FS7: Back Up Solutions

abreu-canedo said:
Otherwise, if that's still too much, perhaps it's a matter of doing a dual record and just having a bunch of cards?
Click to expand...

Trouble is dual record is very limited on the FS7. Below are the specs for where it won't work.

Depending on how much running around you are doing, especially if it's an HD shoot I just use an Atomos Inferno as the producer's monitor with headphones so the producer can listen to the interview and at the same time I simultaneously record to SSDs on the Inferno for an on the fly backup. Those SSDs get dumped once back in the hotel room via a laptop to 2TB external SSDs. We travel with sufficient Atomos and external SSDs to see us through the shoot. ProRes 422 50p is about 110GB hour. The last away job was about 45 hours of recording so as you can see not many SSDs required for both Inferno and external backups. I carry the cards and the Atomos drives the producer the backup SSDs. I hire extras XQDs if I need more than 12 hours of internal record time as I carry enough of them to cover 12 hours. If working on my own I find just having the Atomos as a backup works fine and no need for laptops etc. Anything can go wrong but but touch wood in three years of XQD shooting have not had one failure of a card.

Chris Young

Note
Simultaneous recording is not supported in Slow & Quick Motion mode (page 77) or Picture Cache recording mode (page 77).
Also, simultaneous recording is not supported for the following recording formats (page 82).

NTSC Area

XAVC-I
3840 × 2160 59.94P, 3840 × 2160 29.97P,
3840 × 2160 23.98P, 1920 × 1080 59.94P
XAVC-L
3840 × 2160 59.94P, 3840 × 2160 29.97P,
3840 × 2160 23.98P
RAW (with XDCA-FS7, HXR-IFR5, and AXSR5 connected)
4096 × 2160 59.94P, 4096 × 2160 29.97P,
4096 × 2160 23.98P, 2160 × 1080 59.94P,
2160 × 1080 29.97P, 2160 × 1080 23.98P
RAW & XAVC-I (with XDCA-FS7, HXR-IFR5,
and AXS-R5 connected)
4096 × 2160 59.94P, 2160 × 1080 59.94P

PAL Area

XAVC-I
3840 × 2160 50P, 3840 × 2160 25P,
1920 × 1080 50P
XAVC-L
3840 × 2160 50P, 3840 × 2160 25P
RAW (with XDCA-FS7, HXR-IFR5, and AXSR5 connected)
4096 × 2160 50P, 4096 × 2160 25P,
2160 × 1080 50P, 2160 × 1080 25P
RAW & XAVC-I (with XDCA-FS7, HXR-IFR5,
and AXS-R5 connected)
4096 × 2160 50P, 2160 × 1080 50P
 
Yes, I've looked at MacBook Air, my Producer has one. I might have to buy one, but berfore paying the Apple tax I thought I'd look at alternates.
 
markfpv said:
I was just about to suggest the same as Rafael.... unless you'll be shooting for many days and tons of footage at UHD / 4K - take extra XQD cards and dual record to each card simultaneously. Then ship the duplicate cards and bring the others home with you.
Or perhaps take small external recorder? Ah never mind - that would just involve extra batts, etc.
Click to expand...

I suggested extra cards on the last shoot, which was in a remote part of Uganda, but the agency insisted I backed up on location. When I got to the location there was no electricity, luckily I had taken extra cards...
 
morgan_moore said:
Liam

I know nothing of computers, and hate PCs, hence staying out of the thread, however I bought a Dell laptop (from PC world online shop) a while back and it does eat my desktop Imac for speed!

In general I would not be scared of a small Dell laptop. One warning though - I had to download some 'drivers' to make my XQD card readers work though.

I run free resolve on it

£800 you wont go wrong.

It even has HDMI out so you can dual it with a big monitor.
Click to expand...

But is is significantly smaller than a MacBook Pro?
 
morgan_moore said:
My dell is like a bus - 17in - My Mrs has a small one about 11X8in - I dont know how small a MBP is.
Click to expand...

I had a look in PC World, and they did look big. I'm looking for as small and light as pos. All it needs to do is back-up. I've seen tiny little notebooks, but have no idea if they are capable.
 
