EMERGENCY SSD - PRODUCT SUGGESTION

[Paul Schneider]

I think it would be great if RED manufactured a dedicated firmware or "emergency" SSD... something designed to specifically hold firmware, presets and looks that can be used to reload this information in the event of a severe mid-shoot freeze. It could also be used to quickly get multiple cams unified at the beginning of a production.

I've noticed most productions will allocate an SSD for just this purpose and they usually sit unused in a case on set, but it seems a waste to take a full (expensive) media card out of action for this since the file information residing there is so small.

It should be small. Maybe a 2-5gb dedicated card that would never be used (or want to be used) for anything but updates.

Its a security blanket. Call it THE RED CROSS. Sell it for $150. I'm buying and suspect most owners will too.

 

[Kevin Wild]

This has been brought up before. Using SSD's that test poorly for recording footage could act as these back up disks. But RED has never commented on this concept. I'd buy a couple. ;-)

Kevin

 

[PatrickW]

It's been suggested before and the upcoming 32GB "Scarlet grey SSDs" will work fine for this.

 

[Paul Schneider]

I agree the 32GB is a decent option. Just felt a smaller, cheaper, mission specific option would be nice.

 

[Mike Tiffee]

I think a small partition is a better and cheaper idea. You use a utility on your computer to format the SSD and create a small utility partition that can store presets and firmware. Then you can still use your SSD and don't have to pay hundreds of dollars for an emergency SSD. The camera would be aware of this partition and wouldn't format it when you format in-camera.

 

[Lliam Worthington]

Good call Mike +1.

 

[Nick Pasquariello]

This has been mentioned before. I would certainly throw down some cash for a 1GB or 2GB firmware installation card. The firmware is so small that this is certainly future-proof enough for the foreseeable future. And at that size, it wouldn't cost much, nor would you be wasting a whole card on such a thing.

Very seriously on the "Would buy the day it came out if it came to exist" list.

 

[Mike Garrick]

@ Mike nice idea but how does it work?

My take .........So you load a SSD with a tiny partition with I assume other footage into the camera ......will the camera recognise it as an update card or recognise it is a "wild reel "?

I dont know thats why I'm asking...thanks.

 

[Brad Webb]

I brought this up a while ago. It would be awesome to have a 1-2GB SSD to just slap into the RED in an emergency. Even a 3rd party SSD could work for this purpose. For now I just stash a USB flash drive with the 3-4 latest firmware builds on it in my kit. Usually there's a laptop nearby so you're only down for a little bit before you can reboot.

 

[Werner Jauch]

How about an "adapter card", doesn't contain any memory, but a slot st the other end to insert a SD card. Presumably the camera could recognise this as read only and not attempt to record to it

 

[Mike Tiffee]

@ Mike nice idea but how does it work?

My take .........So you load a SSD with a tiny partition with I assume other footage into the camera ......will the camera recognise it as an update card or recognise it is a "wild reel "?

I dont know thats why I'm asking...thanks.

Yeah say you had a 500MB-1GB partition that you could use to store firmware and camera presets, etc. So you have two partitions, a utility partition, and a footage partition. The camera still records to the SSD as usual, just to the footage partition. You lose 500MB-1GB of recording time on that SSD. When you format to erase the SSD, it only formats the footage partition leaving the utility partition alone. In the camera, you save presets to the utility partition, so you can store hundreds of these if you want and always have them- even if you erase the footage partition. If you need to force install the firmware, maybe there's a menu in the camera that lists the firmware versions installed on the utility partition. You select which version you want to install and it creates a "force install" folder on the utility partition and copies that FW to that folder. Then you can reboot the camera and it installs the FW. Or you can use the utility on your computer to do the same thing if your camera is inoperable for some reason. Maybe you could also do a "force preset" too so if you need to force activate HD-SDI or HDMI you can do so without using the menus if you don't have the RED touch.

Bottom line is, you only lose maybe 500MB-1GB of storage space and you can always have a SSD that contains firmware or presets AND you still get to continue using that card. - and you don't have to buy anything else, no extra SSD's or adapters or anything.

EDIT: - BTW, you would only need to do this to one card. Not all cards would need to have this. You simply pick a card, load into the RED MAG reader and run a utility program on your computer that formats the card and creates the partition. If the camera sees that partition on a SSD, it gives you those features, if not, business as usual.

 

[Brian F Kobylarz]

For those interested in just a couple of the discussions about this very suggestion, here are two threads from this year alone that apply.

The first was started by Ketch just after New Years - he learned a very important lesson and did the right thing - shared it with the community. That's the mark of a professional.
You will read a lot about backup firmware on a dedicated SSD within:
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showth...ng-with-Build-2-0-5!!&highlight=firmware++ssd

Another thread started at the end of February headlined the same idea:
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showth...for-firmware-restores&highlight=firmware++ssd

A lot of good background in those two threads. Worth reading before posting a deja-vu here.

 

[Brian F Kobylarz]

This has been brought up before. Using SSD's that test poorly for recording footage could act as these back up disks. But RED has never commented on this concept. I'd buy a couple. ;-)

Kevin

Kevin,

Suggested this approach in a meeting with RED last January. They are able to return SSD's that do not meet their spec to the manufacturer - so there are no substandard SSD's that they can re-purpose.

 

[Brian F Kobylarz]

How about an "adapter card", doesn't contain any memory, but a slot st the other end to insert a SD card. Presumably the camera could recognise this as read only and not attempt to record to it

This has also been proposed before - and it has merit - with a minor tweak: The adapter would be designed to accept RED CF cards instead of SD's. I believe RED has had this under active consideration but getting cameras into our hands first was the right priority.
Think of all those RED CF cards out there in the wild - they would all get a new lease on life.
There is the added level of comfort to all that as a RED product, the camera should be able to recognize a long lost cousin (unconfirmed).

An added bonus is that for "photographers" using the RED for still capture, CF cards are already the preferred media for workflow.