Flash Incompatibility

[Finner]

I do not believe this has been touched on yet.

I just wanted to confirm that RED was making a flash port that did not just accept "Red" brand flash memory cards. I have always figured that red would accept SanDisk and other memory company's products.

Panasonic made this mistake with the P2 cards and the camera has not taken off as well as it could of if it just took standard flash memory.

Can anyone tell me if the RED is planned to accept flash cards from outside memory companys?

[Pol Turrents]

Since I know, Panasonic has offered the technology to other manufacturers of SD cards. There are plans from other companies to sell P2 cards, but I think it's a slow process, since it's still a small market.

[Blaine Golden]

it's a slow process, since it's still a small market.

And that's what most people forget. We're so involved in the this particular market that we forget how small it is in the grand scheme of video recorders.

[Don Woods]

We are a very small market when you think how big the consumer electronic market is. I beleav the plan was to utilze memorey that was already on the market. But I could be wrong. Either way it is still an interesting option for recording media

[Jeff Kilgroe]

We are indeed a very small market. All the more reason why RED should make their FLASH module use standard media. If it can take 4 SD or CF style media cards and interleave them (think RAID 0 stripe), it should work rather well. And we should see 32GB and larger CF style media becoming common by the end of this year. I originally wrote a huge post here about my detailed point of view on Panasonic's P2 and why it is evil, but I moved it to the off-topic section.

[Finner]

The film camera companys have things right in this area. They concentrate on making great cameras and improving them and leave the media capture to kodak and fuji.

If Red leaves the media capture to the computer memory companys things will be so much better. We can just go to any local computer store and be able to buy the newest largest fastest best priced flash cards when ever we want or even to have quick ability to replace a card if one goes bad. This way RED can just concentrate on the next new RED improvement and stay ahead of everybody else.

[Greg Voevodsky]

At a seminar, A Panasonic spokesperson said that their tolerances for their flash chips were like 1% or some horrific number. So that they had to choose the top 1% of Flash chips that had little to no errors in order to make their 'perfect' P2 flash cards and that is why they cost so much.

I still wonder to this day, does that mean average flash cards had a lot of drop out? Considering 4k and drop out - lost pixels would be a big deal - unless there is error correcting, etc to compensate for that. Anyway, that is what I was told. If the RED crew could address us, that would be great.

[Finner]

At a seminar, A Panasonic spokesperson said that their tolerances for their flash chips were like 1% or some horrific number. So that they had to choose the top 1% of Flash chips that had little to no errors in order to make their 'perfect' P2 flash cards and that is why they cost so much.

I still wonder to this day, does that mean average flash cards had a lot of drop out? Considering 4k and drop out - lost pixels would be a big deal - unless there is error correcting, etc to compensate for that. Anyway, that is what I was told. If the RED crew could address us, that would be great.

This sounds like panasonic B.S. to me. They use a Fire hard drive right. Is that then as 1% top hard drive system? Panasonics flash excuse sounds weak to me. If there is someone that is extremely flash savy it would be good to get your input. I just don't personally buy the super flash argument, we all know flash is faster and more durable then hard drives so it just doesn't make sense that if you needed the top 1% flash chips how on earth could you build a hard drive that works.

[Jannard]

While errors are a concern... speed is the biggest. The guaranteed minimum write speed has to be greater than 30+MB per second (not just advertised). Speed and reliability are mandatory. If we open to a standard format, say Compact Flash, and someone buys an 8GB card that doesn't work because the write speed is too slow... is it our fault? This is a difficult decision for us. We want an open system. But we also don't want unhappy customers. Two years from now there will be lots of great options. But right now, the options are few.

The good news is that we have the capability to change our flash drive in the future if something great, and open, comes along. Modularity is a good thing.

Jim

[Finner]

I can totally see your point Jim.

High performance cars have the "premium unleaded only" on the gas cap to warn customers. I feel the users of RED will be very tech savy and I think a requirement disclaimer beside the flash port would be enough of a warning.

The ability for RED owners to use high quality 30+ flash straight off the local store shelves would be a huge advantage. i know this may cut you guys out of a few profits but I really do feel in the end the ability for you guys to focus strictly on the camera and leave the flash to memory companys would benifit red in the long run.