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The Samsung Portable SSD X5 can easily fit into any production, as John Keedwell, a high-speed camera expert and video production mentor, proves LOVES FAST STORAGE SLOWMOTION
THERE’S SLOWMOTION video and then there’s a million frames-per-second car crash analysis super-slow motion. Videographer John Keedwell used to shoot the latter and understands the need for robust and fast storage for both. While he’s not in the car crashing business anymore, he thought it would be interesting to test the Samsung Portable SSD X5 in that way. “If I’d had a Samsung Portable SSD X5 back then it would have been easier to get the extreme slow motion processed. Previously, we needed special flash drives to record the vast frame numbers, which were expensive and you would only achieve about one second of capture. With the Samsung portable drive, you could’ve recorded the frames and got the footage to the labs much quicker.” Keedwell also highlights another use for the portable drive: “You could use it for other scientific analysis videos and for the military where you are able to track gun shell and bullet rotation.”
He adds: “Normally that kind of analysis is low resolution as they just want to see what happens, but if you want to use it for movies you would need maybe 8K at a large amount of frames per second. But, having that kind of performance from something so small and powerful opens up all kinds of possibilities for its use.”
Fittingly, the Samsung Portable SSD X5 is inspired by the shape of a supercar. The 150g drive is also equipped with state-of- the-art Thunderbolt 3 technology and a NVMe interface. With housing and internal protection guard frame made by a durable yet light magnesium, it withstands drops of up to two metres. NON-SCIENTIFIC SLOW MOTION Slow motion for the rest of us – around 300 frames per second – always looks good, better than 24 or 25p usually, but as resolution grows, the need for fast storage keeps pace with it. “Unlike the crash testing, you would usually want longer than the one second as you might miss the moment you are shooting for. So, you need a lot of data going down very quickly to your storage. Also, it might need to be transferred quickly to a post-production studio,” explains Keedwell. “This is where the Samsung Portable SSD X5 has an advantage as more cameras can now record directly to it. You record directly to the drive and then take the drive that has all the original shots on with you – it just feels like the most modern way to work.”
IMAGE The Samsung Portable SSD X5 housed in a typical footage transfer station
36 DEF I N I T ION | JANUARY 2020
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