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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 :)

Compact Flash Summary Roundup- Quest for a 16gb or higher RED compliant CF CARD

It's just not possible with today's tech to get a 16GB card for RED that can be used for all resolutions. Tomorrow is a different story though.
It would be great if RED posted their test results in terms of read/write information instead of an ambiguous pass/fail.
 
Testing is fairly complex and fit for publishing. Beyond testing we also do firmware changes.

If we gave out numbers it would be for non-red use and probably not useful in general.
 
Deanan said:
Testing is fairly complex and fit for publishing. Beyond testing we also do firmware changes.

If we gave out numbers it would be for non-red use and probably not useful in general.
Click to expand...

Sorry if I gave the impression that I was poking for holes in your testing method which I don't know much about other than what I can piece together from RED posts. What I was actually meaning to say is that it would be nice to know what the sustained data rates were on each card that tested negative. I've seen results on these same cards that are all over the board from different parties (primarily in the digital imaging world) who are testing them but they all use card readers which are not capable of giving an accurate assessment of a card's capabilities. It would just be nice to see some accurate data for a change since there is a lot of FUD from the card companies and people who are pushing these cards.
 
No one is more frustrated than RED. We have had high expectations from several companies... only to be let down. We know that 16GB cards will happen. It is just a matter of time.

Jim
 
Don't take this as anything other than my own musings, but after reading all of our collective complaints about CF (Those of RED and RED users), I'm thinking RED would be a great force of change in the CFA since they have a product that pushes CF to the limit. Just a thought. :calm:
 
Im converted, used to think CF was the only way, just shot DAYS and DAYS and veeery long takes ALL on red drive, not one issue or dropped frame, keep CF for rough handheld work for which 8G cards would be fine and just stick wih the drive for everything else!
 
Has Red considered doing what Panasonic does with P2 cards? Supposedly if you open up a P2 card, it contains 4 off-the-shelf SD cards arrayed in a RAID 0 configuration. You could probably fit 2 sd cards (unhoused) inside a CF, or maybe even 4 mini-SD. OR you could build a longer unit that sticks out a bit more, as long as the camera/reader end had a proper CF shape.

I know you guys have nothing better to do.
 
CrewPix.com said:
Has Red considered doing what Panasonic does with P2 cards? Supposedly if you open up a P2 card, it contains 4 off-the-shelf SD cards arrayed in a RAID 0 configuration. You could probably fit 2 sd cards (unhoused) inside a CF, or maybe even 4 mini-SD. OR you could build a longer unit that sticks out a bit more, as long as the camera/reader end had a proper CF shape.

I know you guys have nothing better to do.
Click to expand...

I already proposed a longer CF card and while it can be done, you're talking about something that requires a custom assembly line and therefore would be more expensive. It would likely also need a custom controller on the card itself to handle that design. I've heard different things about the SD cards inside of a P2 card. Some have said the cards are customized for the P2 data rate and others say they are just generic ones but nobody has presented conclusive evidence (as far as I know) one way or another.
 
The big differentiating factors in CF speed are the controllers used inside the CF and the type of memory used (SLC vs MLC). Firmware for the controllers are also critical.
 
I used a few 32GB P2 cards the other day - pretty amazing storage capacity & run time. Can't wait for Compact Flash to catch up but 32GB on a CF card is probably a loooong way off...:sad:
 
davecw said:
I used a few 32GB P2 cards the other day - pretty amazing storage capacity & run time. Can't wait for Compact Flash to catch up but 32GB on a CF card is probably a loooong way off...:sad:
Click to expand...

Already here. Transcend has one as do a few others. Many of the flash memory makers do make high capacity flash chips (Samsung makes 64GB chips) but they are usually kept to industrial products or for use in specific things.
 
Lexicon said:
Already here. Transcend has one as do a few others. Many of the flash memory makers do make high capacity flash chips (Samsung makes 64GB chips) but they are usually kept to industrial products or for use in specific things.
Click to expand...

Sorry, meant to say a 32GB CF card we can use (i.e. high enough sustained write speed and actually able to be purchased by the likes of us :wink:) Is there any point discussing any other type of CF card on these boards?
 
How about a buffering CF module for the side of the camera, instead of the current one? One that takes maybe two 8GB high-speed cards internally (perhaps even RAID 0 across those cards?) and a third slot holds your actual recording media, which could be dirt-cheap, slow-as-molasses CF.

Then, the recording process would be that the camera writes to the internal RAID as fast as it needs to, and the CF module dumps the data from the internal RAID out to the cheapo CF as fast as it can. In a sense, it "offloads" for you. But using a system like this you'd be guaranteed the fastest CF for your shots, including going twice as fast as the current 8GB (because of the RAID 0) but you could use the cheapest CF you can find for the actual recording. (not that you ever want to use garbage media, but you wouldn't necessarily need the premium fastest made, y'know what I mean?)

So you could get long(er) recording times; this module would probably allow for at least 24GB of continuous recording before the buffer filled up. Only real drawback is that it might be a little while before the buffer is completely flushed to the outboard cheaper compactflash...

... then again, by the time they design something like this, test it, and get it on the market, CF cards will probably be big enough to eliminate a lot of the need for it!
 
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