I've had no problems with the Extreme Pro 45 mb/s

Curious note:
Both the 16gb and 32gb of the Extreme Pro 45mb/s are labelled as discontinued on B&H website
I wonder what is going on?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/733801-REG/SanDisk_SDSDXP1_016G_A75_16GB_Extreme_Pro_SDHC.html

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/733802-REG/SanDisk_SDSDXP1_032G_A75_32GB_Extreme_Pro_SDHC.html

Alright. I just tested, reading and writing large files over the GH2's USB. Average speeds:

SanDisk Extreme 30 MB/s Edition. read: 8.1 MB/sec; write: 5.8 MB/sec
SanDisk Extreme HD Video 30 MB/sec. read: 7.8 MB/sec; write: 5.6 MB/sec

You might be able to write 176 Mbps GOP1 all day long, but have you looked at the instantaneous bit rates of the streams it generates? They go up to 130, maybe 140 or 150 Mbps - still under 20 MB/sec. A full 176 Mbps, if you could achieve that, is 21 MB/sec.

The old discontinued SanDisk Extreme and Extreme III "30 MB/s Edition" cards support a SanDisk-proprietary signaling spec that is 50% faster than the normal SD HS-mode spec. Only some SanDisk card readers and Nikon cameras support the proprietary signaling mode. In any other camera or card reader, including our GH1s and GH2s, you will get HS-mode speeds of up to ~20 MB/sec, not 30 MB/sec.

And if I'm not mistaken, our GH1s and GH2s also do not support UHS. They are HS devices, which means card performance will never exceed the HS top speed of 20 MB/sec or so.

Thus for our purposes there is not a huge difference between SanDisk's discontinued "30 MB/s Edition" cards, and the UHS "Extreme HD Video" cards and "Extreme Pro" cards. When you benchmark your cards, make sure you are not using a UHS card reader or a 30 MB/s card reader like the ImageMate.

My 32gb San Disc Extreme Pro works fine on C Brandin's 44MB but I'll admit I have some crashes and playback issues with the 176MB gop1 patch.I did HYBRID this with 720p settings but all the parameters I set for 24p were including the Frame buffer were exact as in the patch set.Still... Its enough to make me jump back to the 44MB patch tomorrow.

The Extreme HD Video is the one everyone is recommending right now, but I read someone had a prob with it as well. Might be a one case scenario.

I can confirm @Rambo report that Sandisk Extreme 30mb/s Video SDHC-I (UHS-I) card does indeed work at high bitrates (at least for me). Done a few short tests with @Driftwood 176 settings. Will test with longer recordings but at least for now 60 sec recordings at 640 ISO seem to work.

@chrimsbroome

Personally I support a HDMI recording solution for this cam. (Not just 4:2:2 but also recording time is a no issue- also for ease of format recording - Prores422 etc).

That said - I have fallen in love (against my will) with the ease and elegance of in camera recording. Also it feels more like I am 'sticking it to the man'- a true hack- not an add on.

I think that I will use both on projects - in camera for backup... (and in camera for small shoots when I can't be bothered running around with a Atomos Ninja!)

Considering that the update should come out any day now- (from Panny) nobody really knows what they have in store for us... AVCHD2? Possibly even UHS-1?

@Rambo
>I have both the sandisk extreme 30MB/s and the HD video i version and they perform identical.

Have you tested this? (Ie: they both crash at the same time with the same chart?)
(Actually @Rambo- thanks for letting me know that they are both similar, even without numbers this is at least some sort of proof)

Just a general note: This SD card discussion is completely all over the place. The ONLY conclusive way to test speed for the GH2- is in the GH2- USB isn't fast enough- and USB3 readers have UHS-1 (and lots of other bells and whistles that may cause false positives).

Maybe we could use a death chart count down? (1-5 - with 5 being crazy complex deathchart- and 1 being simple??)

Any ideas? (or is taking photos better (how many photos can be taken in a sequence?)

I currently have a 45MB/s 8 gig Sandisk Extreme Pro that I am 'not' happy with. Will be getting a 30gig Sandisk Extreme HD Video (only one I can get fast-Cheapchips).

Will do a test when I have the new card.

@NickBen, it would be nice to see if it helps with the Driftwood 176 Patch but its your money at the end of the day :-)

I have SanDisk UHS-1 95MB/s on order, but if you all think there's no benefit with the Hack, I'll cancel them and pick up Sandisk 30MB/s instead. Any ideas?

@cosimo_bullo Do you think it's better to get the 30MB/s Extreme Sandisk or the Sandisk 95MB/s UHS-1?

Sorry Vitaliy.
Would it be interesting enough to start a new thread?

sorry if i missed this, but did anyone test these fast Delkin cards?
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/764372-REG/Delkin_Devices_DDSDELITE633_32GB_32GB_Elite_Class_10.html
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/764373-REG/Delkin_Devices_DDSDELITE633_16GB_16GB_Elite_Class_10.html

@chrimsbroome the more you write & "delete" data from SD card, the more there is fragmentation. Solution: Do "deep-format" with good software like this one: http://www.spyontech.com/software/freeware/sd-formatter-3-0-the-best-way-to-format-sdsdhcsdxc-memory-cards.htm . If your card doesn't support "Erase"-option, do it with "OverWrite" -option.

Fragmentation happens because when you "delete" file from SD card, it's not actually deleted. It is just marked as "hidden". With special software it's possible yo unhide the files, so be careful when selling your old cards. Quick format doesn't really delete your files either.