sustaunable non stop shooting with usb3 mag reader

[Brian Merlen]

Just bought a used Scarlet and am awaiting its arrival from inspection, trying to decide how many mags it would take to shoot continuously using the usb3 reader coupled with a new macbook pro or air to say a TB R6, USB3 Raid of some sort, or perhaps Drobo 5D (once it ships). I am hoping to cut down on mag costs by being able to constantly cycle using fast ports on location is my goal. I am a DIT transitioning over to being an owner op so I am comfortable with cycling the cards and know the risks of this fast copy paste reformat workflow, just trying to save whatever costs I can on media by relying on my cycling duties and r3d data manager.. Thanks for the advice...! Hoping to find a way to cut some cost corners if the ports are fast enough...

[Bob Gundu]

minimum in my opinion is 2 x 128GB cards.

[jimhare]

I agree, though it doesn't leave room for error. I once had a read error using R3D Data Manager and had to start a copy over. All was fine but the transfer took twice as long. Depending on how quickly you shoot it could put a great deal of pressure on you. Might be worth an extra 64GB up your sleeve in case of unforeseen issues like this.

minimum in my opinion is 2 x 128GB cards.

[Mike Lary]

I would start with 2 x 128GB and 1 x 256GB and do a solid day of testing. That works for a straight copy while continuously shooting, but adding R3D Data Manager to the mix will slow the process down considerably.

[jimhare]

Guess it really depends on your style of shooting. If it's constant interviews or you don't cut between takes you will need more than "traditional" shooting, where you may only get through a mag every couple of hours.

If this is the case then you only need the third as an emergency measure, hence the 256 would be overkill.

I have 2 x 128 and 1 x 256 and I never have to erase SSDs during the day. That's about 3-4 hours, which is typically more than you would bring home in an average day.

Anyway, let us know more about what you intend to shoot and we can get more specific.

[Mike Lary]

If this is the case then you only need the third as an emergency measure, hence the 256 would be overkill.

What's the average speed you're getting with R3D Data Manager?

[Brian Merlen]

I am not really sure what kinds of gigs I'll land with it, I am booked out weekdays on a different Red gig (not my gear) and just looking for weekend work with mine as I put a more substantial reel together. I guess throughput of my offloads vs how fast I am going to fill my next mag is my most pressing concern and just to make the worst case scenario I should plan for if I don't stop rolling, like say its a live event or something. I could do away with check sums and scrub all the clips if that will mean I can get by with less cards (hire a DIT to scrub and offload as I roll). As important as check sums are I find always doing playback and scrubbing is also a very legitimate way to catch problems without waiting on check sums before wiping. If somethings corrupted in the copy it probably won't let you playback or scrub it is what I could gamble on.

The only reason I posted this here is my current set up at my weekday gig is using non full mags typically with a esata reader to gigabit NAS server and that doesn't tell me about actual throughput of Usb3 to thunderbolt with hypothetically full mags. I was hoping by spending more for faster ports (new mac, new raid) it will actually save me the difference in mag costs. My current mac and drives are all old and I know firewire won't work for me if I want to offload fast.

PS was wondering why you guys thought the 128s cycle the best? Would it be possible to have a similar workflow on 64's, or other sizes? Does the offload speeds and fill up speeds stay proportional with all the older redmags (the non 512's) as you scale to the next size up or down?

[Mike P.]

The problem with 64s is that you're constantly swapping out. With 128s your record time (at 6:1) is ~45mins, which means unless you're doing 45min long interviews, your card will likely last 1.5hours (if not more) before being full. That's quite a bit of time, especially if it only takes you 30mins to dump a card using USB3 or whatnot... 64gigs are ~23mins of footage at the same settings which is not nearly as much wiggle room (sure the ratio of offload-time:fill-time is the same, but you'd literally have to do it twice as often).

[Bob Gundu]

You should be able to dump a 128GB card in less than 12minutes with USB 3 and eSata/TB drive.

[Jarek Zabczynski]

I've been fine with a 128 and a 64. I start with the 64 so when it fills up I have a bigger card in there while I start transferring the smaller one. By the time the 128 is filled the 64 is ready to go. By the time that is filled again is usually enough for a 128 to transfer anyway. Though by that time is't usually lunchtime anyway! :D