FS7: Lexar's XQD 128GB finally coming

epicdream said:
Just another comment about drag & drop, my friend used this method the other day to copy over rushes we'd shot. I didn't have my laptop with me as I usually use Offload. Anyhow, for whatever reason his MacBook Pro decided to eject the destination drive mid transfer and for whatever reason the XDROOT folder on the XQD card disappeared! After many attempts to re-mount the XQD card on different computers, all showing nothing, I put the card back into the camera, no clips, the camera thought it was an empty card!
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After few accidents when footage copied "simple way" ended up being corrupted now I only use Catalyst Browse to offload footage from memory cards.
 
Nirv said:
The analogy doesn't work because the media isn't a consumable. I've got 1x128GB card and I've been offloading to my MBP when on site. I can see myself buying 1 extra card in the event I want to travel lighter and leave the MBP in the office.
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Accessories are the consumables of the photo/video/electronics industry. Often you only get 25%-30% margins on the electronics themselves and as high 85% on the rest. Now, accessories are a broad term - lenses, tripods, media, cages, rigs, matte boxes, filters, batteries, etc. Gong back in time, these SKU cost breakdowns in many stores were hundreds of printed pages that an experienced salesperson had to commit to memory.


combatentropy said:
I think XQD might be future, along with SD cards, which will never die. CFast is probably a middle-of-road dead end...
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The future is internal SSD's, which are incredibly fast and getting incredibly inexpensive.

The second future are new codecs that will supercede HEVC and will deliver pretty small files for most uses, exluding the big budget production Raw (though, once it goes 8K, you figure Raw will be too much to handle also).
 
DLD said:
The future is internal SSD's, which are incredibly fast and getting incredibly inexpensive.
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That sounds potentially likely for consumer cameras, but not at all likely for pro cameras. Who wants to have to rent/buy a second or third or fourth camera just because the format of the shoot prevents offloading data frequently? The more expensive the camera the more ridiculous this idea is.
 
Cards are best.

1. Sometimes you need to hand over the footage immediately to the client at the end of the day.
2. Relying on internal, irremovable storage is risky. What if the event runs long? What if you haven't had time to copy off yesterday's footage?
3. Ideally you save all your raw footage. When flash memory falls to a few cents per gigabyte, and therefore an hour of footage is just $10 or $20, then you will not re-use cards. Your workflow could look like this:

- Shoot.
- Eject card from camera.
- Put camera in closet or give to shooter, to go out and shoot something else. Camera should not be needed for editing.
- Put card in reader. Copy footage from reader to computer.
- Create edited master.
- Copy edited master to a new card.
- Put edited master and raw-footage cards in a binder or shoebox or whatever classification system you devise, and put on shelf (or in locker, attic, off-site bunker, whatever).

---

Which reminds me of a quote:

"Never underestimate the bandwidth of a stationwagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway." --- Andrew Tanenbaum

;)
 
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Viddovation said:
That sounds potentially likely for consumer cameras, but not at all likely for pro cameras. Who wants to have to rent/buy a second or third or fourth camera just because the format of the shoot prevents offloading data frequently? The more expensive the camera the more ridiculous this idea is.
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Not at all. Intel's/Micron's new 3D X-Point memory technology promises an incredible leap in performance, thus enabling a multi-terabyte internal storage for every camera. The top end will naturally have more storage.

As to the offloads, Thunderbolt v3 has a 5 GB/s transfer speed, making the offload of even the multi-terabyte files a breeze.

BTW, several companies have already announced 6 TB SSD's, which would store as many as six hours of 3:1 compressed 4K Raw (or ProRes444 HQ).

combatentropy said:
Cards are best...
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Internal storage doesn't mean there can't be removable media. Most would use it for the redundancy purposes anyway (provided the price tag isn't prohibitive)
 
alohype said:
Does anyone knows what this USB may refer to?
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"Make sure that both your XQD memory card and an adapter has USB mark. This adapter is dedicated for the G series, and can't be used with other XQD memory without the USB mark (H series, S series, & N series)."

http://www.sony.net/Products/memorycard/en_us/xqd/

Wonder if this means Lexar's XQD 2933x series cards can be downloaded via Sony's XQD USB Adapter for G Series (QXD-SB1A)? Hopefully they incorporate Error Correction & any other goodness of Sony's XQD.
 
