Komodo REDCODE RAW and Media F.A.Q.

[Phil Holland]

Hello all!

With Production Black bodies getting out into the wild I thought I'd wrangle up some of the many questions I've been getting since May regarding recording media.

CFast 2.0 Media Briefing

RED Komodo utilizes off the shelf 3rd party CFast 2.0 cards. Nice as they are readily available around the world. However, not all CFast cards are created equal and you do want in general to use RED approved media that have gone through the testing they have done. I'll be sharing that info as well as some of my own experiences here.


What CFast 2.0 Media is RED Approved

So far what RED has approved is:

- Angelbird 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB (*RED's branded media is indeed Angelbird and is what I'm personally using as seen above)
- ProGrade 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB
- Sandisk Extreme Pro 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB
- Sony 128GB High Performance G Series

* I'm betting more cards will be added officially once they are tested.


What happens if I use unapproved CFast 2.0 Media

Whelp, first you'll get an error message saying the media is not approved. Not necessarily a bad thing and you likely will still be able to record if the card has the performance to do so.

However, the DANGER of using slower CFast 2.0 Media is dropped frames or even a lack of ability to record in certain compression ratios.

Your livelihood and footage being on the line, I'd strongly recommend investing in good media.


Can I use a CFast Cable Adapter to record to SSD

Yes! This is possible. You'll get the unapproved media message, but it does and can work. Do 100% test this thoroughly before deploying on a project to ensure it's working as expected.

*side note - The Media Bay Door on Komodo is actually removable which is ideal for exactly this setup. Make sure those cables are securely plugged in if you are doing this. When in doubt, gaffer's tape is your best friend or some sort of cable clamp system.


REDCODE RAW and Data Rates?!

Komodo records compressed RAW in the form of REDCODE RAW or ProRes 422 HQ in 2K or 4K resolutions. If rolling in ProRes 422 HQ the camera scales down the footage appropriately, i.e. 6K->4K.

REDCODE RAW is currently available in three compression ratios: HQ, MQ, LQ. Those have an impact on your maximum recording time as well as image quality.

Generally my recommendations for selecting REDCODE RAW is:

- HQ = Cinema Grade, High End TV/Streaming, VFX, Detailed Scenes, Still Extraction
- MQ = Cinema Grade and High End TV/Streaming
- LQ = General Television, Online Delivery, Documentary, Interviews, Long Takes

* I personally roll HQ or MQ most of the time, but I'm also mainly creating work that fits in those categories above.


Here's an example of approximate record data rates for a 24fps project with 512GB cards in 6K 17:9:

- REDCODE RAW HQ = 30 minutes
- REDCODE RAW MQ = 45 minutes
- REDCODE RAW LQ = 75 minutes

Double this for 1TB, half this for 256GB. Generally I'd recommend 256GB cards and up. I use 1TB cards at the moment.

For a similar concept, if you are rolling with ProRes 422 HQ in 4K about 90 minutes of roll time.


Hopefully that's enough info to get you up and rolling.

 

[Tim Daust]

thanks for doing this Phil !

 

[yann LHENORET]

Thanks very much for the summary Phil.

 

[vincent kardasik]

Thanks for this Phil.
Reading your post made me realize that I probably need more storage than I first thought.

 

[Phil Holland]

Thanks for this Phil.
Reading your post made me realize that I probably need more storage than I first thought.

I think everybody is different and I know for me every project is different. I finish a day with sometimes 30 minutes of material and other times 12 hours of material. Truly depends on what we're filming.

Generally though I like 1TB because my small reptile brain can handle 1 hour or 1.5 hours per TB. Somewhat what I have been used to with my Monstros, though I'm rolling mostly with 2TB mags these days.

 

[Kemalettin Sert]

Which cards works with Alexa Mini and Komodo at the same time?

 

[Phil Holland]

Which cards works with Alexa Mini and Komodo at the same time?

At the same exact time, well you will need two cards

Kidding.

Angelbird is officially RED and Arri approved which is one of the bazillion reasons I went with their cards. I haven't tested a lot of these on Arri, but if they work for Komodo they should work on the Mini.

 

[Scott Balkum]

Love it! Thanks for sharing

 

[Kemalettin Sert]

At the same exact time, well you will need two cards

Kidding.

Angelbird is officially RED and Arri approved which is one of the bazillion reasons I went with their cards. I haven't tested a lot of these on Arri, but if they work for Komodo they should work on the Mini.

I thought only Angelbird ARRI CERTIFIED ones works on Alexa Mini?

