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Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Tue Feb 11, 2014 3:56 am
by ricky
Looks like my pre-ordered 4K is on the way. Any update on what SSD I should purchase?

Can't wait to hear. Would be a bummer if camera arrived before media.

Thanks

Rick

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Wed Feb 12, 2014 8:22 pm
by Gary Cook
Hey there,

Has anyone run the speed test on a Crucial M500 960GB, or better yet tried one out?

It's getting great reviews and is a great price.... would be the perfect fit for my 4K !

Samsung 840 Series 512GB ?

PostPosted: Sat Feb 15, 2014 4:25 am
by Francois Driessen
Hi there. What about Samsung 840 Series? Their speed is higher than some of the approved drives on your list and I've had good success with it.
(I know they're slimmer than the space in the camera - but that's easily fixed with a small piece of foam-rubber to make a buffer that keeps it nice and snug from moving around).
Did you test it with those? What's the official BM verdict?

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Fri Feb 21, 2014 3:23 am
by Greg Best
ricky wrote:Looks like my pre-ordered 4K is on the way. Any update on what SSD I should purchase?

Can't wait to hear. Would be a bummer if camera arrived before media.

Thanks

Rick


yes, which are best for 4k? same list? new list coming?

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 3:41 am
by Vig
I got this one
ADATA XPG SX900 512GB SSD - 2.5" Form Factor, SATA III 6 Gb/s, Up To 540 MB/s Read Speed, Up To 465 MB/s Write Speed - ASX900S3-512GM-C
And it works fine with Blackmagic Production Camera 4K

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 8:01 am
by Brightsphere1
Vig, do you have any idea of the record time with this SSD on the 4K cam? You still having good luck with it? I'm about to pull the trigger on getting one based on your recommendation... Thank You.. Hard to figure out which SSD's are usable..

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Thu Feb 27, 2014 11:44 am
by Mubarak Almubarak
Brightsphere1 wrote:Vig, do you have any idea of the record time with this SSD on the 4K cam? You still having good luck with it? I'm about to pull the trigger on getting one based on your recommendation... Thank You.. Hard to figure out which SSD's are usable..


I bought the Kingston HyperX , and it seems to work fine so far with the BMPC 4K (prores of course). but I need to test it more.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 6:25 pm
by Tony Rivera
The website has been updated for the 4k SSD approved list.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Fri Feb 28, 2014 7:46 pm
by Mubarak Almubarak
http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support ... 851&os=win

This is the new link.

Just in case someone thinks its the same old link, and keeps clicking on refresh (by someone i mean someone like me :P )

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Sat Mar 01, 2014 4:42 am
by rick.lang
Tony Rivera wrote:The website has been updated for the 4k SSD approved list.


Approved for 4K and HD ProRes. Nothing to confirm what will work with the compressed 4K raw yet.

Rick Lang
Sent using Tapatalk HD

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Tue Mar 04, 2014 6:31 am
by Peter_r
I am using the Sandisk Extreme II 480GB and it works perfectly in the 4K camera. I have filled it and dumped it multiple times without issue, formatted on a MacbookPro in disk utility.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 7:15 am
by Mark Jamerson
Thinking of getting two Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 750GB for the 4K but it's not on the approved list but no drive over 400GB is from any maker. Anyone have any experience with this? Makes sense to get this one or the 1TB for when RAW becomes available.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 5:59 pm
by Cynosure Media
Mark Jamerson wrote:Thinking of getting two Samsung Electronics 840 EVO-Series 750GB for the 4K but it's not on the approved list but no drive over 400GB is from any maker. Anyone have any experience with this? Makes sense to get this one or the 1TB for when RAW becomes available.


Hey Mark,

Take a look at this thread discussing the EVO series drives (relating to RAW 2.5K on the BMCC): viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13955

I will add that since posting that, I have begun to experience the occasional dropped frame. I would advise against buying any of the EVO drives right now, at least until I can figure out what the cause of that is...

