After around three years of using a digital workflow I’ve amassed a lot of data, my source clips alone use up around 6TB of hard drive space, add to that working files, transcoded scratch files, renders and all the other bits and bobs that get generated when working on a project and you start to need a lot of space on your computer system.  Today I’m still shooting on the EX1, but the problem has only gotten worse with the addition of two DSLR’s, two GoPro’s and the Zoom h4n all filling up cards at silly rates.

Up until now I’ve simply been adding more hard-drive capacity to cope with demand, my mac is maxed out with four 2TB internal hard drives, a 2TB G-Raid scratch disk and an 8TB drobo which is struggling to keep everything backed up using time machine. My mac is once again nearing being full and with 2TB SATA drives still being the largest capacity available I really needed to come up with a way of offloading the older footage and freeing up my system for new files.

So let me talk about some of the options that I’ve looked into and then I’ll go on to describe what I’ve decided to do to tackle this ever growing problem.

Hard Drives
The good thing about hard drives is that they are one of the cheapest ways to store your files, with a 2TB drive costing around £100 that works out at approximately 0.5 pence a GB per drive.

Apparently hard drives have a tendency to seize up if not used for a few years and of course they are quite fragile devices. Drop a hard drive and all the data contained within it could be lost forever, unless of course you can afford to have it recovered by one of those super expensive clever people that can rebuild drives in a secret underground lab somewhere!

I’m a big believer in making sure that anything stored on hard drives is on at least two of them. Even if I’m using a drobo which mirrors the data across multiple drives I still make sure I have a backup on another drive outside the drobo. If a drive fails in the drobo then all is not lost, but what happens if the drobo fails and kills all of it’s drives? Call me paranoid but you can’t be too careful with anything that claims to look after your precious data.

Tape Backup
Tape systems such as LTO drives are designed with backups in mind, they provide a reasonably fast data transfer and the media is cheap. The drives themselves are quite expensive starting from around £1,000 and quickly heading into £2,500 plus for the most up to date systems. The tapes themselves offer one of the cheapest options for storing data, an LTO4 tape can store 800GB of uncompressed data and only costs around £25.

The downside with tape is that when you need to access the files you’ve backed up it can be a royal pain getting them back off of the tapes. I think as a backup system for use in data loss emergencies they do a great job, but for archiving they’re just not the right technology.

Sony Pro Disks
This was the technology I was most excited by when I started looking for an archiving solution, after all Sony must have thought about the workflow issues when they invented SxS and the Pro Disk seems like the answer. Unfortunately though it doesn’t appear to be ideal. Firstly the PDW-U1 drive costs a whopping £2,841. I’m not sure what technological goodness they packed into that little box but it must be extremely clever at that price. The disks themselves are around £45 for 50GB.

Sony Professional disks are used in the XDCAM range of cameras which record directly on to the disks allowing you to simply archive the actual disks at the end of a shoot and charge the media cost on to your client. I really like the thought of working that way but unfortunately if like me you’re shooting on an XDCAM-EX camera though you’d need to copy the footage from your SxS cards over to the pro disks at the end of every shoot.

I’ve been doing a little research into this and apparently it takes around 40 minutes to copy just 17GB of data. That doesn’t make it a practical solution at all. If I come back from a shoot with 60GB of footage on three SxS card it’s going to take three hours or more to transfer everything, and that’s with me being there to swap disks. That’s not going to work!

BD-R & DVD-R
I know a lot of people backup to DVD and Blu-ray disks but personally I don’t trust re-writable DVD’s and BDR’s as far as I could throw them, which thinking about it might be quite far if using the Frisbee technique!. You get my meaning though.  Some reports claim that the life span of these re-writable disks is less than three years if kept in ideal conditions and considerably less if not cared for properly. For me that’s just not reliable enough to be storing my footage on so I’m not even considering these at all.

