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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Handle With Care: Red (raid) Drive

Brent Carter

Brent Carter

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I know our RAID DRIVES look tough as shit. But you have to treat them like any other hard drive with spinning parts. Don't be kicking and dropping them all over a set. This will void the warranty on them. And, yes, we have diagnostic software that we can run on a RAID DRIVE to check for this kind of abuse, hehe.

That being said, we can't wait to release the RED FLASH DRIVE. And it is coming soon.

BC
 
So, beyond drop kicking them (or just plain dropping them,) what are the recommended uses for the drives? There's a lot of misinformation going on out there regarding their sensitivity - and I'd just like some official info about the drives' robustness - i.e. helicopters, steadicam, handheld, dolly, etc.
 
The general advice for hard drives is to avoid any sharp movement.

Basically they should probably be confined to a tripod or other very steady support (steadicam, and jib probably okay). Hand held is borderline (depending on the situation and operator) and vehicle mount a no no.

This is based on my working experience with hard drives.

Older drives didn't like to have their axis changed while operating, newer drives are more tolerant of that, but whip pans or whip tilts (I guess that's a thing) are probably an area for caution.
 
- Still like to hear it from "the horse's mouth."
 
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How about instead of "coming soon" I say we are "internally testing at RED"?

Horse says "Sycophant nailed it". Yes, smooth operation is key (sticks, steadicam, dolly - normally smooth). Avoid harsh, jolting applications - any type of jarring impact. We highly recommend CF cards for that stuff.
 
Brent@RED said:
How about instead of "coming soon" I say we are "internally testing at RED"?
Click to expand...

you-want-it-when-cartoon.jpg
 
Hi Brent,

RED FLASH DRIVE, for those of us hitting the ceiling on our budgets, what is the current wisdom on pricing? Sorry to be a PIA but it would be very helpful to my cause. But if you can't, I respectfully understand.
 
Brent@RED said:
How about instead of "coming soon" I say we are "internally testing at RED"?

Horse says "Sycophant nailed it". Yes, smooth operation is key (sticks, steadicam, dolly - normally smooth). Avoid harsh, jolting applications - any type of jarring impact. We highly recommend CF cards for that stuff.
Click to expand...

The trouble is, when the Director wants to keep shooting at X frames per second at Xk, and Red Drive is the only solution...
I just had two shots with dropped frames shooting in Inner Monglia with only smallish judder from a dodgy dolly,, but it was very cold and my theory is that it's much easier to run into hard drive issued in the cold. (It was quite cold) - I had to warm up my Hyperdrive CF backup unit under my arm back in the van for 10 minutes before it wanted to work).
 
The SSD drive will be the answer to that problem...

I'm not sure if drives should be more prone to write errors in adverse weather conditions, but most are only rated from around 0 - 40 degrees C. In the Hyperdrive there might be other parts that are even more sensitive and won't operate at all.
 
We had a car mounted shot in the snow a week ago. The nature of the shot required us to be constantly rolling. Compact Flash was not an option. Our first test gave us thousands of dropped frames.

With little time to get the shot, we took one of my winter hats and wrapped it around the Red Drive. We shot for several hours mounted on the hood of a car with mediocre suspension in the snow without a single dropped frame. The camera performed beautifully.

Just that little bit of extra cush made all the difference. With the Red Drive in the cradle it is so rigid with the camera body, if you just take it out and wrap it in anything it will probably work fine. We shot for two more nights after that first night, never had a single dropped frame. The first night we had the camera in the hat and it was slung underneath the camera inside the raincover, which we thought would give it even more shock protection. The next night we tried ditching the raincover sling and just taped the hat to the camera and it worked fine as well.

So write this one down kiddies, get a hat for your Red.

redhat.jpg
 
Andrew Benz said:
RED FLASH DRIVE, for those of us hitting the ceiling on our budgets, what is the current wisdom on pricing?
Click to expand...

SSD's are currently expensive items, and I believe there are two 32GB SSD's (?) in RAID 0, giving a total of 64GB storage capacity.

Personally I'm waiting for RED to incorporate 2 x 128GB SSD's which are currently, all be it in limited supply, available on the market.
 
Has anyone tested those dry chemical hand-warmers that everybody seems to have when its cold? I bet putting one of those in the Red Drive parka would kick it up a notch or two.
 
Thanks for the photos, that is a clever solution with the hat cushioning the drive! And providing thermal insulation as well. Is the boxy item on front of the lens some sort of spinning rain/snow deflector?
 
Since one of the home brew fixes for sticky hard drive plates is to put the drive in the freezer I doubt hard drives have much problem with the cold. In this case, the shock absorbtion was critical. I'm sure we'll see drive cradles that look more like mic shock mounts soon.

Gotta give you guys props for taking RED out in the snow for extended takes. Hope you got some good stuff.
 
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