Wait for SDXC and don't buy hmc?

If you look at previous threads, this has come up and I believe it has been stated elsewhere that in theory, existing HMC's could take the SDXC with a firmware upgrade.

That said... SDXC probably won't really generally be available for at least a year. Even if cards were mass released tomorrow, with the AVCHD codec operating at it's maximum bitrate of 24mb/s, I can get 1 1/2 hours onto a 16 gig card. 24mb/s is a firm barrier for AVCHD, much like 25mb/s was for DV and HDV. It's not possible for it to go any faster and still be AVCHD.

All a 2TB card will give you is a ridicules amount of storage that you probably wouldn't need on one card that would be ridiculously expensive. The only beneficial thing about a 2TB SDXC card is that it would make high quality class 6 32GB SDHC cards ridiculously cheap. That, and the files wouldn't be split after it reaches the 4GB limit. But that is a minor issue, and a non factor if you aren't recording longer that 25 minutes at a time.

I could see Panasonic releasing an HMC1x0 in three or four years that uses SDXC and records AVC-Intra with a CMOS chip. And I'm not an engineer, but this could be huge for the P2 crowd, as P2 cards built around SD cards. But until then, I wouldn't get too shook about it. The HMC150 is a really great camera, and you really wouldn't gain anything waiting for the next latest and greatest camera. I mean, there are plenty of people still shooting on Cannon A1's and Sony Z1's, which are HDV, tape based, and are 1440x1080... theoretically "inferior" on paper. And folks perfectly happy with them as they make wonderful images.

Right now, the fact that 2TB SDXC is on the horizon should be a non-issue when deciding to buy a camera in this price range.
 
These days you can always wait for something bigger/better/faster to come out. In the end you have to make a decision and go with something that suits your needs right now. Otherwise you can continue waiting forever and never buy anything. The times of standards which did last for decades are over. The industry is moving faster than ever and this will not come to an end.
 
thanks

thanks

Thank you Mike Harvey and pailes for your reply.
It really helped me to cool down (:

I have just sold my dvx100b ):
Now i'm waiting for a little more money to buy an HMC :-|
 
2TB would roughly equal 187 hours of footage in PH mode.... 9 times out of 10 your going to offload way before you get to that point. Its safer to have several 32gb cards than one 2TB card that way your not putting all your eggs in one basket

I am super excited about a TB SD card, the faster it gets here the quicker 32GB SDHC will come down to about $19 bucks (or less) :)
 
I'm more concerned with transcoding and editing what I have, than storage. That's where we need attention and advancements!

It's kinda like putting super wheels and Z rated Pirelli's on a dump truck!
 
Nightwalker said:
It seems SDXC cards are coming with 2TB capacity and with huge speed..
What to do now? We'll by HMC and 2 months later panasonic will announce another cam???

source: http://www.geeksland.org/cgi-bin/np...p/www.dpreview.com/news/0901/09010803sdxc.asp
Click to expand...

What people seem to miss about SDXC is that it is not a huge leap past SDHC, it's just the natural progression. The first iteration of SDXC will be 64GB. 2TB cards are not just around the corner. It will be quite some time before we see these. I could have really used one for archiving purposes this weekend though ;)
 
The 32GB SDHC card holds 3 hours of video at the highest data rate. WHY would you want any more on a single card? In fact, some want to limit the time and use several cards (8 GB or 16 GB).

Maybe 5 to 7 years down the road, when the HMC-150 is replaced with a camera that records at a higher data rate, the 64GB ---> 2TB cards will make sense.


Bob Diaz
 
BobDiaz said:
The 32GB SDHC card holds 3 hours of video at the highest data rate. WHY would you want any more on a single card? Bob Diaz
Click to expand...

I have had 6 hour events I filmed!

I am happy with 32 gigs, but a 64 gig would be fine as well.

It is nice to "set and forget" when it comes to recording time.

Lets me focus on the 'other stuff'.
 
Mike Harvey said:
If you look at previous threads, this has come up and I believe it has been stated elsewhere that in theory, existing HMC's could take the SDXC with a firmware upgrade.
Click to expand...


Not sure where you got that information, but the official word we got 2 weeks ago from our Panasonic rep is that the HMC150 would not be able to support SDXC even through a firmware upgrade. He did say that it would be possible in othe cameras, but the HMC150 is going to be locked to SDHC.

Like you said though, a 32 GB card is going to go for 3 hours, and if that is not big enough, I guess you would need to find some sort of a breaking point in your production.
 
Timothy Harry said:
Not sure where you got that information, but the official word we got 2 weeks ago from our Panasonic rep is that the HMC150 would not be able to support SDXC even through a firmware upgrade. He did say that it would be possible in othe cameras, but the HMC150 is going to be locked to SDHC.
Click to expand...

I thought I read that a firmware upgrade was possible. I stand corrected
 
Mike Harvey said:
I thought I read that a firmware upgrade was possible. I stand corrected
Click to expand...

Mike you are correct that it can be updated via firmware.

Panasonic might decide not to do this though for marketing or other reasons.

There is nothing that prevents the SD commitee from approving 64/128/256/2048GB SDHC cards. There's no technical limitation. The only thing keeping them from making a standard is that MS doesn't let their OSes format anything over 32GB FAT32 (SDHC). Never mind the fact that FAT32 goes to 2TB just fine, and could go to 8TB with 32KB clusters.

You could also theoretically see larger SDHC cards, and once formatted, you can read them FAT32 just fine. If you get an official SDXC card and leave it exFAT, you're now in a world where only Vista and Win7 folks can read your SD card natively.

So SDXC is just a simple format (exFAT/FAT64) that was introduced with Vista. You could format your SDHC cards to SDXC if you want. There are changes in hardware on the SDXC card for faster throughput. So you could also format a SDXC card to SDHC and enjoy the speed, just not the capacity.
 
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I much prefer the smaller (16Gb) cards; if one goes weird—and it can happen—then you have only lost 90 minutes. Honestly, coming from a tape and stills background, bigger cards ain't necessarily better, IMHO.

In the stills world, I have a lot of 4Gb CF cards—because they fit on a DVD5 (archiving and data loss restriction).

In the video world, I stick with 16Gb because I want to limit potential loss.
 
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