C200: SSD adapter for the C200

dave12781 said:
230 MB/s is still sufficient to capture the raw video from the c200.



I apologize for not reading every thread on the site prior to posting a comment. My mistake.



I fail to see the logic in that statement. If I were shooting a lot of footage (say an interview), I wouldn't want to shoot it in raw and could just-as-easily attach an external recorder.

I have a 3D printer, though, and some experience making 3D designs. Once I get the camera, I'd be interested in making the door with the open slot. I don't think drilling a hole in your $7.5k camera is a good idea.
Click to expand...

The easiest option would be to buy the camera and then order an extra Canon door as soon as they are available (may be some months, right?) Then just modify the extra door. Then you know it will fit, you know it will do the lockout correctly, etc. I examined the door and it uses a spring and pin much like the card door on the 5D MKIV so easy to change out.

If the Ego Disk cards function reliably in the C200, a lot of us will be stocking up. I agree, the 512 GB would be the one to get. One hour loads of Cinema RAW Light would be nice. But it remains to be seen of the cards will function reliably in the C200. There are other factors besides just read and write speed.
 
dave12781 said:
I apologize for not reading every thread on the site prior to posting a comment. My mistake.
...
Click to expand...
Dave - if I may call you Dave - it was a joke. It's the way forums are.

As to Raw Light for interviews, my opinion is that everything is going toward some form of Raw, compressed or otherwise. Of course, that debate has also drifted from thread to thread and from forum to forum.
 
I know. I got it. The math says that this will work - plain and simple. There is no reason to assume a Cfast to eSataP adapter wouldn't work since most SSDs have a faster buffer and higher write speed.

Personally, my c200 purchase was centered around the idea of having a complete package in hand - no rigs, hot rodding, cages, external blah blah blah, or tweaks. If there is a Cfast card solution that is affordable I'd prefer that. Otherwise, why not just get a different camera?
 
dave12781 said:
... Otherwise, why not just get a different camera?
Click to expand...

because there's nothing that records Raw in this price range from a major manufacturer. URSA Mini Pro is one option but it has had its own problems (though, it seems to be well rated on B&H) and is not as accepted on a pro set. Sony FS-5 requires an external recorder for Raw. GH5 + external recorder footage looks good but the auto focus has been an issue there.

And that's basically it.

Besides, the external SSD adapter doesn't look all that bulky either. It's just a cable running into a small, light enclosure.

Having said that, personal preferences in this sort of endeavor always triumph.
 
They don't put it on their cards anymore, but apparently Lexar's 3500x cards are VPG-130. According to Canon, that's the requirement for RAW recording on the C200.


"The 64GB-512GB capacities of the card support the Video Performance Guarantee specification for professional-quality video (VPG-130)"
http://www.lexar.com/products/memory-cards/cfast/Lexar-Professional-3500x-CFast-2-card.html

With them going under, I'm not sure how much longer these will be available; but they should work...
 
Fahnon said:
They don't put it on their cards anymore, but apparently Lexar's 3500x cards are VPG-130. According to Canon, that's the requirement for RAW recording on the C200.


"The 64GB-512GB capacities of the card support the Video Performance Guarantee specification for professional-quality video (VPG-130)"
http://www.lexar.com/products/memory-cards/cfast/Lexar-Professional-3500x-CFast-2-card.html

With them going under, I'm not sure how much longer these will be available; but they should work...
Click to expand...

I'm sure most people know this but the price - $1699.99 - on Lexar's page (linked above) for the 512 GB card is the retail price. The price on B&H is much lower: $1300. It's slightly less than double the cost of two SanDisk 256 GB cards:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/sear...+4109458860+3942861140+4069497531+4069497528&

I think this was posted before but I can't find it now: Where's the list of officially supported CFast cards for the C200? Personally, I think I'll skip the Lexar cards, since Micron is going to discontinue them, and I'll probably get two 256 GB SanDisk cards. 30 minutes for record time per card is probably good enough for what I'm going to do with the camera.
 
fhammond said:
I'm sure most people know this but the price - $1699.99 - on Lexar's page (linked above) for the 512 GB card is the retail price. The price on B&H is much lower: $1300. It's slightly less than double the cost of two SanDisk 256 GB cards:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/sear...+4109458860+3942861140+4069497531+4069497528&

I think this was posted before but I can't find it now: Where's the list of officially supported CFast cards for the C200? Personally, I think I'll skip the Lexar cards, since Micron is going to discontinue them, and I'll probably get two 256 GB SanDisk cards. 30 minutes for record time per card is probably good enough for what I'm going to do with the camera.
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I'm going to look for the list, too. I have a similar plan re: card capacity. I'll probably get 2x 256GB and a 64GB just in case.

EDIT: I'm on the phone with Cinema EOS support asking about approved cards. If anyone has a definitive answer, it's them. I'll report back when I hang up.

