SD Card Slot

which is exactly the point - customers but NOT PROSUMERS (as many of us here). Apple has just erased the entire line-up of 15" MBPros, adding bunch of general customer-oriented macbooks.

This is like Canon or Nikon saying - yeah, we made a D-SLR camera, a really nice one. And no, you cannot change lens. Did not we give you a nice standard 18-55 zoom one? "Majority of customers are happy with this 3x zoom range".

Edward A. Oates wrote:
why do you need eSata on a Macbook Pro? You lug around a big ol' eSata raid array? Every single-drive with eSata I've seen also has Firewire 800. If you're in your edit studio, then I suspect you have a MacPro in there somewhere if you need the speed of an eSata Raid array for uncompressed (or ProRes 422 multi-stream) video editing.

Since you asked, yes - I do the majority of my editing using eSATA RAID's attached to MacPros. But when I travel, I offload that media onto an eSATA drive, which does not have Firewire 800 - with eSATA being maybe five times faster than FW800, I neither need nor want it. More importantly, when I'm working in a finishing session with a colourist, onliner or mixer, I bring the RAID and work off it, providing elements and using the time to do further editing. Suffice it to say, I very much DO use eSATA connections on my laptop, and frequently too. Not only this, but I was looking forward to hooking up to the MXO2, which requires an ExpressCard connection. And, with only one Firewire connection on the new laptops, you can't capture from something like an Aja IO without looping the drive and Aja on the same bus, which doesn't really work - and the ExpressCard port allowed the addition of more FW buses for that very purpose. Finally, the 17" is simply too big to be really portable.

Finally, I've never used an SD card reader in my life. Why would I want to?

or maybe they couldnt fit the new battery in the laptop without making a little space so they needed to get rid of the express but still wanted something there. idk i just randomly thinking now

Just a note: a single eSata drive (at 7200rpm anyway) is not any faster than with a Firewire 800 connection. You are limited by that SINGLE drive's capability of moving data. Short bursts maybe because of the cache, but not for typical sustained data transfer that video typically demands.

Your other need of bringing the raid box certainly need eSata for maximum sustained data transfer.

I'll miss the express card more for you MX02 type connections, as you note.

AJA IO: even if the mac had to (or more) firewire connections, they are all on the same buss anyway; you could use a FW hub and achieve the same result.

But yes, I agree: deleting Expresscard was a mistake, just like deleting FW on the old MacBook 13" aluminum was.

I guess the Rolling Stones were half right: you can't alway get what you want (correct), but you get what you need (not correct).

Eddie O

Unbelievable. What a downgrade. Will certainly not get a 15" MBP without an Xpress Card slot. What a joke.

I have four digital cameras. None of which use SD cards. Removing the Xpress slot for this is just mind boggling.

it looks like they are trying to push people up to the 17" due to the fact you can buy a nicely spec'd 17" for the formerly top of the line 15" MBP.

I found that the eSATA cards are unreliable & OS X doesn't like the silicon image drivers much you have to install. FW800 is actually FASTER in some cases for me, according to xBench.

Actually this is the best place to discuss these matters.
I'm sure apple cruises these forums and can see what's
being discussed so if the ever was a place to complain
this is the place.

It does support SDHC there is a knowledge base article about it don't have the link at my fingertips though. SDXC is a little fuzier, but I would suspect with a software update it should...

I have no idea what Apple is thinking.

First FireWire (Seems they saw the light, but we need to wait for the next MacBook refresh.), now ExpressCard.

They continue to eliminate valuable port types for which there is no replacement. Eliminating ExpressCard and putting an SD card reader it its place is mind-bogglingly stupid.

Anyone who wants to read SD cards can easily use a USB reader. These days they are not much bigger than a thumb drive.

What's the user who needs to use an ExpressCard supposed to do?

Fail.

Marc Cohen2 wrote:
...SDXC is a little fuzier, but I would suspect with a software update it should...

I wouldn't count on this.

here is the knowledge base article regarding the SD slot: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3553

and it seems it does support SDXC since it says it supports cards with more than 32 GB (which means SDXC). I agree though that for a pro machine they should have rather included eSATA and/or expresscard.

Thrifty One wrote:
Thanks...

I mainly use Sony cameras with "Memory Stick" cards. Are there adapters so I can use these in the SD slot?

The only adapters I've heard of are for SD cards to fit into a Compact Flash slot. The translation between those probably isn't too complicated.

Memory Stick to SD probably doesn't make sense given that the Memory Stick "form factor" is considerably larger than an SD card. SD to CF makes sense because an SD card can easily fit in a CF shell.

What you probably need is just a Memory Stick to USB reader like this one:

http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Item(1219)-SDDR-108-A11M-SanDisk MobileMate_Memory_Stick_Plus_4in1Reader.aspx

One of the things that I've been really wondering about, is that, in the past(And I thought present), Apple worked closely with a number of companies, like Panasonic, and audio people, regarding compatability. Now, on the surface, the lack of E34 slot, doesn't make sense. Is there something else brewing. But, as a P2 card user(Video), I know that Panasonic just spent a lot of money getting a new series out. So, I'm perplexed. A lot of people will end up buying older MBP's, or PC laptops because of this.

you mean that I can't use my Canon 300 card in this slot?