For reference, my last shoot was about 40 minutes of footage spanning ~five clips. Three of the five clips were fine, but two of them had ~20-30 second windows of unusable footage due to dropped frames.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Mon Mar 17, 2014 10:32 pm
by Scott Thomas
Using 2 of the SanDisk Extreme II 240 GB drives (SDSSDXP-240G) with the 4K camera. Early days but so far no problems with them shooting ProRes (HQ) UHD film mode.

The shims that come with them make a good fit in the camera. Formatted them exFat. Will update if anything changes.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 3:26 pm
by Keith Jefferies
dcrippa wrote:Also, I am trying to choose which dock to go with

So far:

[Paraphrase as I can't post URLs] Seagate Thunderbolt adapter or Voyager Q dock

Is this dock with thunderbold worth it?

Many thanks

I got both. The thunderbolt dock doesn't come with a cable (sigh), so haven't had an opportunity to try it yet. The Voyager works great.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Thu Mar 20, 2014 9:07 pm
by Makeevstyle
I have Intel 530 Series (SSDSC2BW240A401) and they on thickness less slot in the camera. They freely dangle inside and it will undoubtedly lead to SSD plug damage!

How with it to be? Why these drives in the compatibility list? Why the internal slot has no fixers and the drive keeps only on the SATA connector?

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Thu Mar 20, 2014 9:18 pm
by Tony Rivera
You would have to buy a spacer for a snug fit which is sold by the company that manufactures the SSD or even through a 3rd party company.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 3:19 pm
by The CameraGuy
For what it's worth, I have tried 2 different SSD's in the 4K camera.

First, I tried the ADATA 256 unit, and because it is 7mm, and not 9mm, it moved around too much in the slot, and the camera refused to recognize it.

Then I bought the Kingston HyperX 240GB. It's a 9mm SSD, and fits perfectly. So far, everything has been successful for me with 2 of those drives.

Frankly, I would stick with 9mm drives. I don't know what the hack is to use the 7mm, but it doesn't seem worth it to me.

I am awaiting the update to allow RAW recording before buying any other drives. From conversations with tech support, they are hopeful of releasing prior to NAB, and it will eat more data and at a higher rate, so if you can delay buying, I would wait until they release RAW to see if the drive requirements change.

Hope this helps

Darren

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Tue Mar 25, 2014 9:39 pm
by Nehemiah Ellsperman
I would say a 9.5mm SSD is ideal, but most of the 7mm SSDs including the ADATA SSD should ship with a spacer which you adhere to the drive, which makes it fit properly inside of the camera.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Wed Mar 26, 2014 10:47 pm
by Tony Rivera
The most current list of approved SSDs for the Production Camera 4k can be found at the link below.

http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support ... 851&os=mac

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 7:35 pm
by Fahnon Bennett
By the way, Amazon has the older Sandisk Extreme 240GB drives that fit perfectly without a shim for $129 (refurbished by Sandisk). I just grabbed 2...

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Extreme-2 ... xtreme+ssd

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 10:00 pm
by BillMontei
[quote="fahnon"]By the way, Amazon has the older Sandisk Extreme 240GB drives that fit perfectly without a shim for $129 (refurbished by Sandisk). I just grabbed 2...

Thanks for the heads up!
I just ordered a couple.

Been using the 240 and 480 Ultra IIs without an issue yet in 4k ProRes;
But it will be nice to have a few of the original 'approved' drives with the old firmware.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Tue Apr 01, 2014 1:16 pm
by klemens
Im using a Samsung 840 PRO and everything seems to be ok, however you shoud check EVO version.
And beware of kingston ssd now v300 - they changed procesor in newer version and performance went badly down..

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 3:52 pm
by David McCormick
Tony Rivera wrote:Here's the link to the most current list of SSDs that have cleared our approval.
http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support ... 2&os=linux

Sidenote:
This was just updated in the backend of the site so it may take a little while to refresh on the actual page so please be patient. :)


Hi Tony you mention in this thread that the updated list is partly due to older ssds being discontinued by manufacturers. I have both a BMCC and a BMPC 4k. The ssds I have 2 x Kingston 240GB ssd now 200V+ and a 480GB Sandisk Extreme. These should continue to work in my older BMCC shouldn't they? Have tested them in the BMPC and have had no problems yet, but plan to do more exhaustive tests.

