32GB SDHC Transcend Class 10 8GB SanDisk Ultra SDHC 30 mb/s

They won't format in My Computer, they won't format via Total Commander (it uses Windows disk tools) and they won't format with a program I just downloaded, SDFormatter. I've tried quick and full erase, it stops after few seconds and says it can not complete the format.

Is this a sign of these cards dying? Or are there other solutions to fix this, or at least diagnose it...

PS the cards do format when I do the format on Lumix TZ5...

Since they were quite cheap at work.

Anyway, first test out of the box, using the SD card reader built into my laptop (which does have a USB 3.0 bus, but I dont know if the card reader runs over that, or how good the card reader is).

CrystalDiskMark, 2 tests @ 1000MB

Sequential read 70.19MB/s Sequential write 37.42MB/s

It's half the price of of the Sandisk, and reviews are saying it's writing around 40-45MB/s, that should be good enough for the most intensive patches.

http://gizmodo.com/5945345/you-can-now-slap-a-quarter-terabyte-of-storage-in-your-camera

Note that it is mostly usual Class 10 cads that are featured here, not top cards.

Same amount recording time, also when I switched to MP4 and Mov. I double checked the card on my notebook just to be sure they didn't place a wrong sticker - but it actually is 32 GB.

Then I tried some more cards and it's not the camera - it's this card. Have bought another card and it has the same problem here.

Then I tried resetting the whole camera to factory defaults - still the same problem. I made a recording of 0:30 hour and then checked the memory card on my macbook. It sais I have still 25,4 GB memory left. When I putted my card back into the GH3 it said I have again 30 minutes despite the fact that it told me earlier that it was full. Then I initialized the card again, getting again the 30 minutes. Shoot spent 60+ euro's spend on a 32 GB card that's runs so poor!

Hope somebody has an answer as I will have lots of problems returning these cards. Guess the card maker will blame Panasonic and vice versa.

I'm looking for a new external harddrive. For some months I've been editing on Premiere CS6 using a Macbook Pro non Retina (you probably know the drill: i7 2.6 8Gb Ram and 750 Gb HDD). The footage is in 2.5" USB 3.0 Western Digital HDDs which I know is a suboptimal solution but I normally have all the HD footage (mostly GOP1 and GOP3 from a hacked GH2) on one track and playback is smooth 90% of the time. Since things are not always going to be that simple and Lightroom (which I also use profusely) would certain benefit from a faster harddrive I'm thinking about buying one. Caldigit has some solutions that are expensive but seem sturdy and reliable. I have my eyes on the AV Pro wich they sell on HDD and SDD flavors with USB3.0 and optional Firewire. They claim that with the UASP USB 3.0 protocol the SDD option can reach speeds of 430 Mb/s on new Macbook Pros and 200 Mb/s for the HDD option. There are a couple of reviews around the web that seem to confirm that. Normally manufacturer's speed claims are not reliable at all, so one can't never be sure. But, if we were to trust their speed claims, these are my questions:

Do you think that the SSD option is overkill for my current setup? Should I be better spending the premium on more storage? (The 4TB HDD option costs more or less the same as the 256 SSD one.)

Here's the product page:

http://www.caldigit.com/avpro/

By the way, I live in Berlin so the fact that Caldigit has a European Store is a plus (the dreaded customs and whatnot). That's why I ignored some other nice options out there. Of course if you know of other offers here in Europe, they will be more than welcome!

Thanks!

Any proven products out there?

Can be very useful acessory, considering that modern tablets usually do not have full sized SD reader.

In the past 2 months, 2 USB drives died on me. This has never happened to me before, despite all the Brand X drives I've used in my life. Now these 2 die in 2 months.

First one to die was Transcend UltraSpeed 32GB. I can't access it in Windows 7x64, although Windows do make a sound when I connect it to any of the USB ports on my PC.

I've tried looking for it in the Disk Management tab, but I didn't see it there. So basically the sound comes on when I plug it, the light on the USB drive coms on, but I can't access it, it doesn't show up in My Computer.

I have to say I first noticed it when I connected it on my iMac in the keyboard USB port. The USB drive was fine (as far as I can recall) until one day I couldn't see it on the Mac. So I tried it on the PC, and like I've mentioned, nothing. Except the sound notification.

So I went and bought another USB drive, SanDisk Cruzer Edge 16GB. It was a bargain, so I picked it up. I plugged it in my iMac first and copied some photos I've had. Ejected it when the copying was done.

Few hours later, decided to copy a movie file. Plugged it into the keyboard USB, the 4GB video file started to copy, and then out of the blue, after 10 seconds or so, I got the Finder warning me "The device was not ejected properly"...?

I didn't touch the thing, so I don't know where did the warning come from. I tried to mount the drive one more time but - no avail. I immediately tried to connect it on the PC, and I got the same result as the previous USB. I got the sound notification after plugging in the drive, but no trace of the device in My Computer or Disk Management...

Any ideas?

Available at:

• $99 - http://www.amazon.com/Vantec-3-5-Inch-External-Enclosure-NST-640SU3-BK/dp/B007XJIYI6
• $126 - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vantec-NST-640SU3-BK-Quad-3-5-SATA-to-USB3-0-and-eSATA-External-HDD-Enclosure-/261011141852

Mediasonic Pro Box enclosures

4 disks, USB 2.0 - Mediasonic HF2-SU2S2

Available at:

• $99 - http://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-HF2-SU2S2-ProBox-Enclosure-Drives/dp/B002UUPWP6/ref=sr_1_5

4 disks, USB 3.0 - Mediasonic HF2-SU3S2

It has simple and RAID versions.

