend Class 6 have become hit and miss. Yet I've heard some "lesser" brands working quite well but we don't have that documented in this forum (we should).

September 7th, 2009, 09:52 AM	#104
Anthony McErlean Trustee Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Northern Ireland Posts: 1,081	Just testing 2 8gb transcend cards today. Recorded right through and no errors, formated and recorded again and this time got the need to restore message. It restored on one card but the other card gave a message couldn't restore all clips. I formated the two cards and starting to test them again. Not very promising by the look of things.

September 7th, 2009, 10:47 AM	#105
Craig Seeman Inner Circle Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Brooklyn, NY, USA Posts: 3,841	Anthony, was your second test the same as the first? If it formats and records straight through that shouldn't change from format to format. Generally thought I don't reformat the cards but I can certainly that one may have to do this at some point and not expect the operation of an already tested card should change. That results seems odd. Are you absolutely sure you didn't do something different the second time?