ROAD TEST: Filmmaker and Owner of Capture.Ink, Lee Herbet, Road Tests the SanDisk Professional G-RAID™ Shuttle SSD

If you’re a studio with demanding production workloads, a scorching fast, transportable solution with plenty of storage may be just what you need.

Being a filmmaker is no longer just about cameras. It hasn’t been for a long time. One of the biggest challenges of being a filmmaker in the digital age is data wrangling. As the owner of Melbourne-based production company Capture.Ink, I shoot a lot of corporate video and travel content where we do just that.

Over the last 10-15 years, cameras have gotten smaller, whilst at the same time more powerful and cheaper. These are all good things. If you had told me 15 years ago that in 2022, you’d have multiple prosumer cameras on the market that could shoot 4K RAW, I would have thought you were mad. Yet here we are.

One of the challenges of shooting this beautiful RAW footage is finding hard drives that can both hold copious amounts of data, whilst being fast enough to edit multiple streams of 4K or more-K RAW. This is particularly important for me as a teacher on Final Cut Pro and HDR workflows -I need drives that can keep up!

I have a drawer full of 2TB portable SSDs that I use when traveling, but these drives simply aren’t big enough to hold multiple projects at the same time. This is where the SanDisk Professional G-RAID™ Shuttle SSD comes in, so read on to hear my thoughts on this beast and how it fits into our storage workflow at Capture.Ink.

SCORCHING FAST SPEEDS

For any filmmaker with demanding production workloads, it goes without saying that having a speedy and efficient storage workflow is essential to make sure it can keep up with the speed you’re working. Whilst the G-RAID Shuttle SSD does cost a bit more than your average drive, I can assure you there is a good reason for that. It all comes down to the old saying of “time is money” and if a purchase is going to save you time, in the long run it’s going to save you money.

SSDs are way, and I mean WAY faster than the old style drives. I may not get as much storage for the same price, but it’s more important for me that the storage is super fast.

Thunderbolt™ 3 can achieve some great speeds, so fast in fact that sometimes your drives can be the bottleneck. With SSDs as your drives, this isn’t an issue. It’s not just being able to edit without any bottlenecks, it’s being able to transfer data onto the drive that makes a big difference.

My team and I have a few events every year that we shoot for. A big part of events these days is being able to deliver content for online and social media as the event is taking place live.

With transfer speeds of up to 2800MB/s1 with the G-RAID Shuttle SSD, we can transfer footage at rocket speeds and go full speed ahead on editing. When you’re editing to a deadline, this makes a huge difference.

LeeHerbet-shuttlessd

CAPACITY IS KING

As I mentioned over the last few years, cameras have gotten cheaper whilst at the same time improving specs. These specs mean I can now shoot anywhere from 4K 12-bit RAW up to 8K on the cameras that I have. This is great, except it means that my team and I are now creating huge amounts of data on each one of our shoots.

There just aren’t any single style drives out there that can store everything we need to store.

For example, back in 2019 we worked on a project in Africa shooting 8K RAW footage for most of the shoot. We ended up with 23TB of footage.

Now, most jobs aren’t going to have that much footage, but we regularly create anywhere from 3TB -7TB of footage per project. Note that is just the RAW footage, and we still need storage for the render files when editing. So a big and fast solution like the G-RAID Shuttle SSD is perfect for what we need. For those that need even more than 32GB2 of storage, Dual Thunderbolt 3 ports allow for daisy chaining of up to 5 more devices too.

TRANSPORTABLE DESIGN, ROAD AND AIR

Considering this Shuttle holds so much data, it’s quite a compact device -about a third of the size of the previous 8-Bay solution I used. Now, this is not a complete replacement of the 2TB portable drives I use, as it’s not going to fit in my carry-on for on-flight editing. In saying that, I can absolutely see myself putting the Shuttle in my check-in baggage and using it on location for storage and editing.

The fact that SSDs are so much lighter (this Shuttle is just over 13kg) is a big tick for checking in your baggage. If I have to fly anywhere with my other storage solution, it would have to go into its hard case and weighs at least twice as much as the SSD unit, if not more.