Available at:

• $119 - http://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-HF2-SU3S2-ProBox-Drive-Enclosure/dp/B003X26VV4/
• $216 - http://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-HFR2-SU3S2-ProRaid-External-Enclosure/dp/B003YFHEAC/

8 disks, USB 3.0 -Mediasonic H82-SU3S2 ProBox

Available at:

• $269 - http://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-H82-SU3S2-ProBox-External-Enclosure/dp/B005GYDMYG

Price: $42

Available at: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Orico-PHB35-5-Bay-3-5-Tool-Free-HDD-Hard-Drive-Protector-Case-Box-/110902025736

Good way to have all footage organized :-)

I just tried to remove my data from my Sandisk 32gb Class 10 30mb/s off my memory card reader. The device doesn't appear. When I tried to transfer it from the GH2, my PC asked me to reformat the disk. I can still see the footage on the GH2 and play it back, but I can't transfer it. I tried another memory card reader and the result is the same. Is the card corrupt or is there a way to restore it?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

I am still trying to find more information on this, sorry if this has been discussed. If anybody has better sources please share.

TDK - 6 TB HD

http://www.techspot.com/news/50387-tdk-sets-new-hard-drive-density-record-paves-the-way-for-6tb-hdds.html

To make a sad story short: After nearly two years of recording with similar hardware (GH2 + Driftwoods latest/Flowmotion + several SanDisk SDHC Ultra 32GB Class 10 UHS-I 30MB/Sec) without any problems ever I turned on my PC the day after shot to backup data and it would not recognize the card - at all. No corrupted filesystem, no request to format it, just if as if there was nothing inserted into cardreader. Windows Drive Manager does not see any new volume when I insert card. Tried to put it back to GH2 and it keeps saying: No Memory Card.

The day before I reviewed footage for client, all was fine. Footage is quite important - could possibly shoot again but would mean a lot (!) of hassle and would loose quite some credits from client. Any kind of data recovery service will need to be payed from my own pocket as it was my cam. Worst case scenario.

What can be done? Any ideas?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dual-Bay-2-x-2-5-SATA-HDD-Hard-Disk-RAID-0-1-JBOD-Rack-/250870706605

Quite interesting internal rack with RAID option. Also useful if you have external recorder or upcoming BM raw camera.

The 1TB version is $249, while the 120GB and 256GB SSD's are $199 and $349 respectively.

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10599

eZShare

Looks like it represents small web server inside.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l2736&_nkw=ezShare++SDHC

FluCard

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l2736&_nkw=FluCard++sdhc

Name make me more pessimistic about it. Seems similar to first one.

Eye-Fi

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Eye-Fi+&_sacat=0&_odkw=Eye-Fi+Connect+X2&_osacat=0&_from=R40

As I understand any X2 will do.

I'm also guessing wifi will be part of the GH-3. That may be a better implementation. So, does anyone have first hand experience with a GH-2 and eyefi?

Thanks

Max

This had me spending over an hour scouring the internet for non Pick and Pluck ester foam at a reasonable price. Here is the best reliable source that I found (and purchased through).

http://www.diyroadcasesstore.com/categories/Foam-%26-Carpet/Foam/

It may look just as expensive at first glance, but the 1" thick sheet I bought for $43 ($55 with shipping) is a very large 54"x72", which when cut to my case size will give me nine 1" thick layers.

Just thought I'd share and open some discussion on foam, cutting foam, types of foam, etc.

Ester foam is important in a case for electronics because it is anti static. The "plank" foam they sell is not necessarily non static, but it is much more dense. It'd be great for storing larger, heavier items like a slider, tripod or rig.

As a side note, Which do you prefer? regular Pelican or Pelican Storm case? I personally like the Storm cases for their sturdier and more sensibly designed retractable handle as well as for their large push-button latches that don't break your fingers every time you open the case.

"The cards can take the kinds of punishment that we often associate with rugged gear, such as temperatures from -13F to 185F, immersion in 3.3 feet of water for half an hour and the usual steep drops. It's beyond this that the resistance levels become truly exotic: the cards are also built to survive zaps of electricity, proximity to magnets and exposure to X-rays. If it all becomes too much to bear, the design will even fuse on the inside to prevent fire burning the card from within. Those who like what they see will only have to decide whether or not they want the SDAB range's 95MB/s read speeds and 80MB/s writes or are willing to settle for the SDUB line's respective 90MB/s and 45MB/s transfers. "

sounds like they're prepping for a new weather sealed camera, eh? ;)

http://item.rakuten.co.jp/bonz/280-00439/ 9800 yen = $115 to $125 USD depending on the exchange rate which fluctuates allot lately.

Silcon-Power makes some of the fatest and best priced SSD's on the market, so they may be someone to watch for bad ass SDXC cards in the near future.

http://www.macmall.com/p/Patriot-Memory-Miscellaneous/product~dpno~8386309~pdp.geagaba?store=macmall&source=MWB33425&email=rockroadpix@optimum.net&hq_e=el&hq_m=1741196&hq_l=21&hq_v=83f24a0093

Price: From $5

Available at: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=ORICO%203.5&LH_PrefLoc=2&_sop=15&_clu=2&_fcid=168&_localstpos&_stpos&gbr=1&afsrc=1

Wondering if anyone has tested this card with the GH2. According to this post, it tested up to 65Mbs read speed and 40Mbs write speed in CrystalDiskMark, which theoretically should let it run the highest bitrate patches. It also sells for about the same as the SanDisk Extreme Pro 64GB 95Mb/s cards.