Interesting article on Wildlife video

[Jerry_R]

Looks like pretty much everyone has totally given up on tape. Even one group who were using it as backup gave up as it was too unreliable. Good article. Card based is not perfect but much better than tape. What I can't understand is the assumptions made by some folks that: 1. file based digital storage is always perfect and not subject to human errors, and 2. nothing can happen to my hdd, card, … between me and who ever I send it to. Folks who would never consider sending a tape without a backup send hdd etc. without a backup!?

Found an interesting gadget at Addaroma; a card reader that does most all formats and has an internal hdd. Not great as it is not RAID nor hot swap but for the cost I can buy 2 and make two copies. I am getting it next week and will post a review once I get to use it.

[ConsumerDV]

I hope they shoot wildlife at no less than 60fps, I am tired watching strobing long-DOF documentaries. I don't care for 4K, I want 1080p60.

PD is new tape? Instant backup and immediate access to a clip, the best of both worlds. Still a mechanical thing though. Optical discs did not work for consumer cameras though, as miniDVD holds only 1.4GB. MiniBD? Does anyone make them? Hitachi?

[Jerry_R]

IMHO aside from holographic storage, at best optical is a band aid and like the hdd not suitable for cameras. Optical disks have no real advantage over hdd just a different technology.

Have you ever seen 2k or 4k? Unless you have seen digital projection probably not. I think they are both better than film projection and 4k is excellent. Frankly what I find disappointing is 1080 unpressed to 2 or 4k particularly when shot at 24p.

As for high frame rates for wildlife depends on the subject but I agree that watching a lion or leopard attack in 24fps sucks, film or video.

[Marc]

If you shoot wildlife you undoubtedly shoot high ratios in difficult conditions, have to carry lots of storage with you and have to archive lots of storage later. Cards are just now becoming affordable enough to meet these needs. If you instead carry a laptop or one of those (very expensive for what they are) card reader/hard drive combos then you have one more thing to power, one more thing to carry on long treks and one more thing to break or get stolen. Any hard drive based device could take your whole trip with it. At least a bad card or tape you only loose an hour or so.
Nature and documentary footage tends to sit on the media for a long time. There's physically a lot to process and there may be much to do after you get back. Its often only when you have the content assembled that the purpose of any shot becomes apparent. Documentary footage gets repurposed: if I have great footage of wild fennics it might be part of a fennic video, something on the dog family, something on the Sahara or something on environmental problems of North Africa...
And now even with cards being about the same relative price as Betacam tape once was per hour of storage, cost remains a consideration unless you are being paid by someone else to be taking on this kind of project. BBC? Very good. Independent who has already paid Thousands and thousands just to get to the destination? Maybe buy a backup camera is the smart move with the money.
And tape? Tape is still the economy leader. The intermediate storage solution of choice. Yep it's going away but for these purposes that's not entirely a good thing.

[Jerry_R]

Today there is a good solution to card based workflow. Its the Data Bank. Far from ideal but perfectly viable and a good alternate to more expensive solutions. While the status tells you that you have successfully copied the data I would still want a laptop to verify. Uses fairly easy to change laptop 2.5" SATA drives. The changeout operation is not a true field but a bench (4 tinny screws and plastic plugs that get lost easily). But its not a clean room either. I would not hesitate to switch drives in a tent—well not one of the alpine ones pitoned to the cliff—but with a clean light covered work surface not a problem.

Cost is $219 so you can buy and carry 2 or more plus spare drives.

[Marc]

Data Bank is OK solution. Still too many eggs in one basket for me. I'll invest in more cards. Less to carry, less to power.

[Jerry_R]

Depends. Frankly I like the Data Bank as an extra backup for cards. When I get time and power I can transfer to laptop with RAID then erase the Data Bank and cards.

If push comes to shove I can use 2 Data Banks and erase cards after dup.