Sony SxS Express Card

“The SxS (called S by S) is the replacement standard for PCMCIA cards, a ten-year-old technology which P2 uses,” explains cinematographer Jody Eldred. “All new computers – PC and MACs – support SxS, with PCI Express slots built in.

“SxS capture is a breeze,” he continues. “I used three 16 gb cards which held about 50 minutes of 35mbps 1920 x 1080 footage at 60i from the Sony XDCAM EX camera. The camera holds two cards, allowing for 100 minutes of record time at highest resolution. If the card is already formatted and there are no clips that need to be deleted, you can start shooting immediately. If there are clips remaining that you no longer need, you enter a menu, delete clips, and start shooting again. It’s very fast.

“To review shots, simply press the ‘Thumbnail’ button on the camera and the viewfinder displays the first frame of each shot you’ve taken (each shot is actually a file). You can then scroll around to any shot you desire and press ‘Play’ to review. When finished, press ‘Stop’ and you are instantly ready to shoot.

“The SxS cards playback like tape (fast forward, rewind, ect) but you have the advantage of thumbnails allowing you to instantly choose any shot to view – or even delete if you wish.”

Eldred recently used three cards (each takes about two to three minutes to download to a computer) at an air show, including mounting the camera in an aerobatics plane flow by world champion female pilot Patty Wagstaff. “The cards recorded her ten minute aerobatics routine in which she pulled 10Gs. The camera and cards performed perfectly – not one frame of video was lost. As far as I know, this is the first time that 1920 x 1080 HD video was recorded tapeless, as no tape format can come close to holding up under those demanding conditions.”