EDIT 2: Just hung up. They didn't tell me anything we didn't know: The C200 requires “CFast 2.0 with VPG-130”. They're under the impression that any card certified with VPG-130 will work...
 
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I also just contacted Egodisk and Delkin asking about their cards and VPG-130. Will report back when I get a response...

EDIT: Good news from Egodisk! Got the response below:

"Hello Fahnon Bennett
Yes EgoDisk is VPG-130 but please note we haven't tested on on c200 yet."

I'm starting a new thread for this so not to hijack this thread's topic, which is about SSD adapters, not the best CFast cards...
New thread: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...t-support-VPG-130&p=1986715290#post1986715290
 
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OK, so now that this thread is supposedly no longer hijacked, what's news on the SSD thing ?
I personally like the idea of not having to spend another 2K on cards.
 
yoclay said:
OK, so now that this thread is supposedly no longer hijacked, what's news on the SSD thing ?
I personally like the idea of not having to spend another 2K on cards.
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This is going to be a long winded response.
First, I have a Transcend CFX600 256GB CFast card. After about 2-3 minutes I get a buffer overrun. cinema5d said they used a Transcend card, but I couldn't find out what card they used. Maybe it was a CFX650 Transcend.
I have a BMPC and several SSDs for it. The biggest one is 2TB. It cost $700. The BMPC records RAW at twice the data rate of a C200.
If that SSD could be connected to a C200 it would record 4 hours. The cost for 8 hours would be $1400.
If you even buy something like an egodisk, which isn't certified, your cost for 8 hours is $4784 for 256 media which you'll have to swap out every 30 minutes.
If you buy certified SanDisk, and swap it every 30 minutes, It's $10864. Almost $11,000.
If you get the new egodisk that's coming out that will do an hour (assuming it will work), it's $6400.
The door open light on the C200 goes off as soon as the door touches the latch.
I'm not sure what method they're using to detect that the door is open.
I don't know if SSDs will work with 3.3v, since unless they're mSATA they're rated for 5v. I'm not an expert on the subject. But the break out cables work just fine in cameras like the URSA mini.
I'm not sure if the same idea would work in a C200.
If it could I wish Canon would offer a door upgrade that would provide a door within a door so a breakout cable would pass though.
 
I can't remember if it was on this forum or on the C200 Facebook forum but someone said they already tried the CFast to SSD kit with the C200. They used a mechanism to defeat the door open detect switch. Short story is that it didn't work: the C200 didn't see that the CFast card door was open but recording just didn't work.

Personally, I'm find with this. I got four EgoDisk 256 GB cards which gives me two hours of recording. For anything long than that, I can either dump the cards onto a laptop or use mp4.
 
If someone is still interest in this argument I have some news.
I confirm that to make work an ssd drive on c200 you need 2 things:
1. close the door like on any other canon camera, dslr and cinema, or just push the switch to make camera think the door is closed AND
2. a "right" CFast to SSD cable.

For a while I'm building such cables for URSA cameras and sell them on ebay. (I won't provide a link here)
So my friend from Florida tried one cable and..it didn't work...
So I modified another cable, send to Florida and..tada, it works!
I'm copy/past a part of his mail:

"I am very pleased to say ... success! Well done.

The Canon is treating the SSD like a normal CFast2 card.. formatting, recording, and playback are all working. The performance on consumer grade SSDs is much better than I expected. I was able to record at all frame rates on a regular EVO 850. Here's my test setup:

10 minute stationary recordings for each frame rate: 24 12-bit, 30 12-bit, 60 10-bit
Samsung EVO 850 1tb
Powered via external SATA 5v connector
Thermal camera measurements look much better than CFast :)

It looks like the whole 1tb is available for recording, the camera displays ~130 minutes remaining after initializing. Will try with mSATA soon..."

Ok, he say "mSATA", why?

Cause I build a cable that have not only data wires but power wires also. It's like an extender in other words. The CFast part goes to camera, the SATA part goes to mSATA enclosure ($7 on amazon). By doing this you have a protection for mSATA drive AND you don't need aditional cables/external batteries/support for external batteries that power your mSATA ssd!!! Thats all, simple! Just an "extender", an 1 or 2TB sata ssd or msata ssd and you are ready to shoot cca 130/260min!
Let me know people what you think!
 
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Rikoshet said:
If someone is still interest in this argument I have some news.
I confirm that to make work an ssd drive on c200 you need 2 things:
1. close the door like on any other canon camera, dslr and cinema, or just push the switch to make camera think the door is closed AND
2. a "right" CFast to SSD cable.

For a while I'm building such cables for URSA cameras and sell them on ebay. (I won't provide a link here)
So my friend from Florida tried one cable and..it didn't work...
So I modified another cable, send to Florida and..tada, it works!
I'm copy/past a part of his mail:

"I am very pleased to say ... success! Well done.

