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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 :)

Why I am Loving SSD

David Battistella

David Battistella

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I looked at the cost very closely and there has been a lot of discussion in some threads. When I was figuring out overall stage 2 EPIC pricing I really was amazed at how much was being offered. It's comparable to the original price of R1, but with the MX sensor and a ton of NEW features and higher quality.


Adding the SSD made me step back a moment and wonder, but as I think about SSD I am really glad it's the standard. Here is why:

1. stability - solid state
2. speed - higher throughport
3. size - compact and lightweight
4. storage size - (lower capacities)

I like number 4 a lot. I always thought the 320 gb drives were a bit too much, and 128 seems about all you want to capture before backup.

I hope it also keeps the shooting ratio's down a little bit.

Seeing the OFFHOLLYWOOD thread and the team capturing Niagara Falls footage, in that weather made me really appreciate the SSD move.

Thanks RED team.

David
 
David Battistella said:
I looked at the cost very closely and there has been a lot of discussion in some threads. When I was figuring out overall stage 2 EPIC pricing I really was amazed at how much was being offered. It's comparable to the original price of R1, but with the MX sensor and a ton of NEW features and higher quality.


Adding the SSD made me step back a moment and wonder, but as I think about SSD I am really glad it's the standard. Here is why:

1. stability - solid state
2. speed - higher throughport
3. size - compact and lightweight
4. storage size - (lower capacities)

I like number 4 a lot. I always thought the 320 gb drives were a bit too much, and 128 seems about all you want to capture before backup.

I hope it also keeps the shooting ratio's down a little bit.

Seeing the OFFHOLLYWOOD thread and the team capturing Niagara Falls footage, in that weather made me really appreciate the SSD move.

Thanks RED team.

David
Click to expand...

I just got a couple SSD modules for the Red One - I'll post some pics later today - maybe shoot a little "installation" video - it takes about 90 seconds to replace the CF module with the SSD module.

YES - you want SSDs. On your RED ONE, on your EPIC.
 
When I first used them, it was the offload speed that I enjoyed the most.

Graeme
 
Me2 wants...

For some kind of productions (like theatreshows and concerts) one may want a 320/256 GB option, but for the rest...

And the disks still work.

Cheers

G
 
David Battistella said:
I looked at the cost very closely and there has been a lot of discussion in some threads. When I was figuring out overall stage 2 EPIC pricing I really was amazed at how much was being offered. It's comparable to the original price of R1, but with the MX sensor and a ton of NEW features and higher quality.


Adding the SSD made me step back a moment and wonder, but as I think about SSD I am really glad it's the standard. Here is why:

1. stability - solid state
2. speed - higher throughport
3. size - compact and lightweight
4. storage size - (lower capacities)

I like number 4 a lot. I always thought the 320 gb drives were a bit too much, and 128 seems about all you want to capture before backup.

I hope it also keeps the shooting ratio's down a little bit.

Seeing the OFFHOLLYWOOD thread and the team capturing Niagara Falls footage, in that weather made me really appreciate the SSD move.

Thanks RED team.

David
Click to expand...


shooting ratios may not go down at all, as 128 gb to 256 gb is still a lot of shooting on r1. but at least the offload is gonna be nice and zippy now. fw800 is kind of a dead port to me, it just doesn't cut it, ESPECIALLY if the shoot has more than 1 camera. even with one camera I still spend way too much time after wrap doing the final backups even though I tell the producer and director that this should be expected. whenever it happens they still get pissed. the super fast offload speeds will be a god sent. for epic however, the data rates are gonna increase by several times. you'll be filling up those SSD's a lot faster than you think. laptops aren't gonna cut it anymore, a lot more towers are gonna be showing up on set...
 
Replace my system disk for ssd.
Happy! happy! :)
 
I'd actually like to see them with some higher capacities. I like 256gb. If SSD is like HDD...then as you near say 65% or 70% capacity there is quite a noticable throughput slowdown with the disk. I'd found that with the RED drives if for any reason i shot with one that was near full. Reasons for shooting were typically a short one or two day shoot in a remote location with no power to offload data.
Very rare indeed, but at 128gb....what can you actually hold or shoot before you get disk slow-down? 80 or 90gb? or does this no longer apply to SSD as with HDD?
 
I really hope that SSD will turn out to be a great replacement for CF.

For me CFs were as reliable as tape. The great thing about tape is that it is WORM (Write Once Read Multiple times) because it is very affordable.

With CF I really hoped that performance/volume will increase and prices will come down in such a way that I would never have to erase the the medium and just buy for each project new CFs. This did not happen. All right. SSD is going to be the new medium. I won't look back.

This leads to some questions that some of you may be able to answer:

1. Although I never had to erase CFs on set (got plenty of them) I had to back-up them because my insurance does not cover HDDs. CFs are a grey area in this regard. Will SSD be considered as disks?

2. Are the new SSDs as robust as CFs? Will they break or lose data when dropped down from say 3 feet? (can do that with tape and CF card but not with a HDD)

3. It seems that with the new RedSSD devices (Red Station) we need AC to back up the SSDs. With the CFs I have Nextos that work very reliable in the field. Will there be a possibility to use the Red Station with a battery?