So what’s the answer?
In all honesty I’m not sure there is a good answer at the moment. There really doesn’t seem to be a system that provides reliable long term offline storage with fast data transfer,  low cost media and easy access to files. I’ve read that Sony are working on a ‘one time write’ system that uses 128GB optical disks with a long life-span but that’s no use to me until it gets released and there’s no mention of write times yet.

So for now I’m going to keep going the way I have been and use hard drives. Today I’ve blown £1,100 on another drobo, this time the drobo fs model packed with five 2TB drives which is going to become my new backup drive. I’ll use my existing 8TB drobo as a footage storage device. I know I have to archive some data so I’ve also come up with a plan for that.

Of the four 2TB drives I have in my mac, two of them contain footage that’s getting quite old and isn’t likely to be needed very oftem. My plan is to use a pair of 2TB external drives and copy the data from my internal drives onto the external drives. I’ll then pull out the internal drives and store those off site somewhere whilst keeping the external drives here in case I need access to the data at any point.

I know it’s not ideal to store drives without firing them up regularly, but it really does seem like the best option for now. Hopefully Sony or somebody else will address this problem soon, I’m sure I’m not the only person struggling to know what to do with all the data I’m accumulating.

let me know your thoughts and any solutions that work for you.

It’s all well and good reviewing kit and reporting how great, or not so great it is but I feel that it’s probably more important to see the gear that I make use of in my day to day shooting. Anything I’ve reviewed is linked to that review, otherwise it’s linked to B&H or another retailer. Some items that I use are discontinued, in which case the links point to an updated version or no link is provided.

The gear I use

I’ve been shooting some corporate web videos for a company that sells conservatory accessories and window blinds over the last few months so I’ve had to light to match the natural light coming through glass roofs and windows as the fitters went about demonstrating how to install their products. These videos have been shot on a minimum budget so I’ve been using my standard tungsten-halogen light kit and using various density blue gels to match the colour of the natural light.

The most recent shoot took place two days ago in the smallest space I think I’ve had to work in, the room was no more than 10ft x 5 ft and the windows and door had to be closed to enable the fitter to work and also to block external noise. To say it was hot and uncomfortable in there would be a huge understatement! If I’d fired up my Rifa 55 soft box in there I think we’d all have passed out within 20 minutes!

Luckily however I had a Litepanels 1×1 Bi-Color light with me which I had on loan from B&H so I decided to give that a go instead of the rifa. The great thing about LED lights is that they don’t get hot so even though the light did a great job of illuminating the shot it didn’t add to the already uncomfortable heat levels in the room. The other great thing about this light is that you can dial in the colour temperature to match anything from incandescent room lights through to full daylight meaning that a quick tweak of the colour dial perfectly matched the natural sunlight coming through the window without the need to mess around with blue gels and gaffers tape.

The 1×1 is also dim-able so setting the light intensity was also easy, my rifa softbox is either on or off so any adjustments to light levels on the subject are done by either moving the lights or adding some kind of diffusion material. With the 1×1 I just switched it on and dialled it in. If you’re lucky enough to have a few 1×1′s to work with you can also link them up to each other and control them all at the same time from a single unit.

LED lights are a great choice if you’re looking for something you can travel with, they’re a lot less fragile than bulb based lights and often weigh less too which can be a factor when checking in baggage. The light I’ve been using runs on both 120 and 240v mains supply so could be used in the US or Europe. You can also power it using rechargeable V-Mount batteries by adding Litepanels LP1x1-BAPV adapter plate.

The litepanels 1×1 was a great light to work with and didn’t add additional heat to an already uncomfortable situation. As with most LitePanels products though you have a pay a premium for the LED goodness, at a whopping $2,545 the LitePanels 1×1 Bi-Color is quite an investment, especially compared to a more traditional light like the Lowel Rifa 55 soft box which retails for around $440. I’ve also seen cheaper LED lights from other manufacturers appearing on the market but I’ve not been able to compare those to the Litepanels as yet so it’s difficult to say how they stack up in terms of functionality and quality. I can certainly report that the Litepanels 1×1 is a very solid unit and feels like a very professional bit of kit.