The Canon is treating the SSD like a normal CFast2 card.. formatting, recording, and playback are all working. The performance on consumer grade SSDs is much better than I expected. I was able to record at all frame rates on a regular EVO 850. Here's my test setup:

10 minute stationary recordings for each frame rate: 24 12-bit, 30 12-bit, 60 10-bit
Samsung EVO 850 1tb
Powered via external SATA 5v connector
Thermal camera measurements look much better than CFast :)

It looks like the whole 1tb is available for recording, the camera displays ~130 minutes remaining after initializing. Will try with mSATA soon..."

Ok, he say "mSATA", why?

Cause I build a cable that have not only data wires but power wires also. It's like an extender in other words. The CFast part goes to camera, the SATA part goes to mSATA enclosure ($7 on amazon). By doing this you have a protection for mSATA drive AND you don't need aditional cables/external batteries/support for external batteries that power your mSATA ssd!!! Thats all, simple! Just an "extender", an 1 or 2TB sata ssd or msata ssd and you are rerady to shoot cca 130/260min!
Let me know people what you think!
Click to expand...

If your solution proves to be bulletproof reliable, you'll have buyers, although many of us are using the EgoDisk cards which are only a little over $1.00 per GB and are perfectly happy with the results recording Cinema RAW Light. Where would you have to mount the SSD drives? On a 15mm rod mounted plate or Velcro it to the camera body somehow? Sounds like a mess for handheld run & gun type shooting.
 
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puredrifting said:
If your solution proves to be bulletproof reliable, you'll have buyers, although many of us are using the EgoDisk cards which are only a little over $1.00 per GB and are perfectly happy with the results recording Cinema RAW Light. Where woould you have to mount the SSD drives? On a 15mm rod mounted plate or Velcro it to the camera body somehow? Sounds like a mess for handheld run & gun type shooting.
Click to expand...
I know there are people who will only use cfast cards but this thread is about ssd adapter.
I'm opting for msata solution inside an ssd housing because you don't need additional gear to power the SSD. And yes just Velcro it on camera body.
 
Rikoshet said:
I know there are people who will only use cfast cards but this thread is about ssd adapter.
I'm opting for msata solution inside an ssd housing because you don't need additional gear to power the SSD. And yes just Velcro it on camera body.
Click to expand...

Can you post any images of this setup?
 
This is good news. Definitely makes it more interesting to shoot RAW because offloading during a shoot becomes less of an issue.
 
I'm soooooo interested.

I'm soooooo interested.

Rikoshet said:
If someone is still interest in this argument I have some news.
I confirm that to make work an ssd drive on c200 you need 2 things:
1. close the door like on any other canon camera, dslr and cinema, or just push the switch to make camera think the door is closed AND
2. a "right" CFast to SSD cable.

For a while I'm building such cables for URSA cameras and sell them on ebay. (I won't provide a link here)
So my friend from Florida tried one cable and..it didn't work...
So I modified another cable, send to Florida and..tada, it works!
I'm copy/past a part of his mail:

"I am very pleased to say ... success! Well done.

The Canon is treating the SSD like a normal CFast2 card.. formatting, recording, and playback are all working. The performance on consumer grade SSDs is much better than I expected. I was able to record at all frame rates on a regular EVO 850. Here's my test setup:

10 minute stationary recordings for each frame rate: 24 12-bit, 30 12-bit, 60 10-bit
Samsung EVO 850 1tb
Powered via external SATA 5v connector
Thermal camera measurements look much better than CFast :)

It looks like the whole 1tb is available for recording, the camera displays ~130 minutes remaining after initializing. Will try with mSATA soon..."

Ok, he say "mSATA", why?

Cause I build a cable that have not only data wires but power wires also. It's like an extender in other words. The CFast part goes to camera, the SATA part goes to mSATA enclosure ($7 on amazon). By doing this you have a protection for mSATA drive AND you don't need aditional cables/external batteries/support for external batteries that power your mSATA ssd!!! Thats all, simple! Just an "extender", an 1 or 2TB sata ssd or msata ssd and you are ready to shoot cca 130/260min!
Let me know people what you think!
Click to expand...

Sounds good to me!

I didn't buy the C200 to prove how rich I am! I'm not, so the most cost-effective way to achieve the RAW footage is exactly what I need.

I bought it primarily for the RAW capability and the DPAF, etc. I currently own 2 Sandisk extreme Pro CFast cards (128 and 256Gb), which is nowhere near enough. The cheaper cards mentioned above drop frames at 50fps RAW. Besides, emptying my cards to an external drive every 45 minutes worth is not a good look.

2TB SSD sounds perfect, so if you'd be so kind as to show how to get hold of your working solution, you can count me in!
 
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