I can see myself unplugging the G-RAID Shuttle SSD, grabbing it by the handle and taking it along to shoots as it’s so compact and convenient to transport.

Having it with my crew on set means big time savings, as my assistant can be transferring footage to the Shuttle as we are shooting. I can then get started on editing as soon as we get back to the edit suite. This saves me loads of time instead of having to do it after I get back.

RAID CAPABILITIES FOR PEACE OF MIND

After hours of time put into a shoot, the worst case scenario would be having an accident and losing footage that is impossible to replace. The G-RAID Shuttle SSD gives me peace of mind in that inbuilt hardware RAID capabilities provide an added layer of protection.

At Capture.Ink we use a RAID 5 setup which allows for one drive redundancy, so if one drive fails, you don’t lose any data. You replace that drive, quickly, and the RAID will rebuild itself and you have redundancy again. Under this setup I was reaching 1551 MB/s write and 2390 MB/s read speeds, which is more than we need and will need for some time to come. Now, I could get even faster speeds if I set it up in RAID 0, but with that setup you run the risk of losing all your data, if you lose even just one drive. That’s why it’s also called “scaryRAID” and most creatives avoid this system.

So what do those speeds mean in actual use scenario? Well, I was editing a project with multiple streams of 4K RAW footage and at no point did the footage give me any issues being edited off of the G-RAID Shuttle SSD. I also never heard the clunk, clunk of drives spinning that I normally do from my other storage solutions. 

In summary, the speed is great and will future proof me, but it’s also the weight and relative portability of the G-RAID Shuttle SSD that I am particularly excited about to improve my workflow going forward.

Lee Herbet

Cinematographer

Through his production company, Capture.ink, Lee and his team have helped some of the biggest brands in the world tell their stories. He’s a cinematographer with a passion for teaching photography/video and editing. He delivers workshops all over the world and writes for a number of online photography and video sites on topics ranging from reviews to “how to” articles.

1 1 MB/s = 1 million bytes per second. Based on internal testing; performance may vary depending upon host device, usage conditions, drive capacity, and other factors.

2 1 TB = 1 trillion bytes. Actual user capacity may be less depending on operating environment and RAID configuration. For RAID products, storage capacity is based on RAID 0 mode.

SHARE THIS POST

RELATED ARTICLES

Back to top

EVENTS CALENDAR

Are you sure you want to log out?

COMPETITION WINNER:

Franky Tsang

20230201-JessicaMichael-PW-0196-768x960

COMPETITION WINNER:

Prithvi Bhattacharya

DJI_0794-5-scaled

COMPETITION WINNER:

DIANA ABELEDA

diana_winningimage

COMPETITION WINNER:

NICK THAKE

nick thake

GRAND PRIZE WINNER:

NGOC TAI NGO

ngoc.tai.ngo (1)

COMPETITION WINNER:

LEE RAPER

Lee Raper - Man On Rock

FIRST 300 SIGN-UPS:

First NameLast Name
WilliamLy
BrittanyLong
MaxThum
StephanieBinder
GeoffreyVillarosa
JoeHupp
MatthewHarris
JamesDent
AngieOCallaghan
JaneTan
AnnLee
BradleyPurcell-Fitt
AdiRex
ElyasDaud
MarcusVisic
AnitaMclennan
JohnathanDevereux
TessKanschat
gerrylu
DavidAcheson
OjuShah
MaireKivec
MaheshGanganarasaiah
WesleyPearson
GregMounsey
MarnieSilke
ArienneMaclean
GlenJenkins
NicoleHeyes
SamanthaShih
AGConway
ElmarAkhmetov
SharvinRagoobeer
GeraldinePadua
GeePadua
JosephUng
BrodyMarsh
MichelleGade
BenLocke
NeilHelmore
ClintColombin
DavidMurphy
AndrewPike
JaySmith
ClarenSo
MarkRamet
YiFanZhong
ChrisKopinto
LeighAnderson
AnilShahi
MichaelMcNeill
MichaelTan
TravisWhitehead
HeatherBarpalias
MichelleCheung
AlainAlford
LeoSantos
EleishaTurner
RegJanetzki
PatriciaMazur
MarisaPoulos
SarahCornford
KenWilles
BishalBista
ShawnCrowther
AnthonyMessina
RebeccaHansen
JamialArnol
RyanMathieson
AlannaMatthews
ArunaaRamakrishnan
AldrinRedolme
ShaunRichens
AmandaPhillips
DonnaTrickey
JoeyScollo
EliStrange
TristanWinter
KarlDu Preez
RyleyCrabbe
CassieDenney
LeanneKendall
BelindaThompson
StephenRetzlaff
ShawnaJames
JasmineMaguire
BrendanD’Silva
IanGeorge
NorzaChan
AnnWong
AaronCounsell
  