In use the 1×1 performed flawlessly, it provided a solid spread of light with no perceived flicker or unwanted changes to brightness or colour. All of the controls feel like they use high quality components, especially the two huge control wheels for brightness and colour which remind me of the kind of volume knobs you’d expect to find on a high end Hi-Fi system.

Not having to mess around with gels and diffusion was fantastic and I loved that after shooting for 4 hours I simply switched the light off and packed it away. That might sound a bit strange, but if you’ve used something like a riffa softbox before you’ll know that you really can’t touch them for at least 20 – 30 minutes after switching them off because they remain blisteringly hot for so long.

I’d love to work with a set of four of these lights and plan on investing in more of them in the future. In the meantime I’m going to be talking to B&H about hanging on to this one for now!

B&H Photo Video sell the LitePanels 1×1 Bi-Color variable LED light for $2,545 and also the whole LitePanels 1×1 range which include floods, spots, multi light kits and a range of accessories including barn doors and egg crates for controlling light spread.

Canon EF 24-105mm F4 IS USM Lens for video

Do I really need another lens?

I personally think we’ll see the buzz return to the traditional video camera manufacturers 12 months from now, which is quite an interesting thought considering that the whole aftermarket manufacturing industry currently seems to have gone DSLR crazy. A dedicated 35mm video sensor would be designed with HD video formats in mind so would no doubt avoid the line twitter / aliasing issues which are the result of DSLR’s sensors providing too much resolution. DSLR’s are always going to have to cater to photographers first.

Canon or even Nikon may be planning on delivering an uncompressed full res video output from a DSLR, but they are always going to have to deal with sensors that are designed with still images in mind and provide work arounds to the huge resolutions involved.

I think the whole DSLR thing has been fantastic, it gave the video giants a big kick up the behind and made them move forward a lot faster than that might have done otherwise. They seem to be moving though so it’s going to be very interesting to see which direction they go in.

I did plan on investing in an EX1r for this years event work but I think I’m going to try and make my trusty 3 year old EX1 last one more season now and see what Sony do with this new camera and what they mean by “more affordable”.

The thought of an XDCAM-EX or better body offering the features of an EX1r but using a 35mm sensor along with the possibility to use various types of 35mm lenses is really exciting. It’s hard to know if that’s what Sony have in mind at present, but it would certainly get the attention of all those videographers out there who have jumped on the DSLR band wagon and invested money in 35mm glass.

The shoots have all been done as per my DSLR Interview workflow post, the only thing I’ve changed over the last couple of days is that I’ve been using both cameras without rails, matte-boxes and follow focus. Because I’m having to move around a lot I’ve been trying to keep my cases as light as possible so anything not essential had to go.

Here’s a quick snap I took on the iPhone today and a screen grab from each camera. The Camera on the left is a Glidetrack mounted Canon 7D fitted with a 35mm 1.4 lens & Rode videomic. The Canon 5D mark II is on the right mounted on my Miller DS20 tripod and fitted with a Canon 70-200 2.8, Rode videomic and LCDVF.

I recorded audio using a Sony ECM-77 lav mic running into a UWP-V1 wireless kit and recorded on my Zoom H4n.

Click here to read the review and comment.

One thing that is a bit annoying when using Fader ND’s though is that it’s no longer possible to attach the Canon sun hoods that are supplied with the lenses.

While I was out shooting some external pickup shots yesterday I experimented with using a Hoya Screw in Rubber lens Hood on my 50mm 1.2 and 35mm 1.4 lenses. It’s quite strange using these on the fader ND because to adjust the level of ND you end up rotating the entire lens hood, it works well though!

The Hoya hoods are able to be set in two positions allowing you to use them with a range of lenses from medium wides out to zooms.

Unfortunately the Hoya hoods only go up to 77mm which means they can only be used on lenses up to 72mm in diameter because the Fader ND’s step up a size. Both my 35mm 1.4 and 50mm 1.2 have a 72mm thread so the 77mm Hoya Hood work well on those. On the 35mm the hood needed to be in it’s closed down setting so that it didn’t appear in the shot on my 5D mark2.