Best wishes

Dave

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Thu Apr 03, 2014 6:47 pm
by Tony Rivera
There should be no issue with the discontinued ones that we're aware of. The reason we moved them to that list is because they may not be readily available for purchase.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 8:57 pm
by John Palaganas
Wow I made a mistake and bought 2 Sandisk Extreme II 480GB :cry:

The one listed on the approved SSD has the following part no: SDSSDX-480G-G25 and the one I bought has SDSSDXP-480G-G25. I didn't notice the extra "P".

From my very limited testing of short duration clips, 1 SSD seems to record fine on the BMPC4K. Haven't even unwrapped the other one.

Should I return it and exchange it for proven brand/model?

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 3:55 am
by John Palaganas
Geoff Baxter wrote:Anecdotal evidence suggest you would be better off with the older models, if you can still get them.

The older sandisk extreme is really hard to find. What the next best thing?

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 9:30 am
by alex.xkhw
Geoff Baxter wrote:
John Palaganas wrote:
Geoff Baxter wrote:Anecdotal evidence suggest you would be better off with the older models, if you can still get them.

The older sandisk extreme is really hard to find. What the next best thing?


Probably this one: Digistor 480GB SSD Professional Video Series (DIG-PVD480S, pre-formatted ExFat)


The Digistor drives are also very hard to find in some places (Europe). Also B&H shows them as "discontinued" (maybe that's why it's hard to find - just like the first version of the Sandisk)

What else would you recommend?

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 5:45 pm
by John Palaganas
Geoff Baxter wrote:
John Palaganas wrote:
Geoff Baxter wrote:Anecdotal evidence suggest you would be better off with the older models, if you can still get them.

The older sandisk extreme is really hard to find. What the next best thing?


Probably this one: Digistor 480GB SSD Professional Video Series (DIG-PVD480S, pre-formatted ExFat)

Hard to find Digistor as well. Have experience with Kingston 240/480 GB SSDNow KC300?

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Thu Apr 10, 2014 11:31 am
by alex.xkhw
After some research on my part, I have come to the conclusion that the Kingston drives are not the best option. I'll elaborate further:

1) The Hyperx 3K models (released 2 years ago to the day) seem to suffer from a significant incidence of drive failure. Sifting through the costumer reviews on sites such as Amazon or Newegg does indicate a high incidence of drive failure relative to other established brands (Intel, Sandisk Samsung). In the vast majority of cases the mode of failure described had the drive becoming unresponsive after a certain number of months of use. The drives were no longer recognized by the computers. Though it has to be said that the usage mode for these drives usually consist of them being used as internal drives in a computer which means that their reliability behavior might be different in a Blackmagic camera (for better or worse). However, since we would need to import the footage into a computer at some point, having the drive not recognized by the PC would render it useless even if it works in the camera.

2) In the case of the SSDNow model there is a different problem. The V300 variant has been put to the wall as of late due to Kingston's decision to make physical changes to the internals during the middle of the production run without telling anyone about it. Users found out about the changes when they discovered that the drives they purchased didn't perform up to the standards set by the reviews they read (which came out at the launch of the drives and were based on the original hardware). It turns out that some time after the launch, Kingston started using different flash memory chips that were significantly slower than the ones they shipped the drives with originally, seriously degrading the performance of the drive. This change seem to have been made for the purposes of "cost optimization".

Do note that this is related to the V300 model of the SSDNow line of SSD drives. Blackmagic recommends another model of the same line, the KC300. It is hard to tell if this change in performance also affects this model but since they seem very similar in terms of specs and even share the same product page on Kingston's site it would seem that it's very likely that this part is affected as well. I would suggest to Blackmagic to have another look at these drives by acquiring a drive that was manufactured recently, testing it again and informing the users of the results of the test. Regardless of the results of this test though it seems to me that it has become very hard now to trust that Kingston will not do this again and for uses were a slight downgrade in performance could be the difference between "it works" and "it doesn't" it would seem unwise to invest in these products. For more info on this topic I recommend reading the Anandtech.com article named An Update to Kingston SSDNow V300: A Switch to Slower Micron NAND

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Mon Apr 14, 2014 7:27 pm
by Francois Driessen
Could you please include SAMSUNG in your tests?
They have very affordable options with excellent performance. But just need to know if there's something that does not play well between BMCC & Samsung?

