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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 :)

Red Drive or SSD ?

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Marcel Mulsoff

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Hi everybody.....I am new to red one and I would like to ask which are the advantages of using SSD disk with a R1 instead of the supposed old technology of a Red Drive.
Thanks in advance!
 
There are probably many different opinions about this, I only want to list a few that come to mind right away. I hope this helps

ADVANTAGES OF SSD
1) New SSD is going to be more reliable than old harddrive
2) Much smaller profile, keeps the camera lighter
3) No cable to fail, plugging/unplugging
4) No moving parts, so vibration and/or dropping it will have no effect on recording
5) Less power draw when running off battery power
6) Higher data rates
7) Faster off-load times


DISADVANTAGES OF SSD
1) They are ALOT more expensive than the harddrive counterpart
2) They require a proprietary SSD reader to interface with a computer
 
Thanks Jason!
This will help me a lot to decide where to go...
Regards.
 
just an addition to the no moving parts part;

Yes; SSD's are not prone to vibrations - HDD's are, in extreme situations at least!

in environments where your camera is exposed to shocks and/or vibration (or eg. explosion blasts) it's possible that your HDD drops frames or spins down for a short time - usually the HDD itself doesn't get damaged by this but it's possible that you loose clips and/or frames this way. We had this happening once when recording on a shooting range near the gun-blasts of an automatic rifle. Backing the camera further away solved the problem. I've also heard about similar problems when shooting from an helicopter or in very loud environments with tight "sound-pressure". But these are all like extreme situations -> in your usual environment (even shaky handheld action) we never had any problems.

As for the other stuff; Jason got it covered already - nothing to add.
 
Only this ? This means I bought my super expensive 256 GB ssd (and with super small capacity) for nothing, because my type of shooting is not prone to vibrations and I also have no problem providing enough power to camera. I was hoping and bought the SSD because it would provide better quality / better image compression. Because it has a much better speed compared to a hard drive. At least based on what I read on reduser. Is this still true ?
 
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Take a look at the R1 operators manual for specifics on compression and frame rate capabilities. There are a couple places the frame rate is a little lower as I recall. I usually use a CF card when I'm shooting high speed anyway.
 
Sebastian_A said:
Only this ? This means I bought my super expensive 256 GB ssd (and with super small capacity) for nothing, because my type of shooting is not prone to vibrations and I also have no problem providing enough power to camera.

I was hoping and bought the SSD because it would provide better quality / better image compression. Because it has a much better speed compared to a hard drive. At least based on what I read on reduser. Is this still true ?
Click to expand...


Actually Sebastian, I think the advantages I listed are pretty significant, but I'm trying to be objective as possible. The truth is the harddrive is still a very viable means of using a R1, but it does have its limitations. I would not be disappointed with SSD. Sooner or later if you own the Harddrive, you'll encounter its limitations and it will make you grumpty that day. I never had a problem with dropped frames until I took it up in a helicopter and I was dropping frames on one of my most expensive shoots. ugh
Another time I in an ice skating rink and rolling the camera on ice and it was dropping frames like crazy. I ended up having to hand-hold the camera while I skated with a 30 pound rig. The footage was silky smooth but at the expense of being completely exhausted within 20 minutes. The crew was impressed :-)
 
one thing not pointed out yet;
weight / camera size/footprint -> in this regard the SSD can't be beaten ;)
(or only by CF-cards which are limited in some regards)

another thing I'd take into consideration; the HDD needs a cable -> the more parts involved in your RIG the higher the chance to introduce points of failure (especially things that get plugged in & out on a regular basis) -> a cable can get bad, sometimes it's a hassle to change the HDD in situations where the camera is e.g. mounted to a JIB or a Dolly or a Crane or e.g. at a low-shot cage, you need additional steps and time to setup the RIG and/or wrangle data (SSD; put it into the slot -> HDD; mount it to some mounting point and additionally plug in the cable)... you get the idea.

for situations where your camera just needs to sit on a tripod nothing speaks against just using HDD's -> they give you a better recording-length-for-buck ratio for sure and totally work (e.g. filming a wide shot at a concert or event at mains power while doing the close-ups with other "mobile" cameras).
 
In three features, we have had no issues with our RED Drives. They have the advantage of VERY long recording times, as well.

Still SSDs are the future and I wish mine had one on its side, but at this point, I'm not putting more money into the One until they find a way to upgrade it to Dragon (which, as we all know, isn't going to happen).

Stephen
 
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