Sony memory

[Scullion]

Hi Guys,

Newbie here...

I've just bought a Sony HDR-CX11E. (Looks like a nice piece of kit.)

I'd like to get some more memory for it and this looks like a potential mine field. As it's not all that cheap I didn't want to make a rookie mistake and order the wrong type.

1) It says that the recording media is Memory Stick DUO. Does this restrict me to only using Sony branded stuff or can I put Sandisk cards in it?

2) Looking at some benchmark tests it looks like Sandisk performs better... any opinions on this?

3) What's the difference between "Pro Duo Mark 2" and "Pro Duo HG"?

4) What should I buy?

I was thinking that it might be better to get multiple cards in smaller sizes so that if one fails all my eggs (so to speak) are not in one basket.
The 4Gb card supplied looks like it will store over an hour in HD.

Any help gratefully received!

[mr:w]

I've just bought a SanDisk 8Gb VideoHD card for my Sony HDR-CX105 and it works fine, it's been developed with Sony (according to SanDisk's blurb) to be compatible with Sony HD cameras, and the HD spec gives fast write speed.

Not seen any benchmark tests or used any other cards in my camera yet so can't offer an opinion on others, but no complaints with mine.

In my cam, 8Gb card will hold around 50 min in full HD recording setting (16m), standard HD mode (7m) around 120 mins

[Scullion]

Thanks Mr:w.

I did a little more hunting around yesterday and found this courtesy of Wikipedia...

On December 11, 2006, Sony, together with SanDisk, announced the Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo. While only serial and 4-bit parallel interfaces are supported in the Memory Stick PRO format, an 8-bit parallel interface was added to the Memory Stick PRO-HG format. Also, the maximum interface clock frequency was increased from 40 MHz to 60 MHz. With these enhancements, a theoretical transfer rate of 480Mbit/s (60Mbyte/s) is achieved, which is three times faster than the Memory Stick PRO format.

It looks pretty good and I found some 4Gb sticks for £18.

the component shop

Can't be bad!