How secure is the RED RAM?

[Helge Løken]

Hi,

I've done a few searches on the forum but have not been able to find a good answer for my specific question.

I'm currently advising on a production that is considering shooting with either Panasonic 3000 or the RED One. They have had great results with the Panasonic in the past but is really intrigued by the exceptional image quality that the Red One has to offer.

Because this is a production with a lot of shooting days (150+), an extra person on set is expensive. With Panasonic 3000 they are used to shooting a full day before emptying the P2 cards over night. This would not be possible to do with the RED CF cards, and there is not a chance I would recommend them doing this with the RED Drive - however, would the Red Ram be as secure as the Panasonic P2 cards? Has anyone had problems with them?

 

[Oliver Schietinger]

Hi,

Because this is a production with a lot of shooting days (150+), an extra person on set is expensive. With Panasonic 3000 they are used to shooting a full day before emptying the P2 cards over night. This would not be possible to do with the RED CF cards, and there is not a chance I would recommend them doing this with the RED Drive - however, would the Red Ram be as secure as the Panasonic P2 cards? Has anyone had problems with them?

No real issues with Red Ram, Compact Flash or P2 Cards. You could also just rent/buy a sufficient quantity of CF cards if you didn't trust the Red Ram for some reason. They are all solid state.

We did have two incidents where a RAM drive and a P2 Card wouldn't mount to the camera or a laptop. They had to be exchanged by the manufacturer. That's the only kind of error I would expect you to have which isn't too bad considering you'll know about the problem before you record to it. No idea what caused the issue but obviously you can corrupt a P2 card if you pull it out while it is still being written/ recorded to. No solid state media is bullet proof against "user error"

For what its worth, from my experience people prefer P2 if they need the faster, more common workflow. Red if the quality is demanded. But either way its about what you feel comfortable with (assuming its you get to make the decision on the camera choice).