Thanks,

Hans
 
And an other question:

I recently needed a new hard disk for a workstation because the old one (just 1 year old) died. I then thought to buy an SSD for replacement but the IT-specialist of my reseller told me that SSDs are not more reliable than HDs and I went with a conventional enterprise-level HD.

How will be Red's SSDs behave in this regard? My Red CFs never let me down and are in heavy usage. Are the new SSDs as reliable?

Thanks,

Hans
 
Would seem to me that a battery would just not power you for too long on a 110v red station. Would seem a wasted input or rather an input that would not be used much. I would imagine power requirements for that would surpass a battery. Or at least if you are in the field on a shoot you'd want to lug batteries for shooting instead of running offloads etc...Then a small genset just becomes basic in your kit. I often lug a small honda EU1000 with me. runs for around 4 hours on a liter of gas and very quite, and weighs only 40lbs or so. BUT, there are even smaller gens than that to supply 500wats around 20lbs or so.

Area i work is usually on a boat, island or camped out....so i've been faced with most of these questions. Genset is best way to handle them. Then if camped out on the coast in my van, i run an inverter tied into two deep cycle batteries that are charged either by my van's alternator & solar panels. So go out shooting, then back to van to run power and offload. Same on a remote island, but back to a genset. I did this on a shoot in Palau on a remote atoll where we set up a campsite and small genset for a week. We all went out and shot, come back to base camp and offload.
 
I just upgraded my 4 year old Macbook Pro with an SSD drive (285 MB/s read/write) and it is like a whole new computer! If Apple won't make a proper MBP with Expresscard, USB3 and Esata we will just have to keep these antiques running for a while longer.
 
I'm no engineer but to me it looks like that a SSD reader/writer cannot consume a lot of power otherwise the EPIC would be a heavy power consuming device.

I would love to have the opportunity to backup one SSD to another. For instance, if I have two 128GB SSDs and one 256GB SSD I would use the 2 128GB SSDs for shooting and the 256GB SSD for backup. I'm sure that a RedBrick can power such a device sufficiently. This would replace my Nextos very well.

Hans
 
Hans von Sonntag said:
I'm no engineer but to me it looks like that a SSD reader/writer cannot consume a lot of power otherwise the EPIC would be a heavy power consuming device.

I would love to have the opportunity to backup one SSD to another. For instance, if I have two 128GB SSDs and one 256GB SSD I would use the 2 128GB SSDs for shooting and the 256GB SSD for backup. I'm sure that a RedBrick can power such a device sufficiently. This would replace my Nextos very well.

Hans
Click to expand...

Good point. Makes sense if you are on say a one day shoot. but anything more, you have to bring more batts. I'm always on multi-day shoots, so that never crossed my mind for a one day out and power supply for a day.
 
Johnny Friday said:
Good point. Makes sense if you are on say a one day shoot. but anything more, you have to bring more batts. I'm always on multi-day shoots, so that never crossed my mind for a one day out and power supply for a day.
Click to expand...


Yes the needs can differ quite a lot. Some have huge DIT carts and backup over 1TB a day. Others like me shoot rarely more that 100GB/day. Some shoot in pretty remote locations, others like me stay mostly in urban territory. But my post production facility is often not available and therefore the need to back up one shooting day in the field is necessary.

Hans
 
David Battistella said:
...
4. storage size - (lower capacities)

I like number 4 a lot. I always thought the 320 gb drives were a bit too much, and 128 seems about all you want to capture before backup.

I hope it also keeps the shooting ratio's down a little bit.
...David
Click to expand...

320GB drives are too much ... except when they're not - eg events, nature, documentary. We're not ALL doing narrative drama, commercials and pop videos.

Besides considering lower capacity a plus seems strange (unless it's cheaper than hard drives, which it isn't) - it's not compulsory to keep shooting continuously. And the wise data manager prompts camera department to offload often anyway, if your genre of shooting allows that.

Obviously, people are biased towards their own style of shooting, but this pushing for lower capacities benefits only a narrow section of Redusers, whereas the opposite restricts no one.
 
ericyoung said:
Obviously, people are biased towards their own style of shooting, but this pushing for lower capacities benefits only a narrow section of Redusers, whereas the opposite restricts no one.
Click to expand...

I agree, Eric.

SSD's are the future and offer so many advantages. But I question discontinuing the RED Raid Drives.

For those on a tight budget, or don't have a need or desire for another crew member and associated equipment (DIT) the RED Raid still make some sense.

Of course there are some limitations, and that should be clear, but the longer record times and significantly lower costs are the benefits.

For Red One owners here's the cost comparison.

RED Raid w/cable ($1100 for 640GB) versus SSD Module ($1500), 256GB SSD ($3200) +256GB SSD ($3200) + 128GB SSD ($1800).

RED Raid 640GB/$1100 versus SSD 640GB/$9700


Again, I'm not at all questioning the move to SSD. That's where the flow is.

I also don't see anything wrong with keeping the RED Raid product available.
 
Remember HDRI mode, higher FPS and high REDCODE values will eat up rapidly your GB...

How much Gig would be 1 hour RC500 with HDRI in 60p?

Pat
 
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