JiteshJayaraman
GregnApril
BarbaraMarshall
DeeDee
DIANAOZELIS
ErnieDonato
Paul-Leccaculo
Stronzo-Colosimo
PenelopeIssa
AmyClissold
KohenForrest
LeanneDodd
TanakornThongfuang
claudiaprice
HarleyWeston
MagdaleneSoh
JacquelineDodd
EddieUnal
JonDonovan
RobertMarriott
MatthewTang
CathieTranent
JulesParker
LeanneJay
JingZhang
OllieNguyen
JamesLam
DavidLee
JaswinderSingh
MichaelCasha
PatrickZahn
KayvanMirabel
PenelopeRieschiek
Jennypatrizio
PaulCavanagh
TracyMILLARD
JamesDong
TerenceKwong
SuleymanMaamari
ZahliBiggs
GregParker
SusanThorp
MykkyLuong
PaulPowell
MarkD
DerekTse
BrianSharp
RemyJi
SteveHarpley
ScottRose
JoshuaAllsop
GregRobinson
LuLu
anantsrivastava
JessicaChhai
jinjianwu
LuanaMoreno
HeathLow
LOUISE-ANNEPILSBURY
DillonQuintieri
Ying HaoAu
AdenMcKinley
MatthewIp
JoshuaAkers
BaljinderDhillon
EddyYang
ChristopherWalker
JustinCheung
StephenWebb
JimmyT
MichaelShaw
TrevorSpringate
AndrewGeorge
NaingLinn
johnni
LouBarwick
MohammedHammoud
RogerSun
rishinaik
JCCheak
GlennSanders
StazaSherlock
DeeReddy
FreddiTan
LloydHird
MatthewHill
TyJusten
GuyJackson
FelixChong
JenRobinson
StephenHoward
ScottLewicki
MickGillies
BenMcPhee
DavidHermit
davidcraker
DavidPham
AndrewCarlson
LoiHuynh
AshleySelf
KrishnaTripathee
IvanLazarus
BrendanLambourne
TaniaMarshall
JacquilineLaw
NathenSieben
JordynMontague
KirstyCollister
HannahJeffs
LisaGough
WilliamDillon
BenElliott
IvannaHo
JessPearson
AlanJennison
KelleyForrester
GaaneshPrasad
LawrenceDMello
AndreaCherie
SamanthaBainrot
MichaelKeenan
RijoshShrestha
jademerrilees
ElitaSo
IanHeywood
NeilMenezes
JayneCorrie
HowardChien
JaiMag
BrucePatching
MichelleAnstey
BenjaminShih
IainFoster
DanielLinnet
HashiliMuhammed Kunju Abdul
BrianHancock
JustinCannon
EiriniAlligiannis
JonathanFurlong
AidanLindsay
Su YiLow
MitchellPescud
EyreMamintada
RobertCooper
BoryKrouch
ShaneGrocke
DesmondWong
JanetWilliams
AlexDarius
ZiyiHuang
KylieMiller
BrianClark
MarkAlsop
KeithOgden
TerryLuo
BeauWalker
DuncanCadman
MateuszKrysztofiak
EugeneMeany
LynnGill
KevinThornhill
PaulineWong
NelsonRodriguez
JaysonRalston
SimoneKurtz
JaradGreenshields
ParadisePictures
StuartCoutts
JessicaBain
NickBasiliou
JasminVassallo
JagroopSingh
DarrenWoodward
Hsiang-MinLIU
CarolineLowe
LeanneVogt
Dasun NirmalaMalaarachchi
JosephCasserly
VanceErdmann
ROBLOXRoblox
RileyReynolds
SandhuSingh
KaydenCollins
ChannaHatharasinghe
HudsonMcGrath
vireshNatha
MaxJames
TranKim
TomTegel
AndrewRenton
FranMussared
WilliamTrang
NoeLegasto
MarkRamsden
BCOrchard
MaritzaLegasto
RamiRabba
KimNguyen
LucasDaly
SunnWynn
CianO’Reilly
ilyasesa
ZacharyHill
GavinLee
JewelHolly
ShaunHarvey
ScottStramyk