PS: A small stick-on rubber spacer makes it fit snug in the slot even though the drives are thinner. So that's not an issue.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Mon Apr 14, 2014 7:56 pm
by Nehemiah Ellsperman
To address the above posts- we have not seen any issues with any of the Kingston drives on our approved list after thousands of hours of testing and use. Several HyperX SSDs were purchased for use at NAB as well.

We have tested Samsung SSDs including the 840 Pro. These SSDs are excellent for use with a computer but did not work at all with any of our cameras- recording in RAW or compressed formats- and had issues with our HyperDeck products.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 8:45 am
by TheEamonLong
Just saying that the Intel 530 240GB are super easy to deal with and the workflow is fast.
I have two. "Helm's Deep" and "Minas Tirith" I get chuckles from fellow op friends and LOTR nerds but it's a good ice breakers on set.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 6:12 pm
by Zak_Fenning
I've been using a Sandisk Extreme II 240GB, and a Sandisk Extreme II 480GB on my BMC MFT mount shooting Raw, Prores, and DNxHD, with no problems whatsoever for either drive.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 12:34 pm
by Proms
Hi. OCZ Vertex 460 (480gb) new SSD model. No tested? I fall down after a few minutes of recording time.. RAW and ProRes. NO SSD after reboot camera.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Wed Apr 16, 2014 3:16 pm
by João Gomes
I have been shooting RAW wiht my BMCC on two Kingston SSDNOW 300V for almost a year i haven't had any problems.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Wed Apr 23, 2014 7:46 am
by stojkuki
On thursday my new BMPC 4k camera arrived. I could not try it before yesterday because I did not have SSD that I can put inside. Just yesterday I purchased Samsung 840 EVO 250 Gb.
It works. No drop-frames, no problems at all. Seams to bi nice.
It is bit thin (7mm), but it is not problem at all. I made support from foam and it look ok.

So we will se what future brings, ....

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Sat Apr 26, 2014 12:32 am
by Bscharf
@NEW MEDIA hollywood we got the SanDisk X210 SSD/512GB to work with the Blackmagic 4K Cinema Ultra HD using the sankit app (Windows/Linux platform) from Sandisk. We set the drive to 480GB for better utilization/drive performance with the below command line.

C:\>sankit aop disk1 -s 937500000
^To set it to 480GB we divided in decimal forum by 512 to get 937500000.
^sankit.exe was in the root folder C:\
^To find out your SSD disknumber, type sankit show all
^This needs to be connected via sata/esata to run. Using an external usb enclosure won't work.

Formatted drive afterwards HFS+. Was able to record highrez files without issues.

Brandon Scharf
Systems Engineer
New Media Hollywood

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 12:37 am
by jhphotographer
I would just like to say that i have been using Sandisk cards for a long time and they have always worked great for me.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 2:15 am
by rick.lang
Nehemiah Ellsperman wrote:To address the above posts- we have not seen any issues with any of the Kingston drives on our approved list after thousands of hours of testing and use. Several HyperX SSDs were purchased for use at NAB as well.

We have tested Samsung SSDs including the 840 Pro. These SSDs are excellent for use with a computer but did not work at all with any of our cameras- recording in RAW or compressed formats- and had issues with our HyperDeck products.


Nehemiah, on the 'other' forum, Frank Glencairn has published a review of the Digistor SSDs and his experience with other SSDs:
http://frankglencairn.wordpress.com/201 ... y-can-buy/

Rick Lang
Sent using Tapatalk HD

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 5:10 am
by Frank Glencairn
alex.xkhw wrote:
.. Though it has to be said that the usage mode for these drives usually consist of them being used as internal drives in a computer which means that their reliability behavior might be different in a Blackmagic camera (for better or worse).

... The V300 variant has been put to the wall as of late due to Kingston's decision to make physical changes to the internals during the middle of the production run without telling anyone about it. "...