I think you will be trading in 500grams.. for alot of frustration and strife you just dont need when shooting on location.. also tried exactly what you are saying.. admittedly a few years back.. but it just drove me nuts .. the whole Windows world made no sense to me.. a total mind fcuk.. Air Mac the way to go I guess.. and a couple of drives you can daisy chain .. if you have never used Windows... like me at the time..
 
perhaps the MacBook, not the pro. I've seen them at the apple store and they are astonishingly small. Same USB-c world, but you already have the adapters.

also - I bought some usb 3.1 to usb-c cables to allow me to connect USB-3 hard drives with no adapters just one simple cable - that's been quite nice lately. Drives that are USB-c from Lacie, then a USB-c multi card reader for SD/CF/microSD.. the only dongle I need is for the xQD reader now, but I still keep a few with me, extra USB and thunderbolt for example.

I've gotten lots of emails about the gnarbox - but have never used one. I believe DJI and Lacie had made a drive designed to direct copy drone footage when out in the field with no laptop... I wonder if that tech will spill into more than microSD...

-Wes
 
My feeling is that if you're thinking of MACs, don't cheap out. As a long-time PC person, I carry an older 13" MBP for transfers. I bought it for the 4 transfer ports (2xUSB3 + 2xThunderbolt) plus SD card slot and HDMI out. At 3 pounds it was a reasonable size and weight - but it was the multiple ports that sold me.
Then they started eliminating ports again, so no incentive to upgrade, except for running out of space on the internal SSD.
Considering the newer touch bar 13" - though it lacks the SD slot and HDMI. I've worked with some of the newer USB-C macs and the proliferation of adapter cables is a major PITA. I did discover that (at least on the 15" touch-bar model) I can adapt my thunderbolt BlackMagic MiniRecorder box to work with USB-C, giving me an extra 'client monitor' or a camera input source for web feeds. But of course hugely expensive once you order fast processor, big SSD, etc...
If you don't mind spending the $$$$ then the touchbar MBPs are a decent option - assuming you don't mind having to bring a proliferation of adapters. My main advice is that whatever you get, make sure there are enough ports so that you don't need to be constantly switching drives or daisy-chaining. Of course if you get a MAC you absolutely must get NTFS for MAC so you can properly address NTFS client drives.
Or you can spend half as much and get a lightweight PC (I've had pretty good luck with the ASUS machines lately - lightweight and fast and reasonably priced) -- just check the specs for enough ports! (and remember that you'll also want to install MacDrive to be ready for MAC-only client drives.)
 
Grab a second hand Mac Air - 2014-2015. 13" or even 11". There's a million of them out there (OWC has specials) and they're incredibly light, have USB 3, the battery keeps going for days and you can do basic editing on them in FCPX and Premiere by way of checking footage and outputting compiles. I often carry mine in my camera backpack on location.
 
Macs seem expensive upfront, but if you take into account how long they usually last, they're a bargain. I have a first gen 15" RMBP and it's six years old and still going strong. Pretty much every windows laptop I've ever owned, I wanted to throw out in the road and drive over it repeatedly after less than a year.

I also format all drives that are used for video file back-ups, ex-fat. All modern Windose and Mac OS's can read and write to it and a lot of modern codecs can write such large files now(over 4GB)(like XAVC) that a normal fat formatted drive can't be used.
 
And a new MAC / PC war has almost started. Now the only thing that matters is which religion you choose, Mac or PC.
 
Mac is best and for arty people... thats an Empirical fact.. any Directer will be very suspicious of a DP seen down loading with a PC.. this has ended many promising careers .. be warned..
 
For that you can use an Apple Sticker on the back of your laptop. No one will notice the difference and you will be totally accepted by the arty adepts. :-)
 
I do the same thing with my camera - Just slap a RED sticker on a 5DmkII and you'll be booked out for the year.

With really clueless producers, you can even get away with just wrapping some red gaffer tape around your camera, and they'll hire you over anyone with an Arri.


As far as laptops go, I made the switch to Windows/PC a few years ago (around the time of the whole FCPX debacle) and never looked back. If all you're talking about is basic transfers and folder structures in the field, then you'll be fine on any small recent laptop, even with an unfamiliar OS.

Having said that, I think that saving a couple of hundred grams just to get a lighter laptop won't necessarily make the difference you think it will while traveling. I find that most of the weight in my data kit comes from the hard drives, card reader, accessories, cables, etc, rather than the actual PC itself.
 
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