 

[Christian Jadot]

A couple questions to clarify (as I wait impatiently for my Komodo to come in):

What are the record times for HQ, MQ and LQ on 2.4:1 on 512gb?

Should there be any difficulty using Angelbird Paired CFast Media for the Z-Cam or BM Ursa Mini? (They have the better deals ... But from what I can tell there is no real difference other than paired.)

 

[M Harvey]

Thanks for this, Phil!

(lLooks like it's time not only to buy some Cfast cards, but also to make room for a new RAID!)

ProRes is going to be hugely useful for me with this camera-- I still need to be able to do the kind of gigs where I copy over the footage to a client's 1TB hard drive and walk away, and they edit and upload without further instruction. Looks like a 512GB card will get you a little more than 2 hours of 4k, 24fps prores 422.

 

[Cam James]

Question from a first time RED user:

How do I import my footage from the Komodo into Davinci Resolve 16? I've tried dragging/dropping the RDM, RDC, R3D, and rtn files with no luck. I can view the footage in the RED player from RED's website, but I can't actually view/edit/color the footage in Resolve.

Clearly, there's something I'm not understanding. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Luke Marcus Rosen]

Question from a first time RED user:

How do I import my footage from the Komodo into Davinci Resolve 16? I've tried dragging/dropping the RDM, RDC, R3D, and rtn files with no luck. I can view the footage in the RED player from RED's website, but I can't actually view/edit/color the footage in Resolve.

Clearly, there's something I'm not understanding. Any help would be much appreciated.

For some reason, red player 51 cannot read my komodo clips and red cine-x is reading the footage as offline. Would love to know what to do to fix! Thanks, everyone.

 

[Zak Ray]

I notice the manual says ProRes is available in HD, 2K, UHD and 4K. But most other places seem to just say 2K/4K. Is "2K/4K" a shorthand for all four resolutions, or is the manual being confusing?

 

[Phil Holland]

I notice the manual says ProRes is available in HD, 2K, UHD and 4K. But most other places seem to just say 2K/4K. Is "2K/4K" a shorthand for all four resolutions, or is the manual being confusing?

With many formats in the world it's hard to get that all down in short hand really. The manual is not being confusing as it's showing you it exports:

HD 1080p (1920x1080) and 2K (2048x1080)

As well as:

UHD 4K (3840x2160) and 4K (4096x2160)


HD and UHD are used to show the common 16x9 or 1.78:1 aspect ratio of most televisions and monitors. 2K HD, 4K UHD, and 8K UHD are the standards.

Full resolution like 2K, 4K, 8K, etc traditionally means the 1.9:1 or 17:9 aspect ratio common in cinema defined years ago by DCI.

 

[Zak Ray]

Thanks Phil. So to be clear, there are 4 distinct ProRes resolutions that you can record? And the other places (including the Komodo tech specs page) omit the HD and UHD for some reason?

 

[Michael Tiemann]

A FAQ for right now: when will Angelbird 1TB CFast 2.0 cards be available in large enough quantities that B&H (or other) can ship a four-pack? I ordered media the day I ordered my Komodos. The Komodos arrived over the weekend (took less than 30 days). No media is in sight.

 

[Alex Zeder]

A FAQ for right now: when will Angelbird 1TB CFast 2.0 cards be available in large enough quantities that B&H (or other) can ship a four-pack? I ordered media the day I ordered my Komodos. The Komodos arrived over the weekend (took less than 30 days). No media is in sight.

Angelbird listed them "out of stock" on their website for quite some time, but since last Thursday they are "In Stock. Ships within 48h.". I too ordered them very early, not directly from Angelbird, and hope to get them this week after a call with the vendor.

 

[Thomas B.]

A FAQ for right now: when will Angelbird 1TB CFast 2.0 cards be available in large enough quantities that B&H (or other) can ship a four-pack? I ordered media the day I ordered my Komodos. The Komodos arrived over the weekend (took less than 30 days). No media is in sight.

Yes, they're back in stock, the 1TB 1 pack even with a price drop (of about 200 EUR?!); the multipacks still have the old pricing...heh... :blink:

 

[Wylie Bryant]

Hey Komodo users,

Yesterday the camera died while recording a prores clip (low battery). Couldn't recover the media when I powered the camera back on, and couldn't open and scrub through the clip on resolve, although I can see the .rtn and the prores file is recognized by my computer. I've tried to run the newest Komodo-supported REDundead, but I must not be using it properly. Is there even a way to recover corrupted prores files in .RDC folders? Has anyone had experience with this issue yet?