It's beyond my understanding, because older Sony FDR-AX1 is supported. I do not see many D4 customers buying new cards: they don't need loads of media for photos as we do for video. So confused that I wrote to Lexar's representative to confirm or deny this info, waiting for reply.
 
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It may be something proprietary that Sony is doing with the FS7 that Lexar can't emulate, or for patent reasons may not legally be permitted to emulate. You'd have to think that Lexar would want to sell cards to FS7 owners if at all reasonably possible.
 
That is the only explanation I can think of, but then x1333 64gb were working in all frame rates with FS7 and also not all Sony cams are ruled out(ax1). Or maybe they 're supported but silently? Would be lovely if someone would test it out.
 
DLD said:
Not at all. Intel's/Micron's new 3D X-Point memory technology promises an incredible leap in performance, thus enabling a multi-terabyte internal storage for every camera. The top end will naturally have more storage.

As to the offloads, Thunderbolt v3 has a 5 GB/s transfer speed, making the offload of even the multi-terabyte files a breeze.

BTW, several companies have already announced 6 TB SSD's, which would store as many as six hours of 3:1 compressed 4K Raw (or ProRes444 HQ).

Internal storage doesn't mean there can't be removable media. Most would use it for the redundancy purposes anyway (provided the price tag isn't prohibitive)
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Thunderbolt might be that fast, but the drives we're using in the field are far from it. Hell, a lot of bus-powered USB 3.0 drives don't even fully utilize USB 3.0! Plus, who wants to pull their camera away from production to unload footage, when a DIT could be unloading the card while the camera crew is prepping the next shot?

And if internal storage doesn't mean there can't be removable media, then you're taking up room in the camera for an internal drive + space for a card slot... why not just do what the FS7 did and have two card slots? Then the operator can choose if it will be used for redundancy or duration.

I just literally can't see a positive of an internal drive that a removable drive can't accomplish as well. The only time I can understand non-removable media is if you're like Apple and want the absolutely slimmest profile possible and removable batteries/storage = larger devices. But these are professional cameras, not iPhones.
 
Yeah, and if it has both internal storage and removable, then you're charging me for internal storage I didn't want or need! Boo!
 
Viddovation said:
Yeah, and if it has both internal storage and removable, then you're charging me for internal storage I didn't want or need! Boo!
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+1
It could be useful only if it would serve as an enhanced buffer cache drive. Record previous let say 5-10 minutes and save source frames that were saved to cards corrupted. Something that would work behind the scenes as a fail/backup drive (when cards were accidentally ejected, run out of media on critical moments etc.).



Anyone having more info about Lexar's XQD's please tune in.
 
alohype said:
+1
It could be useful only if it would serve as an enhanced buffer cache drive. Record previous let say 5-10 minutes and save source frames that were saved to cards corrupted. Something that would work behind the scenes as a fail/backup drive (when cards were accidentally ejected, run out of media on critical moments etc.).
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Yeah, if it's cheap to do on that basis, sure. An enhanced buffer cache, I'm fine with that.
 
So who needs 128GB fast cards to shoot stills? But apparently Lexar think that 4k video does not need the larger card. I e-mailed support@lexar.com and asked them why they aren't supporting video cameras with the new fast card.
 
Viddovation said:
That sounds potentially likely for consumer cameras, but not at all likely for pro cameras. Who wants to have to rent/buy a second or third or fourth camera just because the format of the shoot prevents offloading data frequently? The more expensive the camera the more ridiculous this idea is.
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Here's an idea...how about using SSD's as the card? I know it's achievable right now, and all you would need to do is house the SSD in an enclosure.
 
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