Very cheap CFast card

Hello,

We are new to the field and have very little budget (sorry if there are mistakes, I am French).

We are looking for a CFast card for Blackmagic Ursa Mini 4K EF (64gb), and we came across one to 133 USD on Ebay: Lexar 3400x 64Gb Cfast 2.0.

Do you think it's a forgery? This model is in the official list of compatible cards but I can not know if this one is a true ...

Thank you,
Pierre

Hi.

If you are on a low budget, have you considered to use a SSD Harddrive and not a CFast Card.

I was inspired by this from Tom Antons:

https://tomantosfilms.com/13682/cfast-ssd-adapter/

But I changed something myself for my Ursa Mini 4,6K.

I got a CFast to SATA, not eSATA cable from a eBay seller in Italy.
All SSD harddrives use 5 Volt which I supply from a small 18 x 18mm Step Down Voltage Regulated Power Supply from China.

I use some Samsung 850 PRO SSD, but I think that there is at least one more possibility.

If you have more questens. Just ask.

Regards Carsten.

Pierre, the Lexar 3400 64GB seems ok, the price is nothing special.
But do yourself a favor and do not buy 64Gb cards. This would give you ~11 minutes of ProRes UHD.

On Amazon.de you can find the Transcend CFX650 from the official list for €419,- (256GB) and €234,- for the 128GB version. Be careful not to buy the CFX600 - it's cheaper but very slow and won't work with the camera.
https://www.amazon.fr/Transcend-Carte-mémoire-Classe-TS128GCFX650/dp/B00LL4QUTE/
https://www.amazon.de/Transcend-TS256GC ... 00LL4QUYY/

You can order with the same amazon account from DE, FR, UK, IT, ES, US Amazon shop. Use that to your advantage because prices can differ a lot, often Amazon.de has the lowest prices, sometimes the other countries shops.

Then here in the forum Lee Miller is posting for BWIN offering quite low priced cards not on the official list but have been successfully tested by several members on this forum.
http://www.biwin.co.uk

Thank you for your answer!

But I can't chose a ProRes with less bitrate ?
I have the 4K version.

Thank you.

The Integral cards seem by far the cheapest I have seen however someone on here posted that they had a couple of problems with the card not being recognised for some reason.

Has anyone else used these with success? I asked a question on Amazon but had no response.

Integral UltimaPro X2 128 GB CFast 2.0 Memory Card https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B071DFFFZR/ ... Fzb90VC4D5

The next best price are either the Bi-Win cards or the Komputerbay cards which I have been using with 0 issues.

Pierre, the Lexar 3400x cards have been discontinued by the manufacturer who now offers approved 3500x and 3600x CFast 2 cards. Vendors need to clear their existing stock so you may find even better deals, but I understand you're eager to shoot something with your new camera! That size card may be good for doing some camera tests and learning how the camera behaves, but not likely large enough to be useful for client work if that's your intended purpose.

To squeeze additional record time out of the camera, shoot at 24 or 25 fps and record in 2K or HD, not 4.6K.

And try something like ProRes 422 (10bit colour) when you don't need to see the most detail and need a longer recording time. To test, you can shoot up to ProRes 444 XQ or uncompressed raw (both 12bit colour) and compare that to the same shot using ProRes 422. Hope your budget situation improves and you'll be able to acquire a couple of 128GB or 256GB cards and then you'll have the option to shoot higher frame rates or record in higher resolutions and better codecs. Good luck!

Edit
Suggested ProRes 422 rather than LT.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks a lot for all your answers.

I have two questions.

1/ Do you think that I will be able to record RAW with a SSD ?
2/ Do you think that I can test a very very cheap CFast card and record in it with a very compressed ProRes bitrate to start ?

Thank you,
Pierre

Pierre, there should be no problem recording RAW to a SSD. But be careful which one you choose. Many SSDs get in trouble with sustained write over a longer period.
SanDisk Extreme Pro and Samsung 850 should be able to deliver. Or any SSD recommended for the 4k production camera.

Certified SSDs

The following SSDs are recommended for 4K RAW and ProRes captures:

• Angelbird AV Pro 250 GB
• Angelbird AV Pro 500 GB
• Digistor 1 TB SSD 4K Professional Video Series (DIG-PVD1000, pre-formatted ExFat)
• Kingston HyperX Savage 120 GB (SHSS37A/120G)
• Kingston HyperX Savage 240 GB (SHSS37A/240G)
• Kingston HyperX Savage 480 GB (SHSS37A/480G)
• Kingston HyperX Savage 960 GB (SHSS37A/960G)
• OWC 960 GB Mercury Extreme Pro 6G (OWCSSD7P6G960)
• Samsung 256 GB 850 Pro (MZ-7KE256BW, spacer required)
• Samsung 512 GB 850 Pro (MZ-7KE512BW, spacer required)
• Samsung 1 TB 850 Pro (MZ-7KE1T0BW, spacer required)
• Sandisk Extreme Pro 240 GB (SDSSDXPS-240G-G25)
• Sandisk Extreme Pro 480 GB (SDSSDXPS-480G-G25)
• Sandisk Extreme Pro 960 GB (SDSSDXPS-960G-G25)
• Wise Cinema CMS-0240 240 GB

Very compressed ProResLT/Proxy looks really bad.
If you have little money, why waste it on a cheap CFast card?

Hi.

I did some test recordings of UHD in RAW on my Samsung 850 PRO SSD. It was fine.
But I believe it was because I live in Europe and choose 50 fps. I am not sure it will work without loosing frames in 60 fps.

I remember before I choose my Samsung 850 PRO's, I found some reviews and found out that the Sequential Write Speed was quit a bit higher than for the Samsung 850 EVO.

But I wonder how do you power you URSA Mini?
If you didn't buy your V-Mount battery yet, can you may be do as I do.
I use a RC ( remote control ) LiPO Battery together with my RC Charger.
The LiPO batteries for Remote Control Helicopters are much cheaper than V-Mount batteries for Cameras
I will post more information in a couple of weeks.

Regards Carsten.