sony PMW-EX1R/2

[Dean Sensui]

The Sony SxS 32-gig Pro cards are now $1147.50.

I posted elsewhere on this site about what I just started using, the newer MxM adapter and UHS-1 SDHC cards. Cost is a lot less. I believe the reliability should be just as high.

[Dave Stewart]

stands for 2 year warranty.

[Dave Stewart]

Just got my EX1R from B&H. I heard that the cameras weren't coming with any SxS cards to cut costs, but mine did - 16 GB. I didn't think it would so I bought 2 sdxc 128 GB class 10 (20MB/s) cards and two adapters. They seem to work well. About $235 for each pair. That's about half the price of the 16 GB cards. The camera says 464 mins.

[Doug Jensen]

Dave,

128GB SD cards ? That's a lot of eggs in one basket. I'd never risk it.
Just search the archives if you want to read the tragedies of lost footage even from much smaller SD cards.
I'll admit that shooting on SD cards is much safer than it was a couple of years ago, but in my opinion they aren't THAT safe.
I only use SD cards if I can answer yes to the following question: "Can I afford to lose everything I'm going to record on the card?"
If the answer is yes, then I can take the risk. Otherwise, it is my job, my career, my reputation, and my financial liability for the entire shoot on the hook.

Good luck. Let us know how they work out.

[Dave Stewart]

You can usually recover most corrupted files. I've done it for other people. Anyway, I don't use the whole card, but it's nice to have around just in case.

[Doug Jensen]

Dave, you have experience recovering corrupted cards or files from XDCAM EX camcorders? What software and/or techniques to do you use to recover damaged footage from XDCAM EX camcorders? And you say you've already done it for other people with XDCAM EX camcorders --- and yet you are still willing to take that risk yourself? I think a lot of people around here would love to learn how you do it. Please share.

[Dave Stewart]

It's on my computer at home. Can't recall the name. It takes a while, but it'll recover just about any file

[Doug Jensen]

Dave,

Can you please look up the software name and provide any tips you have? I'd love to be able to suggest a solution to all the people that come crying to me after their SD card has failed them.

And you are certain this works with recovering XDCAM files? It is generally agreed that BPAV folders are not anywhere near as easy to recover as some other types of digital files like JPEGs or something like that where the folder structure and supportiing files are totally different. You've had success with XDCAM, right?

[Buba Kastorski]

Originally Posted by Doug Jensen

Dave,

Can you please look up the software name and provide any tips you have?

+1,
please do, it happened to me just once, but I'd love to have proven solution if it will ever happen again,
thanks
!

[Christopher Young]

From what a couple of EX users have told me the best sofware and recovery for EX material is from Spain from an outfit called Aero Quartet

Fix corrupt video files. Recover footage from damaged disks and cards

Haven't had to use them myself as am XDCam disc based and so far lost nothing, fingers crossed! Thought it might be worth passing the info down the line though.

[Doug Jensen]

Dave says he's already done if for other people, so I want to get his advice. It must be pretty easy or else he wouldn't risk shooting on SD cards himself, right? I can't wait to hear how it is done . . . from someone who has already done it.

[Robert Bobson]

I've been shooting on the SD cards for 6 months now, and no problems. even slo-mo works fine.

[Vincent Oliver]

Originally Posted by Doug Jensen

I can't wait to hear how it is done . . . from someone who has already done it.

You might be waiting a long time Doug :-(

I have tried a few recovery software packages and none of them worked with EX files on SDHC cards. Although in fairness, I have never lost anything on SDHC cards either, I just tried to recover deleted files.

Robert,
Slo-Mo may work for a few seconds on SDHC cards, but not for very long clips. You can record Slo-Mo on a SXS card in one slot and then transfer the clip to an SDHC card in the other slot, that works OK.

[Robert Bobson]

I've never tried to make a long recording of slo-mo, but a few minutes in length was fine (?) That's all I've ever needed.

[Gints Klimanis]

Originally Posted by Doug Jensen

Dave,

128GB SD cards ? That's a lot of eggs in one basket. I'd never risk it.
...
If the answer is yes, then I can take the risk. Otherwise, it is my job, my career, my reputation, and my financial liability for the entire shoot on the hook.

The risk of loss of an entire shoot may be decreased with more cards, but the risk of error of a single card is increased because many flash errors, particularly write delays, occur as the card fills up. I wish Sony would provide an option to show the warnings when the card is 80-90% full. Larger cards are treated better with wear-leveling write algorithms.

Many of the SDHC errors for EX1 are reported to occur when a Start Record operation begins while the previous Stop Record has not finished flushing to the card. I compared the write flush illumination with two different speed grades of SDHC card but did not notice a difference in the time required to complete the flush.

If flash recording is a risk, parallel recording using HDMI or HD-SDI is the way to go. An easy but somewhat costly option is a Nanoflash compression unit that provides similar or better compression as it uses the Sony video compression codec or one of the newer units such as the Sound Devices Pix 240.