SDHC Cards

wolf184

wolf184

Member
This probably has already been asked..and asked..and asked, but I can not find it with a quick search. So here I go. Has anyone had issues with a certain brand card in the HMC40, and is a class 6 good enough or should I stick to a class 10? I am starting to do some shooting in a couple weeks where the customer is supposed to provide me with a card. I don't want to end up with something that doesn't work and to make sure I have enough record time with the HA I am going to tell them a 32GB card. Of course they will want to save money on the purchase so telling them the Panasonic card is probably out. Suggestions please....and the AG-HMC40 forum has helped me a lot already.
 
Any card Class 4 or above should work. The problem with people trying to "save money" is that frequently they'll buy online and end up with counterfeit cards. But if they give you a legitimate Class 4 card, it should be fine.
 
Good to know about the class 4 card just in case....God forbid...I had to borrow a card from someone. I have a 16 now and it is doing the job with the out look of getting a 32 of my own in the future, both being class 10. And I understand what you are saying about the "Unbranded" cards, just wondering how everyone did with brands like Kingston, PNY, and Sandisk type cards. They do cost somewhat less than the Panasonic card does. Thanks for the info it is much appreciated.
 
wolf184 said:
Good to know about the class 4 card just in case....God forbid...I had to borrow a card from someone. I have a 16 now and it is doing the job with the out look of getting a 32 of my own in the future, both being class 10. And I understand what you are saying about the "Unbranded" cards, just wondering how everyone did with brands like Kingston, PNY, and Sandisk type cards. They do cost somewhat less than the Panasonic card does. Thanks for the info it is much appreciated.
Click to expand...
I'm not talking about unbranded, I'm talking about actual counterfeits. As in, you THINK you're buying a SanDisk, but instead you end up with some fake no-name card that has a SanDisk label stuck on it. Fake cards are a big problem.

Regarding various brand reliability, you'll get reports from people who have used certain cards swearing that they're great, and then someone will come in and say "those are junk, I had one fail on me". Certain brands are definitely more prone to complaints than others. you'll have to determine what your own risk tolerance level is; not all cards are made equal.
 
You could also just purchase a card that will work and then invoice them for the price of the card on top of whatever they are paying you.
 
I recommend 8gb or 16gb cards max, if you don't have long record times, and spread out your risk. Off load frequently. Nothing is 100%. As I type this my hard drive might and my writing and work is gone. It's a comfort level thing. I like Delkin Devices and Hoodman. Both exhibit an attempt for being made in the USA as well as data recovery assistance. Don't get the 32GB card for $60 if you derive any of your income from using your camera. Too risky. Check out the JVC GY-HM750. Records to two SDHC cards at the same time.
 
Hadn't thought about purchasing the card myself and adding it to invoice, that is a good idea.

That is why I bought the 16gb card goetzpd so I can dump it in to the laptop if it does start to fill up. They are investing in the card so I just record the media and then hand it off to them for editing with out transferring it several times, less hassle for all...more or less. With looking on B&H this morning I guess I could suggest 2 - 16gb cards or a 16 & an 8 to get the time needed in either HA or HG mode. I know I can get over 6 hours in HE mode on a 16 but I am trying to get the best quality to them before editing begins. Even in PH mode the 2 - 16's might fit the bill but not sure, HA would cover it. Thank you for the suggestions.
 
With SDHC Cards, the chance of failure decreases with the number of successful times you use it. While that may sound funny, the off brand (poor quality) cards have a high infant mortality rate. That is, they tend to fail after only a few times of use. Once you get past that point, the chances of failure drop off.

Recording any junk to the card, format, record more junk, format, ... several times would be a good idea before you try recording anything critical to it.


Bob Diaz
 
Is there any software that can "exercise" a new card for awhile and prove that it's trustworthy before you take it out on a critical job? I'm imagining something I could run on my desktop computer that would just read, write and reformat all the space on the card numerous times for a few hours, or a day or two, and notify me about any errors it finds.

- GDS
 
I have a class 6, 16gb sandisk card, 24mbs, and in long takes, as with interviews (I recently had an important interview of 45mins long), it eventually drops a frame which shouldn't happen with cards, and the whole thing falls out of sync after about 5 mins, and even when syncing up certain segments, it falls out of sync again. Could this be the rate at which it is imported? It was shot in 24p and imported into a 23.97ect project. Is it the fact that I have a slow/bad card? I don't want it to be a problem in the future.
 
RE: I have a class 6, 16gb sandisk card, 24mbs, and in long takes, as with interviews (I recently had an important interview of 45mins long), it eventually drops a frame ...

Does the video play properly from the camera?


Bob Diaz
 
When I have a critical job I use Panasonic gold class 10 , 8 and 16 Gigs.
When can take it easy Lexar class 4.
After 18 months with the HMC40 ( DAILY USE ) Not a problem.
Panasonic is more expensive but is tested under extreme conditions.
Don't save in cards buy the best reputation, however none is 100% safe, like 2 years ago with a stills camera
a Lexar Pro failed me.
 
Felipe Henao said:
Panasonic is more expensive but is tested under extreme conditions.
Click to expand...

Can you maybe explain how? Do they freeze them? Throw them down steps? Have a truck run over them? Have them record in 100+ degree weather?
I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just wondering what extreme conditions are and how you know only Panasonic does this.
 
abeas said:
Can you maybe explain how? Do they freeze them? Throw them down steps? Have a truck run over them? Have them record in 100+ degree weather?
I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just wondering what extreme conditions are and how you know only Panasonic does this.
Click to expand...

I have been to amazons with 47 c temperature and high humidity, and not a little problem, I didn't try the Lexars, since the trip was expensive and risky .
 
Yes, it does play fine on the camera, but i recently had to put it on a hard drive to make room. It also splits it into two separate clips when uploaded. I have a good sandisk card reader and it runs out of sync both in avid and final cut. It is also 2 separate files in the card folder, but not in playback on the camera.
 
mxcryno.....What program are you editing in and some computer specs? Don't understand why transferring from the card to the computer would split a file. The camera does once you hit the 4gb limit of the fat32 formated card. If your computer is not fast enough then they..from my experience..seem like audio and video are out of sink. Someone can correct me if I am wrong there. Let us know and maybe we can figure out this phenomenon you are experiencing.
 
I have used the card in the card reader on a PC and then for this particular clip used it with a very powerful MAC computer because in the past I've had to transcode the footage, but with Avid 5.0 on my school's computers I can put it directly into avid. Not sure of the specs yet, I can find out, but it seems more of the fact that it is such a huge file that is being uploaded that is the problem. None of my shorter clips that I have filmed since and used on the MAC are out of sync, although sometimes I do get random errors saying that certain clips cannot be uploaded which may simply be an error in Avid rather than the card. But these longer clips do tend to give computers trouble.
 
Hiya,

Great site, my first post! :-)

When I purchase new card I alway run a test on it with this brilliant freeware:
h2testw_1.4

It writes to the whole card then verfiy the data.

Hope that helps someone,
Shaun
 
I bought a pny card back before i had my hmc40 that i "tried" to use in my canon hf200 twice ( it was a back up card in case i forgot my transcent)

the reason it says "tried" is cause the damn card fried my camcorder (i bought the card at best buy too after i forgot my other card)

i had to send it in to canon and they fixed it but didnt know what caused the problem but it fried the main power board or something. (i didnt know it was the card either)

so the second time i tried that card it fried again and i knew it was that card cause the only 2 times i ever tried to use it, it killed my camcorder.

sent it in to canon and they still didnt know what happened to it and sent me a refurbished cam and said if it happens again im sol basicaly haha
 
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