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Thursday, January 31, 2008

Let’s Play “20 Questions” About Red Drives…

Question 11.) If spun down, how long to spin up and get “speed”?

(doesn’t apply - never spins down)

Question 12.) If it ever spins down, is there a setting as to how long to wait until it spins down?

(doesn’t apply - never spins down)

Question 13.) What firmware build is required to use Red Drive?

Answer: Recommended firmware now is build 13 – I’ll have to check to see how far back we go to support the drive

Question 14.) Oh - relating to question 4, can you record at higher framerates on Red Drive as opposed to CF? Such as any higher framerates under 2K, specifically?

Answer: Should be able to get to higher frame rates than 75fps with the RedDrive – experimenting now on that - stay tuned

(mikenote - so I guess that means watch what happens in the next few builds - 14-15, and perhaps beyond, to see if they can squeeze more performance out of it)

Question 15.) ...or will that be a Red RAM feature?

(Ted didn’t answer this one....hmmm.....)

Question 16.) Speaking of which, how far out is Red Flash Drive?

Answer: At least a few months

Question 17.) and what’s the capacity- still 64GB, or is that still up in the air?

Answer: up in the air – depends on market conditions when we do our first release

Question 18.) Will it be able to push the 2K fps any higher as earlier suspected?

Answer: Probably.  I/O is the bottleneck, not the sensor itself

Question 19.) Red Drive availability - are they shipping in bulk, or trickling out?

Answer: Coming out in small numbers for the next couple weeks, should be shipping at full speed some time in Feb

(mikenote - my client with a camera in the first batch got his, somebody else got 8 units delivered already)

Question 20.) Since I’m about to get my camera (#417, got the “head’s up” email last week), will I get a Red Drive with my order, or are you still catching up? Same applies for other Red Ones about to ship, is the nature of that question.

Answer: You will probably get a Red Drive with your order.  Brent and the customer service team can update you on that.

(mikenote - I’m delaying receiving my Red (torture!) while I’m out of the country, will get it delivered once I’m back, but signs are looking good)

So that’s what’s up with Red Drives. If you have any more questions, post them as comments and I’ll forward them in a batch to Ted.

Some more information/thoughts of my own:

Red Drive Pros:
-larger capacity
-longer total record times
-makes it possible to head out into field without laptop and backup drives
-looooooooong single takes possible now
-makes for a physically larger, heavier buildout of the camera

Red Drive Cons:
-since spinning drives, if crash the heads (random failure or high G-loads from handheld/car/plane) higher chance of failure - not as stable/safe a media as CF
-larger
-heavier
-slightly less battery time than CF
-not as compact a configuration as CF

Which to get? Both. Depends. In cinematic style shooting, there will be times to go CF (steadicam, critical non-repeatable shots, or when low weight is paramount), and times to go Red Drive (sitdown interview on sticks, most shoulder mount non-critical, non-physically aggressive camera work). Some shooters may shoot CF always (steadicammers), some may shoot Red Drives always (stick shooters on non-critical subject matter).

Oh, and another tidbit to make up for the non-questions above - you CANNOT record simultaneously to Red Drive and CF, nor can you transfer from CF to Red Drive as a backup (too bad).

The Red One is very much an erector set - you can build whatever device you need for the day. Knowing which bits to have to build out what you’ll need is one of the many Red related matters that I consult on.

-mike

* (although we recorded a mostly sky shot for about 6 minutes once - Redcode RAW is variable bitrate, so things like full frame wide shots of mountains covered with trees with fine leaves will tend to result in higher data rates and lower record times; shooting smooth dunes with blue skies would result in lower data rates thus longer record times)

Hardware •

(Page 2 of 2 pages for this article  <  1 2)

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Lets play hard!

Posted by Laptoper  on  05/13  at  07:55 AM

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