 

GRAND PRIZE WINNER:

DAVID BRAYBROOKE

david

FIRST 200 SIGN-UPS:

First NameLast Name
MelanieMacleod
RodneyOlsen
ChristianCube
AnneLee
JohnLee
milantutic
VickiLaurie
PeteMorgan
MichelleHarty
DooksHan
FelipeMerola
LauraClarke
Ai Ping 
LeylaChoueiri
KarenMashford
JanelleVassallo
JamesWatts
DeborahOstler
SandraWall
MichelleFay
TaniaZheng
ShellHoughton
RichardMorton
TJWebb
JakePaint
ClaudioFagnano
JudithFoyster
SueWilson
DominiqueFouet
SophieElliott
MouryaDave
RebbeccaWatkins
NeilPhillips
JonNeaves
JMatheson
WallyJaskolski
MickGillies
TerryMaki
KarenHodson
LawrenceGapuz
Ann MareeSculley
AUDRAGADE
PeterBiggs
Marniesilke
AdamCarver
findlaystevenson
JieZheng
CalvinWard
JunDai
JulieMorgan
BlairHeading
Jasonknight
NicholasDorbie
IanConnon
RayRuhland
SunilShrestha
JohnMay
NgaNguyen
KashyapMarfatia
MichaelChaumont
JanetteChaumont
AllanShostak
SoniaLaws
BenWatson
MikeGiltrow
SaminaHasan
LynnRoberts
CarolynFoy
AlanBastick
GlenysLilley
JohnChubb
ParryCoker
MeganBrain
NatashaNguyen
roserose
NeilRough
TaminaPratt
RemyMoreland
JamesStrachan
JohnBourd
MargaretChafer
GraemeLane
DanielFernandes
WendyFernandes
NatashaMcDonald
MickMcMaster
ShaunLo-Ma
JohnHe
Daivik 
ApoorvKashyap
BrentLoy
SixianHuang
KennyDuong
EdwardWolfe
manojKumar
AndyChen
Kheriwala 
NuaymBudiman
GlebeZhivoglyadov
DayuLiu
RithikK
AnthonyDe Vincentis
PunitSingh
GarethPerry
RidhamShah
PeterHaynes
XIAOSULIAO
GaryLo
AndrewVo
DomLu
AlanBu
SujayShah
KelaSen
TerryLuo
WingChung
ArthurAung
KyleTan
TedLi
JimmyLim
VickyWu
JonathanTruong
JayChan
TianO
WeijianWang
Yuan weiFan
MahipJoshi
AndyChen
JosephWang
LeslieWong
JessicaMueller
JosephWang
HigorSilva
WayneLy
SamL
ChristopherSurendra
DanielLutz
YuLee
TommyGunawan
FreeSample
JoeFire
Kenny 
DerekYang
Justin 
KwongKiu
Sau ChunHo
JonathanTaleski
NeilJain
ZhengZhi
WinsSt
JulesF
Hok SumYu
SatishAitha
bruce 
DalbirSingh
JonathanBaptiste
Shanshan 
VinnieGulati
AdrianLee
LukeToohey
Phillip 
Jacky 
Mas199google
MichaelWong
NickoC
Hok YuKou
AsadM
StuartCOATES
ggsdgs 
JiaC
Lee 
MarkLockwood
HimanshuGoyal
HuiTeh
FrankDing
PaulScroce
HMing 
lucasJanson
LeoHadi
RohanSingh Kalkat
TegbirSingh
Dan 
ZoranMircevic
T.Y.Chua
LiangLiang
RakeshBalakrishnan
EllenorDay
RobertWong
AndrewTeoh
TullyB
ShanePerrott
KapilYewale
DavidClapper
AamirSheikh
DennisLam
DjunaediHadiwidjaja
JordanMessenger
Dao 
VisitOz
AndrewNg
SimonWong

