New Media for Sony EX Camcorders

One of the biggest objections we have had from customers interested in the Sony EX1 and EX3 camcorders has been the cost of media. The same resistance has been raised with Panasonic's P2 offerings.

I've been watching a couple of companies offer an adapter that allows you to plug in a Class 6 SDHC card and then insert the assembly into the camcorder. Reviews thus far have been mixed. No one has said that they don't work, but there have been a number of comments about the adapter being difficult to insert or eject from the camcorder. Some comments have noted that some adapters are very difficult to get the SDHC card out.

We looked at making our own adapter and were well on our way until Bob at Hoodman called to let me know about their new "SxS Alternative Media Adapter". I took a look at it and it has the features we were planning to incorporate into our adapter. Metal shell for rigidity, a "push-push" load for the SDHC card and tight tolerances to make the insert/eject cycle identical to a genuine SxS card from Sony or Sandisk.

So what is the down-side to the "SxS Alternative Media Adapter"? Due to the limitations of the SDHC cards themselves, they do not have the ability to drink the ones and zeros fast enough for the upper reaches of the EX1 or EX3's overcrank features. Maximum overcrank is 50 frames per second at 720p. If you're shooting above 50 fps of overcrank, you will still need to use a genuine Sony or Sandisk SxS card. If you're shooting in real-time, you will be fine.

The Hoodman products are high quality. We have packaged them into a kit which includes the adapter, a 16GB SDHC card and a SDHC to USB adapter so you can get the media into your computer should you be lacking a PC Express slot or a SDHC slot on your machine. Our tests thus far have been very positive. PVT's price for the kit is $189.00 which is a lot less than the $735.00 you would pay for a SanDisk 16GB SxS card.

As for future growth of the SDHC cards, Panasonic announced a 32GB card at the Consumer Electronics Show back in January. Delivery schedule is for Summer of '09.

BIG HINT: Tapeless media means no more putting your raw tape on the shelf and calling it "archive". One archive method that makes some sense is to use 16GB Class 4 cards as your archive media. They may accept the data from the Class 6 cards at a speed below real time, but they are also a lot cheaper!