Sexy HDR Record Unit

[Iain P. Johnston]

Just wondered if anyone has used or had experience of using this media! I notice that the main U.K. Reseller gives no guarantee with the supplied Hard Drives.

I supposes that speaks for it's self!

[Andrew Stone]

Welcome to DVinfo Iain. No idea what you are talking about. Are you referring to the Ki Pro Mini that is up for discussion today? If so it is new and unreleased to the public yet. There are beta testers but they will be under NDA and won't talk about it... yet.

[Iain P. Johnston]

Hi Andrew

I come across this site last night sexyhdr.com Just wondered if anyone has used this media! and with what results!

Iain J

[Vito DeFilippo]

LOL, Andrew. I had the same reaction as you when I saw Iain's post. It never occurred to me that a professional project would be called "sexy" and I wondered what the heck he was talking about.

Looks like a great idea, if it's reliable. I didn't realize the card slot of the EX1 was capable of suppying power to a hard drive. That cable sticking out at right angles to the camera looks like trouble waiting to happen, though.

[John Peterson]

It's probably along the same lines as the e-films recorder:

eHDR

John

[Matt Davis]

With a number of long conferences to record on two cameras, I've decided to go with 4x 32 GB cards in the main camera, but will run the second camera with one of these. If it goes well, will be buying more.

I've had the unit for a few months now, and it's sat and patiently recorded grass growing out of my window, and it's all absolutely fine. Hasn't missed a beat.

The hard disk is powered from the USB bus in the camera, so no separate power supply. Big plus over other solutions that require separate batteries or mains supplies. Keeps things simple and easy to pack away, and should I need to have a camera placed away from any mains, it can run off the internal battery. Maybe one of those huge SWITs may be fun.

The little padded wallet isn't really more than a cheap cloth sleeve, and doesn't have any way of doing anything useful with it other than gaffering it to a tripod leg or pan bar... Would have preferred at least a lanyard so I could hang it from something. I'm sure there's metalwork to do this, just would have liked a simple solution is all.

My setup is probably quite an early version with a paper-based label on the card, which makes it a VERY snug fit in my EX1R, but a little less squished in the EX1's rear slot. I mentioned this to the chap selling them, and his later batches use a foil based (thinner) label I believe.

The point is that, for about the same cost as an 8GB SxS card, you're getting four and a half hours of recording time per disk you insert. You'd be expected to purchase additional 2.5" drives and slot the buggers into his caddy for about £30 per load, making it cheaper than Sony's blue-box tapes for DVCAM. As such it perhaps sidesteps the desire to reformat drives, and, in general, applies an IT solution to a video problem.

I say this because the sEXy feels like a totally indoor, tripod based, non-rugged solution. If the intended use is to capture hour after interminable hour of conference on a wide camera, maybe even all cameras, then it's great. Does exactly what it says on the tin.

As such, it's great - mains-power the camera, press "go" on the camera, leave it for four and a half hours, then come back, press, "stop", change the caddy drives, rinse and repeat. Editor doesn't have to do all that tedious copying of SxS drives to hard disk (as you have to do when clips span a card or two), and if you're taping a conference, the cost of hard disks is such that this is CHEAPER, without wiping ANYTHING.

Play your cards right with editing platform and/or plugins, and you can edit direct from the sEXy's drive without any ingest. I can do it 'in theory', but haven't done it for real yet.

If you're run and gun, shooting outside, moving about a bit, then this isn't the right solution. But for indoor long-form work like conferences, I am a happy bunny.

[Marcus Durham]

Can't say I'm at home with the idea of a platter covered in rust spinning at 5400rpm with a head hovering above the surface at less distance than the diameter of a human hair. All bolted to the top of the camera.

Yes modern drives have protection against knocks when running but this involves the drive head parking up and transfer being suspended. A computer operating system can mitigate agains this, I suspect an EX1 can't.

It's 2010, SSD has to be the way to go. No moving parts, no need to worry about any knocks. Not cheap but still miles cheaper than SxS and prices are dropping.

[Matt Davis]

Marcus, agree 100% with SSD, but note well I am referring to the locked off wide shot scenario.

Seem to have nailed the editing of rushes directly from the drive, too.

The point being, I can be editing the morning's conference (all 3 hours of it) during lunch. I could do this on DV - yes, that's right, using a hard disk! - but not in HD. Now I can: (screenshot of 4.5 hours of XDCAM rushes direct from drive, editing in Final Cut Pro, using CalibratedQ MP4-EX software)

[Dave Gosley]

Originally Posted by John Peterson

It's probably along the same lines as the e-films recorder:

eHDR

John

Thanks for this - been looking at options and the SSD variant of this looks possible - anyone experienced this one - please?