F3: Which card reader for SxS?

I

IronFilm

Veteran
When I try to search for "SxS reader" they appear to be absolutely ridiculously expensive, to the point I might as well pick up a used old laptop for a hundred bucks or two hundred, and simply use it and its ExpressCard slot instead to read the SxS cards onto a portable harddrive for editing.

Then I thought, perhaps searching directly for ExpressCards could find cheaper alternatives than looking for SxS readers. Indeed, I turned up this for only three bucks:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CB-USB-2-0-...r-Cable-for-Laptop-NEW-HOT-AU-4-/221804882370

But.....
Supports all USB-based express card/34 or express card
Express card /54 devices (Do not support PCL-express -based express card devices).
Click to expand...
I guess this means it will *not* read SxS cards?


Because this device only works on ExpressCard devices that are actually USB devices in that formfactor. While SxS cards are using the PCI Express interface.


Please tell me I'm wrong! As at only three bucks this would be awesome. (as I don't want to spend too much on this, after all the bulk of my recording media is going to be SD cards inside SxS adapters. Thus I expect I'll only rarely need to read SxS media)

These are the other alternatives I've got my eye on, maybe one of them would work?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Adapter-Converter-USB-2-0-to-Express-Card-34-ExpressCard-/131482159873
http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-2-0-to-...r-Adapter-CablesOnline-USB-XC03-/290998683868
http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB2-0-to-E...ard-PCMCIA-Type-I-NETmate-U-450-/261934747340
 
In a pinch you can hook up a USB cable from the F3 to your computer and read the SxS card directly from inside the camera...
 
I didn't check out those links, but I don't think any of the cheaper alternatives work. Sony's SxS reader is ridiculously expensive. It is a good reason to use SDHC cards, but there is a level of reliability with real SxS cards that is comforting. If you have a card fail do you want to tell your client it was because you were too cheap to buy a reader? I've always shot with SxS cards for that reason.
 
Sonnet Thunderbolt SxS readers are fast and secure and worth every penny. You're cheapest route is to come right out of the camera's usb. Slow, but same speed as the Sony reader.
 
What about going the XQD/SxS adapter route? I did that with my 55 on the advise of my Sales rep and another shooter. The G series Sony XQD cards are certified and approved by Sony to do EVERYTHING the F55 can do, so I imagine you're 100% safe in an F3. The G series cards are about half price vs. same capacity SxS cards and each card comes with an XQD reader. The Sony SxS adapters are about $30. With the included Sony XQD reader(USB 3), I've transferred a full 64GB XQD to the internal SSD drive of my RMBP in 5-6 mins and to an external HDD(USB 3) in about 10 mins.
 
Run&Gun, yup I'll be mostly using adapters to use my existing SD cards for my BMPCC in the F3. But I got given a couple of SxS cards as well, so wondering how I can read them should I happen to use them occasionally. Seems like reading it from the camera over USB is the way to go.
 
The one advantage of using SxS cards is the ability to do a "Media Restore" when you cards are unmounted improperly or there is a simple error that the Sony firmware can correct or override. You cannot do this with 3rd party adapter connected SDHC cards. If you get a message to do a Media Restore on an SD card, you won't be able to do the restore. At best, you will loose a 4GB chunk of data if you have been doing a continuous shoot or loose the clip with the error if you have been doing takes.

The reader sounds expensive but if you loose a critical part of a shoot, you will have to deal with that. If you are doing double recording with an external recorder then you have yourself covered.
 
That's not right about the adapter plus SDHC cards. On those rare occasions when the Media Restore message appears, the MXM Express and other adapter cards I've used have restored perfectly. Never lost anything.
 
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