 

GRAND PRIZE WINNER:

TONY CHIK

FIRST 400 SIGN-UPS:

First NameLast Name
OwenDyson
CarlosCarrión
PerajeevPuleanthiran
AnthonyLee
VlastislavŠevčík
EmmaYuile
Yau-KwangHan
TodSheaves
JohnTraynor
MarkHarrison
DuncanDodd
FionaBirt
NarelleCrozier
FionaBirt
CharlesStinchcomb
ILLONATOBIN
StanleyAryanto
InaJ Photography
LynOsborne
ZoeMcGrath
JoLyons
MiaSpan
CristalCachia
KendalO’Reilly
ErinKing
KellyBarker
VickyWaistell
MickiWells
ErinSchwartzkopf
DaniMusicka
BarbaraBrady-Smith
PeterSharp
CarolineTelfer
JanineDavies
GarryGenova
LynnRoberts
DillonQuintieri
DaveFarringdon
ManalAmzal
TravisHope
UlrichMoshammer
RichardMillar
ManjilRanjit
BrettKelly
UgyenWangchuk
TylerXia
Frankpatterson
ChrisDillon
SabiShah
DipeenDahal
JonathanCousins
KevinWong
WesleyUng
AlexFarani
StefanusTambun
BrentonTripley
  
DanielCai
HarrisonSchaler
AaronMcKay
MikeGlazier
BirenThakali
KimKuhlman
GaryRoberts
KimMcAvoy
ValRoche
VincentLo
DavidMcKay
AhmadKhan
GerryDwyer
ShaneRichardson
SkyeForster
LeeSchatkowski
MattHassan
DanielGuymer
NealaGillespie
CraigGreer
SherryPfeiffer
TonyMcDonough
KaneYeomans
GustavoAcero
AlexChao
JasonWilliams
JayHall
EmmaLitchfield
DarrylDean
JoshNortheast
ScottBroad
ShonaRobinson
MalcolmEllis
MarkGarvey
AndrewLindner
SachaWalker
AliceMitchell
ChristinaLungo
DavidBraybrooke
DavidTurnbull
MatejPribelsky
WonjoonKim
GregBates
AdamGardner
DavidCarley
AlexChan
SeanDarcy
KevinWong
MichaelPotter
LaurenDean
ShaneBroadbent
JatinAnand
SumeetKumar
TamaraDaniels
Michael 
ShannanThyer
AngusPeady
ChristopherTung
AnneDavies
GeorgiaStone
JoshuaPalmer
JordanMitchell
AnthonyChung
TuLe
GaugeKrahe
BradMarlow
JosiahYounes
SherieKennedy
DavidHuynh
CyrilAu
MichaelLewandowski
jamessellwood
LucasMunday
DeanMackie
RemyHarmon
DemiKhong
Jhin JiacWong
AshleyHinds
BenjaminYates
ASAMIWEAVER
Se HongJeon
VijaySoundrapandian
ThomasHouse
BradleySwanson
AlexBoyd
JessicaHouse
RichardHuynh
JadeO’Shea
DesleyGeeves
IanHaigh
DanielO’Brien
BeauWyngarde
ArmandoGiaccotto
MarcoPham
JevonGuymer
KyleDavies
WilliamMurdock
SimonPotts
AngelaCox
PatrickMcMahon
PeteCochran
ScottGrant
AnthonyBennett
CoreyLee
MickHalls
AndrewLocke
MichaelPeng
SohanSilva
wingchan
BenBosanac
BaileyRowland
RodneyLindner
JulieCrisp
LanceMillan
RachelFerlazzo
danielapapalia
MargaretPritchard
AbdunMahmood
NaziaAhmed
JohnChubb
MikeXu
StevenCook
warrengirdlestone
MinaG
AndrewSparrow
JamesSharpe
tashawalker
TabathaMcCarthy
AndrewCai
TRAVISCaruana
XiaoLin
ShobhanaBommireddipalli
KenChiou
BradleyMichelbach
OliverDela Cruz
MartySparhawk
ChrisDaumann
PaulMiles
AdrianKonkol
RobertBarbarossa
