Sony announced a new solid state flash memory card SxS (pronounced “S-by-S”) aimed as direct competition to Panasonic’s innovative P2 cards used on four Panasonic camcorders such as the HVX-200. We like that the SxS card is compatible with a PCI express bus connection, while the P2 card connects via computer tech that’s on its way out, the PCMCIA bus. Our initial experience with P2 ingest was good since we had an older Apple laptop with a PCMCIA bus that we directly inserted the cards into for download. However, when that box bit the dust, we were left to purchase and use the wonky Duel Adapter.
More differences between Sony SxS and Panasonic P2 solid state media
The SxS card promises a maximum data transfer rate of 2.5 Gbps, twice the speed of a P2 card. All Panasonic P2 camcorders utilize a 4:2:2 color space and employ intraframe encoding so that each frame is recorded independently. Sony’s new XCAM EX uses a 4:2:0 color space, and encodes via long GOP interframe compression wherein the camera’s processor fills in the motion gaps between key frames.
