SDHC Cards And Adaptors For The Sony EX1

It’s been over 6 months since I last posted on SDHC solutions for the Sony EX1 and EX3. However recent events in an industry forum have prompted me to write once again to give assistance to people not familiar with the issues surrounding this acquisition method. We’re also now in a brave new world where SDHC is officially supported under the latest Sony firmware.

An SxS card and two MxM lockable adaptors with Class 6 and Class 10 ATP Pro Max 16gb SDHC cards.

Although the new firmware revisions allow reliable shooting on SDHC, not all SDHC media is born equal. I’ve heard alarming accounts of people just buying any media that comes to hand. I’m also still hearing reports of people using Transcend cards that are failing. Let me just re-iterate a few key points:

• Not all SDHC media is equal, despite what the class rating system might have you believe
• Transcend Class 6 16GB cards acquired after around May 2009 are not to be trusted no matter how long you have been using them for when used in the EX series.
• Only use recommended SDHC media or you will come to grief.
• Update your camera with the latest firmware.
• If possible, only buy the lockable SDHC adaptors. This prevents problems in the field.
• Buy one adaptor per card. Treat them as one combination.

Transcend 16gb cards are best avoided for EX cameras if produced after Spring 2009. The ATP cards seem to be reliable and are produced to a higher specification.

The Transcend Issue

These cards were once the darling of the Sony EX SDHC community. Cheap, easily obtainable and reliable. However something appears to have changed in the manufacturing process from Spring 2009 onwards. Corrupted clips and lost footage have caused problems for many users including myself. My advice is to avoid these cards. Just a day before writing this a cameraman on a forum I frequent had lost footage on a Transcend card,. He went on a reshoot with another Transcend card and lost that footage as well. The cards had been working fine before then. My own experience was less severe and only resulted in a few seconds of corrupted footage but it was enough to convince me there was a problem. While the cards are fine for lower bitrate consumer use, there does appear to be an issue with the EX series which uses a high bitrate.

Firmware

Get your camera onto the latest firmware as soon as possible. Its a fairly easy upgrade if you follow the instructions and improves SDHC handing in the cameras.

Media

SDHC cards are rated in terms of Class, and Class 6 and 10 are fine for the EX cameras. However this system only measures raw speed. Data retention, resistance to static discharge and a variety of other operating parameters are ignored. There is a reason why the ATP and Sandisk cards cost far more than other media and it’s simply that they are better. The ATP cards for example have high resistance to static discharge and are only produced from a single factory (not just sourced from the cheapest factory at a given time). These cards are what I choose to shoot on. Realistically, there is only ATP and Sandisk to choose from and although other cards may work they are mostly unproven.

16GB or 32GB

Tough one. Personally I’m happier just having 16GB cards just in case something did go wrong. I’m not necessarily talking failure, but what happens if a card gets stolen or lost? Less eggs in one basket.

Adaptors

The MxM lockable adaptors are ideal as the older open adaptors make it perfectly possible to accidentally eject a card when in the field. I just enjoy being able to use the combo exactly as I would an SxS card.

But SxS is better right?

Perhaps. But if you Google you’ll find many people having problems with SxS, not withstanding the fact that many SDHC and SxS problems are down to user error. For example, I was just reading a tale of someone trashing his SxS by fiddling with the cache record settings when the camera was live. Reports of SDHC problems are also distorted by people using the wrong types of card and user error. Take all the distortions out and, broadly speaking, both solutions are reliable. And remember, all flash memory can fail just as all hard disks can fail.

Media Choice

For my money the ATP cards in an MxM adaptor is the only option to consider. I’ve now been operating this combination since September of 2009 without any issues. The ATP cards are harder to get hold of but they seem to be worth it. There is now a transition to Class 10 cards which are even faster. While I only have one of these cards, so far it seems to be reliable and works fine. There are also the high end Sandisk class 10 cards to consider but I have not tested these to date. Others report good things but it wouldn’t be right for me to recommend something I haven’t used myself.

Other media can be used, but you must be sure it is fast enough and reliable enough. There is good reason why the ATP and Sandisk cards cost considerably more than standard class 6 and class 10 cards. A cheap card from a camera shop may get you out of a hole during a shoot, but just as in the days of shooting DV, would you be happy shooting on cheap consumer DV tape rather than Sony premium stock all of the time?

You can purchase the MxM adaptor and ATP class 10 cards here - MxM and ATP adaptor combo.

ProAV in the UK also have some Class 6 16gb ATP cards in stock.

Sandisk cards are widely available from a number of retailers including Amazon. I hear good things about these cards but have not tested one myself.

The usual caveats apply. You need to understand that you must have the right type of card and adaptor in the camera and that mishandling a card (for example turning the camera off while recording) is likely to result in data corruption no matter what media you use. If you have any doubts, use SxS. However I and many others have found the ATP cards stable and reliable when used in the MxM adaptor. Your own milage may vary and it is purely your own responsibility if you choose to shoot on SDHC.