ChrisLay
JoshDi Vincenzo
AaronWoodland
AlisterCurtain
KeithBuss
LaurenRuneckles
SonjaHolness
AlisonLee
jamesgartner
EmilyBallard
JoelManners
MathewGilgen
MichaelDulihanty
HandiSutanto
YongYe
ForestLin
Virgil Duane
Van Schoonhoven
MarkBacci
ChrisGotse
JamesTanzil
LesBartley
StevenTonkin
SimonDigregorio
LiamHumphreys
NicholasRuiz
BodenMatthews
KaushikaMihiran
RicoHohne
JeffHar
JasonWilson
lynsamuel
NigelWesley
PaulAgussol
WayneAhgow
StewartYates
MalcolmJoosse
RichardHarrison
IanChennell
CallumSimpson
BenjaminByrd
MarkMason
DarrenEarley
AndrewBailey
IanJaggard
AndrewBrown
KateClark
DannyChau
WarrenFischer
KieranFlynn
ScottCruse
PeterFertykowski
DanielBlack
YuenChan
JohnMelling
FordKilleen
RobertGorial
AdamRucinski
TonyCook
MarkMales
NathanCarra
JohnKruger
RayChan
BinLiu
RobertLoomans
StevenSokiasoglou
DylanPrava
MichaelLamrock
GregO’Brien
deanfooote
PerezArvidson
AdrianMifsudq
DominicThomas
SteveBonnici
PatrickBasister
GerardGrundy
RobertHudson
ChinChen
GeorgeAngelogiannos
JeffSandford
TheoKatzeff
BrianBurston
GoughLui
FrederickMiley
LindaHynson
KeirRoyle
LukeTregloan
TonyBellis
JoseLin
ThomasGush
BrianO’Keefe
ZacharyTomlin
GlenisOKeefe
RickyTirta
NealDownward
GeoffLucas
GarryMarshall
StephenDruce
JohnCarter
GauravVasdeva
scotbarker
Suzanne RonaBermudez
AndrewMcGuire
JasonMcClellan
LloydCastillo
PhillipCoxsedge
OrkunOlcer
PaulineStewart
PaulMonks
MarkPiekarz
BradSpeechley
RileyPerger
johnni
JeffPortlock
JohnPlavins
DMarr
KhaledNasser
ManojShapally
nangao
GregGreet
SabeehHussain
LucasMcAuliffe
DirkMcCrossin
ChristopherTownsend
IsmaelNunez
AndrewGoodman-Jones
AndrewHargreaves
GarySearle
DanLawrence
DeanElliott
BryantKoh
DenzelMok
allanmilnes
KeithLewis
DennisVeneruzzo
BryceCoxhead
nathanaeljames
AndrewSaffer
RobinDouglas
DaviSoesilo
MatthewDellios
LukeMalby
AlexQuartararo
MatthewDames
Kyung YoonPark
DavidBlight
IsaacWinter
PaulKoczwara
BenWu
ScottyTidey
LachlanKennedy Clark
ColinJones
AnitaChan
BenTravia
DavidBagini
GrantWard
LachlanPeters
DavidLe
GrahameKelaher
youngbeck
AngeloPeca
MartinBawden
ScottJewell
BB
MatthewHunter
DanielKaplon
ShaneMolnar
TonyChik
EthanLe
MikeFuller
JordanLovelle
MichaelRutherford
PeterCho
DolchaiJaroensudjai
StephenBarnes
AnthonyLai
PradeepHewavitharana
PeterCheang
NelsonBacorro
BruceStreeter
JohnYu
MatthewHenson
symosymo
Ying YingTan
KrisRossow
ThomasWilliams
AllanRutter
JoelSmith
MichaelThomas
NigelTaylor
RichardCash
DavidCornell
robertbates
StephenSchulz
FredMustica
RamalaChrystal
EdwardDekkers
JimNgoh
AlanRutherford
MarkArdagh
ClarkMei
DallasPlatt
ScottAtkinson
JinuSeok