My 24mm 1.4 and 70 – 200 2.8 are 77mm so with a 77mm fader ND fitted the hoods won’t work on those as the required diameter is then 82mm. The 24mm would likely be too wide for the sun hood anyway, plus the Fader ND’s are not recommended on long zooms so you probably wouldn’t want to use the hoods on either of those lenses anyway.

By far the best feature of the Hoya hoods has to be the red line on the end – full on L series looks for just a few $! ;)

Buying in the US: B&H sell the Hoya hoods for around $25.

Buying in the UK: Warehouse express sell the Hoya hoods priced from £12 – £40 depending on size.

If you’re looking for Fader ND filters they can be purchased from B&H for $62 – £139 depending on the lens diameter you need.

Here’s some info from SmallHD….

This monitor was designed from the ground up to meet the needs of the HDSLR videographer. The DP-SLR measures 4”x6”x1” and weighs in at only 10oz (284g). This small, lightweight package makes it very easy to shoot on the run without first taking a bodybuilding course.

Within the small 5.6” diagonal screen the DP-SLR packs a whopping 1280 x 800 resolution. At 270 pixels-per-inch (ppi), this translates into near laser printer quality. To put this into perspective, the new 27” (2560 x 1440) iMac runs about 109ppi. The DP-SLR has over 2.5 times the pixel density. It is hard to describe how this looks. Hopefully you will be able to see for yourself at NAB. We thought about providing pictures, but you literally don’t have a computer display that would do it justice. You’d be like my grandma watching Blu-ray on her 4×3 SD TV… just wondering what all the fuss is about. (As a side note, we did have one customer return a DP1 because it was “too sharp”— He will definitely hate the DP-SLR).

The baseline DP-SLR’s HDMI, Component and Composite interfaces can ingest a host of signals. So far it has been compatible with every camera tested. Hopefully we will get to test a lot more cameras at NAB. 3G HD/SDI comes on the upgraded model and maintains all the features, inputs and specs of the baseline DP-SLR (with the exception of a few grams of weight).

We maintained our commitment to strength and style with solid aluminum construction and four tapped ¼-20 mount points. However, we continue to explore every possible way to lighten the package. This process is ongoing as we continue to push the manufacturing envelope.

A monitor is not much use without portable power. The DP-SLR can accept voltages from 5v to18v, which opens the door to virtually any DC source. By only consuming 6 watts, the DP-SLR runs up to 4 hours on the standard SmallHD battery. Activated at the touch of a button, the on-screen battery-life indicator will give you confidence that your monitor won’t die in the middle of a shot.

The natural placement of the chick-wheel control allows you to operate the DP-SLR with the patented snap-in sun hood attached at all times. Gone are the days when you had to back away from the screen to figure out which button to press or knob to adjust. Just lose yourself in the amazing image you are about to capture and navigate the menus with a single finger.

Here are a few of the software features included with the DP-SLR.

• Battery Life Indicator
• One-to-one
• Image Flip
• Freeze Frame
• Blue Gun
• Camera Presets
• and many more

We expect to begin shipping near the end of June. Orders will be filled on a first come first serve basis. The SmallHD store will be open for DP-SLR orders on April 12^th. DP-SLR pricing will be announced at NAB (and SmallHD.com) on April 12^th.

Here’s some info from the creator…

“This pre production demo show what the new INTUIT FOCUS v.01 (beta) is capable of. It is wired follow focus unit for those who tend to use new DSLRs on their rigs, Steadicams or any kind of dollies. This product will be coming in 2 versions, with 1 controller and 1 motor or 1 controller – 2 motors for easier and faster switches between setups.
Currently INTUIT FOCUS is in it’s final test faze and it will be ready for sale via IF web site.
If you need some additional specs and info – contact me via email: marko@butrakovic.com
THX.”

If you would like to follow the development progress of this device the creator is using the comment system on Vimeo to answer questions.  http://vimeo.com/9827192