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yuri_base

CX-100 internal memory: what kind?

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A friend of mine destroyed his CX-100 on a water landing. He sent the camera to Sony but they said they're not going to repair it (too damaged), and so didn't even examine the internal memory on which he recorded the jump.

He then disassembled the camera and found out that the internal "non-removable" memory is actually a tiny removable stick. The stick is labeled "Sandisk 8GB" and is almost the same size as micro SD card, but slightly wider and has 10 pins instead of 8.

Anybody know what kind of memory this is and if there's an adapter to read it?

I'd be up to disassembling my CX-100 and swapping the stick in attempt to copy the footage if I only knew that I'd be able to put the parts back together. Any idea on how difficult CX-100's assembly is?

Or, if anyone wants to do this with your camera, he'll give you his for spare parts for free, if you can get the footage out.

Thanks!
Yuri


PS. The footage WILL be worth the effort! Lineover (possibly, double) on a low pull WS BASE jump, with 2 bursted cells as a result. :)
Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps:
L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP
iOS only: L/D Magic
Windows only: WS Studio

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Sandisk customer service should be able to read the card and put the files in an email zip file.
I don't know if any readers commercially available for the semi-proprietary cards that are built for Sony, Panasonic, and Hitachi (maybe someone else, too...)

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Eh? Which part of Sandisk memory stick micro card did you not get? It is a memory stick card (the one sony really really likes) shrunk down to micro size. It is also very similar to micro SD card, but slightly wider and has 10 pins instead of 8. Rings a bell?

Here, link to pdf with pin layout.

I can also link you a wiki page if you still don't get it... >:(

I understand the need for conformity. Without a concise set of rules to follow we would probably all have to resort to common sense. -David Thorne

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Eh? Which part of Sandisk memory stick micro card did you not get? It is a memory stick card (the one sony really really likes) shrunk down to micro size. It is also very similar to micro SD card, but slightly wider and has 10 pins instead of 8. Rings a bell?




so... not to throw too much gasoline on the fire already started but all variants of Sony Memory sticks appear to have 10 pins...

whereas SD cards appear to have 8 pins...

so what everyone is saying is that its not a micro SD card it is however a memory stick micro card...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_Stick#Memory_Stick_Micro_.28M2.29
Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife...

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Its a Memory Stick Micro or M2 short, and my low budget reader can read it no problems.

If you want I can copy that for you, or you can easily find adapter for it.



Didn't realize this is an m2, now that you point it out, the pin config sure is the same. The card in the cX100 is slightly longer, but the pinout is the same.
Thanks for that!

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Click on the first link I posted. There are instructions on how to get to the internal memory (internal memory card) which can be replaced with 16GB card. Cheap upgrade for double the memory :)
I understand the need for conformity. Without a concise set of rules to follow we would probably all have to resort to common sense. -David Thorne

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Thank you, antonija, for amazing detective work! :)
Unfortunately, the card appears to be unformatted when connected to computer via adapter (I tried both PC and Mac). Who knows, may it's formatted in Sony's proprietary format? But on the computer, the card appears to have no partition, and computer just offers to format the card.

At least, we now know that the internal memory on CX-100 can be inexpensively upgraded to 16GB ($23) if you're willing to take the camera apart.

Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps:
L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP
iOS only: L/D Magic
Windows only: WS Studio

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Unfortunately, the card appears to be unformatted when connected to computer via adapter (I tried both PC and Mac). Who knows, may it's formatted in Sony's proprietary format? But on the computer, the card appears to have no partition, and computer just offers to format the card.



it may be a long shot, but how about running a photo/video recovery program over the card. they are less bothered with the format of the medium and look for the media files themselves. CardRecovery has a trial version where you can see if it finds anything at all.

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why not try to plug the card into another CX100 ?
If the data is not corrupt, assuming the problem is just a proprietary file system, the resulting video should be worth the work. I guess I am also assuming the card is not locked to the specific camera :)

here are a few pics of the canopy involved

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There are adapters for micro memory stick to memory stick. With one of those you could plug internal micro card into external memory slot on the camera and see if that works. I don't know if you can buy them separate but you can find cheap memory stick micro card with adapter included on ebay.
I understand the need for conformity. Without a concise set of rules to follow we would probably all have to resort to common sense. -David Thorne

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