And yeah, changing specs on drives that still have the same name, sticker and model number, without telling anybody, is really a problem.
I addressed exactly those issues in an article I just published.

http://frankglencairn.wordpress.com/201 ... y-can-buy/

EDIT: Ugh, Rick was faster.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 8:30 am
by stojkuki
Nehemiah Ellsperman wrote:To address the above posts- we have not seen any issues with any of the Kingston drives on our approved list after thousands of hours of testing and use. Several HyperX SSDs were purchased for use at NAB as well.

We have tested Samsung SSDs including the 840 Pro. These SSDs are excellent for use with a computer but did not work at all with any of our cameras- recording in RAW or compressed formats- and had issues with our HyperDeck products.


I have to put remark on this. Last week my BMPC came and I put Samsung 840 EVO, both 250 and 500 Gb.
They work fine in all possible setting combinations.
Just to be clear it is not that I tried one disk. I have8 of them because I take them for 2 multidock's.

So if You ask me, ..... :)

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 3:27 pm
by rick.lang
Sorry, Frank! I did wait a few minutes for you to post the link to your excellent article here, but I just couldn't restrain myself any longer!


Rick Lang
Sent using Tapatalk HD

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 5:45 pm
by Nehemiah Ellsperman
I'm glad the Samsung 840 EVO SSDs are working for you. We did not test the EVO, but rather the 'higher-performance' Pro and some enterprise level SSDs that were provided for us. Again, there were many issues during testing, so I would just be careful going forward.

Frank- thanks for posting that article. I've lost priceless footage in the past as well- to me its just not worth taking a chance either and we take the certification process seriously. The Digistor SSDs are excellent- I have never seen an issue with one and never once remember a customer reporting a problem when using them with any of our products. Murray Ellis is always very helpful as well.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 11:41 pm
by Gary Stanford
Having inadvertantly acquired a Digistor 240GB PVS SSD I can only endorse the above comments. Absolutely faultless performance. I could only be happier if they were about 0.30c per GB cheaper.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Sat May 03, 2014 3:02 pm
by Joel Crane
Hey, been using a pair of Kingston SSDNow V+200 240GB disks, and been getting a problem where I keep dropping frames only when shooting RAW at 30p. Any advice?

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Sat May 03, 2014 8:40 pm
by rick.lang
Joel Crane wrote:Hey, been using a pair of Kingston SSDNow V+200 240GB disks, and been getting a problem where I keep dropping frames only when shooting RAW at 30p. Any advice?


Currently Approved Kingston SSDs:
Kingston 240 GB HyperX 3K (SH103S3/240G)
Kingston 480 GB HyperX 3K (SH103S3/480G)
Kingston 240 GB SSDNow KC300 (SKC300S37A/240G)
Kingston 480 GB SSDNow KC300 (SKC300S37A/480G)

Sorry you are having problems but perhaps you can repurpose those SSDs and buy one of the Kingston's that are approved for raw. Another alternative is Digistor which Frank Glencairn has reviewed. He is very pleased with the approved Digistor SSDs.

Digistor 240GB SSD Professional Video Series (DIG-PVD240S, pre-formatted ExFat)
Digistor 480GB SSD Professional Video Series (DIG-PVD480S, pre-formatted ExFat)

Rick Lang
Sent using Tapatalk HD

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Sat May 03, 2014 9:53 pm
by HugoCGuerra
I am actually been using the Extreme II 480GB with some success.

http://www.sandisk.co.uk/products/ssd/sata/extreme-ii/

It is thinner so I had to use a adaptor but the problem is the camera not always recognises the drive.
A lot of times during shooting you need to turn the camera on and off until the drive shows up.

Anyone else with this issue?

Cheers

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Sun May 04, 2014 5:20 am
by Brian Russo
I'm waiting for the rumored May 7th firmware update to get a new SSD. wondering if the approved list will change.

Re: List of approved SSDs *updated*

PostPosted: Sun May 04, 2014 4:58 pm
by Brian Russo
all i'm saying is previous firmwares made certain SSDs incompatible. might as well play it safe