C200: Canon C200 - CFast to SSD for RAW Recording!

Interesting solution and very impressive. I wonder how many C200 owners will end up implementing this as part of their normal workflow? Coming from the C500 + Odyssey 7Q set up, you couldn't pay me to go back to using an external recorder.
 
Thanks for the initial tests! Looking forward to your thoughts after using it on a real shoot.

Where did you purchase the SolidPod? EDIT: Never mind, I saw the Amazon link in the video description.
 
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Thanks for the video Armando, nice job. I look forward to seeing and hearing about your real world tests.

For the project I have been shooting lately, which involves being on 18' Boston Whaler boats, slamming through waves, I couldn't use this solution. But when this project ends, we will be shooting more on another documentary we are producing that is all shot indoors in much less strenuous situations where there won't be ocean trying to get into the C200 card door. Four EgoDisk 256GB cards cost us $1,200.00 for 136 minutes of CRL. This gives you 120 minutes of CRL for $650.00, tempting, and this seems to be a better solution that the homemade setup than others have been shooting with. I'm definitely intrigued about this solution for certain shoots, where NOT changing cards every 34 minutes would be helpful. I've used Samsung EVO SSDs for years in my Atomos Ninja Blade and have only had one failure in about four years of shooting with it so generally, the Samsung products seem to work well although you can always still have a failure.

Of course, I always shoot proxy when shooting CRL so in the event of a failure, at least I would still have 2K 35Mbps footage as a backup, not nearly as good but could still save your rear if the card or drive failed, at least you'd have something. Let's face it, most clients don't care about shooting RAW, that's mostly for us it seems unless you shoot for ad agencies or higher end broadcasters where you are going to convert it and deliver Prores 4444 or something like that?
 
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puredrifting said:
Thanks for the video Armando, nice job. I look forward to seeing and hearing about your real world tests.

For the project I have been shooting lately, which involves being on 18' Boston Whaler boats, slamming through waves, I couldn't use this solution. But when this project ends, we will be shooting more on another documentary we are producing that is all shot indoors in much less strenuous situations where there won't be ocean trying to get into the C200 card door. Four EgoDisk 256GB cards cost us $1,200.00 for 136 minutes of CRL. This gives you 120 minutes of CRL for $650.00, tempting, and this seems to be a better solution that the homemade setup than others have been shooting with. I'm definitely intrigued about this solution for certain shoots, where NOT changing cards every 34 minutes would be helpful. I've used Samsung EVO SSDs for years in my Atomos Ninja Blade and have only had one failure in about four years of shooting with it so generally, the Samsung products seem to work well although you can always still have a failure.

Of course, I always shoot proxy when shooting CRL so in the event of a failure, at least I would still have 2K 35Mbps footage as a backup, not nearly as good but could still save your rear if the card or drive failed, at least you'd have something. Let's face it, most clients don't care about shooting RAW, that's mostly for us it seems unless you shoot for ad agencies or higher end broadcasters where you are going to convert it and deliver Prores 4444 or something like that?
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Since using this, I love not having to worry about time. I hit record and even if I mess up I don't care because I know that I'm not limited to the 33 minutes of my EgoDisk 256GB card. So far no complaints and truly enjoy it and the build quality is solid!
 
Armando Ferreira said:
Since using this, I love not having to worry about time. I hit record and even if I mess up I don't care because I know that I'm not limited to the 33 minutes of my EgoDisk 256GB card. So far no complaints and truly enjoy it and the build quality is solid!
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Good to hear. It must be nice to shoot RAW like .MP4!
 
Tobus said:
Can you use an odyssey with a c200 instead of this?
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You can use an Odyssey but not to shoot RAW. It would be 4:2:2 8-bit UHD or 4:2:2 10-bit FHD from the HDMI or the FHD only from the SDI.
CFast 2.0 cards are now dirt cheap, there is little reason for external recording now on the C200.
 
puredrifting said:
You can use an Odyssey but not to shoot RAW. It would be 4:2:2 8-bit UHD or 4:2:2 10-bit FHD from the HDMI or the FHD only from the SDI.
CFast 2.0 cards are now dirt cheap, there is little reason for external recording now on the C200.
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I suspect if you crunch the numbers, it's still cheaper by the gigabyte to buy that solidpod and some SSDs than Cfasts. Plus you have the benefit of being able to have 1TB record time without changing cards.
 
drummondb said:
I suspect if you crunch the numbers, it's still cheaper by the gigabyte to buy that solidpod and some SSDs than Cfasts. Plus you have the benefit of being able to have 1TB record time without changing cards.
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Extra cable keeping the Cfast door not shut all of the way means it's not moisture or dust/mud resistant, extra device to place on your often already crowded, relatively small camera. Our C200 is often wearing a wireless video transmitter, a Tentacle Sync E and a wireless receiver for camera hops.
An external recorder would be a nuisance for me and my workflows but if you are doing really simple stuff and have the room to place the recorder, drive, extra cable on your camera, you might save a few bucks over cards I guess? But using a device like this is a design compromise, any external recorder is.
Just depends on what's most important to you and your workflow. FWIW, the users who bought these seem relatively happy with them, I almost did when the CFast cards were expensive, but now they're so cheap, I just don't see the point and have no place to physically mount it anyway most of the time.
 
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puredrifting said:
….it's not moisture or dust/mud resistant, extra device to place on your often already crowded, relatively small camera. ….. the users who bought these seem relatively happy with them, I almost did when the CFast cards were expensive, but now they're so cheap, I just don't see the point and have no place to physically mount it anyway most of the time.
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I ended up putting black RTV on the door to seal up the crack.
I've been happy with mine, although sometimes I don't like where I have to put it.
I cannibalized a 2TB external drive so I have a total of 5.5 hours run time which includes 4 hours continuous.
Doing it today I just might opt for more cards instead.
 
I hated my SolidPod until I figured out a non-obtrusive place to mount it. There's a piece on the SmallRig website that allows it to be mounted onto a NATO rail, so I've been able to get mine off to the side and a lot closer to the camera. And I've run the cable underneath the top plate so it's like it's not even there.
 
puredrifting said:
Extra cable keeping the Cfast door not shut all of the way means it's not moisture or dust/mud resistant, extra device to place on your often already crowded, relatively small camera. Our C200 is often wearing a wireless video transmitter, a Tentacle Sync E and a wireless receiver for camera hops.
An external recorder would be a nuisance for me and my workflows but if you are doing really simple stuff and have the room to place the recorder, drive, extra cable on your camera, you might save a few bucks over cards I guess? But using a device like this is a design compromise, any external recorder is.
Just depends on what's most important to you and your workflow. FWIW, the users who bought these seem relatively happy with them, I almost did when the CFast cards were expensive, but now they're so cheap, I just don't see the point and have no place to physically mount it anyway most of the time.
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I still don’t see CF cards as being cheap, perhaps I’m looking in the wrong place... if I did solid pod I’d want dual recording if possible...
 
Barry1908 said:
I still don’t see CF cards as being cheap, perhaps I’m looking in the wrong place... if I did solid pod I’d want dual recording if possible...
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In 2017, CFast 2.0 were about $3/GB. Now they could be had for under $1/GB (no idea which work or don't work with CRL).
 
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