8GB SDHC will be available in this year

Pretec have just announced 8GB SDHC.
- maximum throughput = 20 MB/sec (no info about the class)
- price $299
- available Q4/2006
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0609/06090101pretec8gbsdhc.asp


Sad news, it can't be used with SDR-S150 / S200 :(

Do we know this, or are we guessing this?

Don't just tell me what it says in the SDR-S150/S200 manuals - I have read them many times recently.

Why do we suppose that we won't be able to use SDHC cards >4GB with a possible new FW update for the 150/200?

Or do we have it writ in tablets of stone from Panasonic?

I'm not saying you're wrong - just that it seems silly to announce a new camcorder and then new media that won't work with your absolute newest camcorder - even before that said camcorder is released.

Or is it me?

I can't agree with you more. It doesn't make sense why the manual specifies maximum 4GB for SDHC. Perhaps, when the card is available, someone may try it with S150/S200 and let us know the result.

Actually, I hope Panasonic will release firmware for S100 to accept SDHC.

If you compare the dimensions of S100 and S150 then you will see that the S150 is a little bit bigger than the S100.
So it seems that the firmware isn't the only difference between them and I assume that this will be the reason why the S100 will not be upgradeable to SDHC.
I agree with rhubarbe, we should never give up the hope that Panasonic offers a firmware update for the S150 to support SDHC cards >4GB.

I just checked the news "SDHC update for Pentax *ist digital SLR's (http://www.dpreview.com/news/0609/06090701pentaxsdhcfirmware.asp)". I can see that one of them Pentax *ist DS, announced in Sep 2004, is also in the list. http://www.digital.pentax.co.jp/ja/info/20050415e.html

So now I'm pretty sure that firmware update to let old cameras/camcorders to support SDHC is possible.

I guess
FAT12/16 -> FAT32 for SDHC
byte addressing -> sector addressing

Transcend Releases its 8GB SDHC High-Capacity Secure Digital Card
- SDHC class 2 (guaranteed minimum data transfer rate 2 MB/s)
- price/available date not specified

http://www.transcendusa.com/Press/index.asp?LangNo=0&axn=Detail&PrsNo=623

Hope, 8GB SDHC will work well with SDR-S150 , unlike what the manual says.

Is anybody rich enough to buy one to try: :D

World's first 8GB, Speed Class 4 SDHC Memory Card. The new card will be introduced in early January 2007
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0611/06112102tosh8gbsdhc.asp

The price could be higher than class-2 8GB SDHC. But this one should be good with 24Mbps AVCHD in the future.

Just wanna clarify for new buyers/users. To avoid the problems from the card, follow the instruction manual.

SDR-S100/S300 -> max 2GB SD card (SDHC not support)

SDR-S150/S200 -> max 2GB SD card, max 4GB SDHC card