The digital camera magazine, a simple card you can slot into the camera to shoot footage on, hardly seems like an arena for innovation. Sure, companies like Jinni.tech are able to compete on price, but the fundamental form factor doesn't seem like a likely place to innovate, especially since it needs to work with existing camera bodies.
A camera manufacturer might radically change the form factor of its cameras and mags at the same time, but changing the form of just the mag isn't something you see every day.
However, KipperTie, a UK based company that makes a variety of interesting high-end accessories, has decided to change that with the new Longtake RED mag.
By changing the form factor, KipperTie is able to make a 2TB mag. At 8K full format 23.98 at 5:1 compression (the largest files), that should allow for more than 2 hours of footage on a single mag. Turn up the compression, or go to a lower frame size, and you will see even longer record times.
This reminds us a little of the old 2000 foot magazines you could get from Panavision cameras, though those of course only went up to 20 minutes, and here you could shoot a whole feature to a single mag.
Tech Specs
- Samsung 860 EVO M.2 SATA SSD
- Optional USB-C Port
- Rated to 1200TBW , tested to 3000 TBW
Instead of being built around mSATA like the MINI-MAG, the technology inside is driven by a Samsung 860 EVO M.2 SATA SSD that is rated for up to 1200TBW, or "Terabytes Written," or 600 read/write cycles for the 2TB drive.
KipperTie has taken it one step further and tested the drives to up to 3000TB written, and include complimentary data recovery with every Longtake sold.
While the size of the drive, expanding out from the normal MINI-MAG is itself innovative, the other most interesting feature is the optional USB-C port.
Instead of needing a MINI-MAG reader to download, this allows users to directly plug the MINI-MAG into a USB-C capable hard drive, which will bus power the Longtake.
This should make some aspects of production simpler and form a solid back-up even if you already have a reader, and is frankly a feature we hope rolls out soon to all camera magazine drives.
The Longtake will be available in November for $1750, with an additional $50 or so for the USB-C port. Check out the KipperTie site for more.
Source: KipperTie
