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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 :)

Data Management - formatting cards.

S

Stuart English

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Thought it would be a good idea to open a new thread about data management. Here is the first subject - formatting cards.

The camera wants to take control of formatting the CF cards or RED-DRIVE. This may seem like time you don't want to lose on set, but its done for a reason and the time taken is not long.

I was asked - what is the fastest method of re-using a full 8 GB CF card?

Either -

a) Once you have duped everything to the computer hard drive, drag ALL the contents INCLUDING the magazine profiles to the trash can. Then empty the trash. Now put the CF card in the camera and when the camera LCD screen says "new drive" push the joystick. Formatting takes 4 seconds.

or b) Don't drag any contents to the trash, just mount the CF card back on the camera, and reformat the card. The re-format on camera takes a bit longer - but still only 10 seconds.

Using either method protects the reel number auto update feature. If you don't let the camera re-format the CF card, then you will generate duplicate file names ... which is fixable in post, but it will take a lot longer than the 5 to 10 seconds the camera needs before you shoot the footage.
 
No complaint about the 10 secs here, but sounds like the re-formating could be put into one of your excellent on-set apps (Red Alert/RedCine)

Why?

I imagine that an assistant will handle all the offloading of cards. It would under quite some cirkumstances be nice to just receive finished cards from him/her and shoot on...

Or is it a total neccesity that the camera handles the formatting?

Well I guess...


G
 
automatic reel no. update!!!!! Is it also possible to continue several of these small cards as 1 reel. Maybe otherwise we have reel no. 2399949494959696........ actually at 23hrs we have time code turnover?
 
gunleik: that is something we might look into, but at the moment the camera assigns reel number, not the card.

tj: only continue as the same reel, but the clip number would start at 1 again. So would the edge code (or run record timecode). Absolute day of time timecode will rollover at 23:59:59:xx where xx depends on your *project* framerate.
 
Did a shoot this week, involving some 300 people and a machinery that just couldn't be stopped when it first was started.

Each runthrough involved vast amounts of expensive gear litteraly being vapourized.

Stop! Reload!
Would simply not be an option...

As the red-drive (apparently) currently is non-scheduled, one starts to think of other "fluent" workflows.

And as much as I dislike the P2 pricing, I really love the continuus recording over multiple cards and live swapping cards, so you never have to hit the record button during a crucial shot.

A stack of pre-formatted cards is, of course lookin' like something..., but still, then you'll all of a sudden need "just one more..."

Cheers!

Gunleik
 
Hi Stuart and Rob,

As I understand it you need to keep the two files on the CF card put there by the camera when reformatting yes?

Can't these two files be made into hidden files so that they don't show up on Windows or MacOS so they cannot get tampered with or deleted?

Paul
 
You can "pre-format" your cards in the camera before shooting.

We put little round sticker "dots" with a # on.

So, for example, if you have four cards (which is what we had) you number them 1,2,3,4 - format them in order - and shoot in that same order.
 
Wouldn't 16GB cards be way more sensible for RED than 8GB?
 
PaulClements said:
Hi Stuart and Rob,

As I understand it you need to keep the two files on the CF card put there by the camera when reformatting yes?

Can't these two files be made into hidden files so that they don't show up on Windows or MacOS so they cannot get tampered with or deleted?

Paul
Click to expand...

I don't advice doing that since the camera will not advance the reel number for you in that case and if any inconsistencies in the flash exist you might run into issues.

Best is simply to format or pre-format cards. As indicated by Stuart, if you empty the card and insert it in the camera it will ask you to format it. Takes under 10 seconds.
 
Reformatting times

Reformatting times

To recap, its 10 seonds for an on-camera erase existing clips and format, and only 4 seconds for a format of a previously erased card.

Or do as Mark says, pre-format on-camera a group of CF cards before the shoot day starts.
 
I heard that there is a finite number of times a CF card can be formatted before it is no longer useful. I believe it was over one thousand times. Does anyone know if this is true? If it is what is the expected life cycle of a CF Card?

Thanks,
G
 
Formatting at the low level counts as a full memory write cycle, so in that scenario you would indeed be adding unnecessary wear to the cards.

BUT I strongly suspect that a Red format is the more usual "blank and rewrite the file table" type of quick format you are used to from computer hard drives. This won't create additional wear on the whole memory of the card as a low level format would.

Having said all that, modern memory such as CF, SD etc has effectively millions of write cycles, plus wear levelling in the card's firmware to balance out the uneven memory writes between quick formats.

Short answer - don't worry too much about it until a few years have gone by, at which time you're probably using rather larger cards anyway and are having a good laugh at that measly old 8GB you used to make do with back in the good ol' days! :)

HTH

Paul
 
offhollywood said:
You can "pre-format" your cards in the camera before shooting.

We put little round sticker "dots" with a # on.

So, for example, if you have four cards (which is what we had) you number them 1,2,3,4 - format them in order - and shoot in that same order.
Click to expand...

Mark,
How are you telling the camera to format the card AND assign the reel number?

Force reel does not work on formating, we have to:
1. format card
2. select force reel
3. set reel # to "1"
4. record 1 sec

now our card is reel 1

This is a waste of time, am I missing somthing here?

btw- Our reel number seems to be stuck on 12
 
I'd like to give this thread a little bump. I'm doing the same goody procedure: Force Reel, then roll, THEN the roll # is correct.
Am I doing it wrong?
Cheers,
Harry
 
I'll add a note here that Build 15 no longer has the automatic prompt to format the card when you insert it.
This is really annoying when you are shooting fast, and have to wait for someone to scroll through menus to select this every time you change Mag's.

Please re-instate this in build16...

Best,
Brie Walsh
Data Wrangler
 
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