What SSDs should I use with the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K (June 2015)

Certified SSDs for Blackmagic Production Camera 4K (June 2015)

The following SSDs are recommended for 4K RAW and ProRes captures:

Angelbird AV Pro 250 GB

Angelbird AV Pro 500 GB

Digistor 1TB SSD 4K Professional Video Series (DIG-PVD1000, pre-formatted ExFat)

Kingston HyperX Savage 120 GB (SHSS37A/120G)

Kingston HyperX Savage 240 GB (SHSS37A/240G)

Kingston HyperX Savage 480 GB (SHSS37A/480G)

Kingston HyperX Savage 960 GB (SHSS37A/960G)

Samsung 256 GB 850 Pro (MZ-7KE256BW, spacer required)

Samsung 512 GB 850 Pro (MZ-7KE512BW, spacer required)

Samsung 1 TB 850 Pro (MZ-1T0BW, spacer required)

Sandisk Extreme Pro 240GB (SDSSDXPS-240G-G25)

Sandisk Extreme Pro 480GB (SDSSDXPS-480G-G25)

Sandisk Extreme Pro 960GB (SDSSDXPS-960G-G25)

Wise Cinema CMS-0240 240 GB

The following SSDs are recommended 4K and 1080 Apple ProRes (HQ) 422 captures:

ADATA XPG SX900 256GB (ASX900S3-256GM-C)

Angelbird 240GB AV Pro

Angelbird 480GB AV Pro

Digistor 240GB SSD Professional Video Series (DIG-PVD240S, pre-formatted ExFat)

Digistor 480GB SSD Professional Video Series (DIG-PVD480S, pre-formatted ExFat)

Intel 530 Series 180GB SSD (SSDSC2BW180A401)

Intel 530 Series 240GB SSD (SSDSC2BW240A401)

Kingston 240 GB HyperX 3K (SH103S3/240G)

Kingston 480 GB HyperX 3K (SH103S3/480G)

Kingston 240 GB SSDNow KC300 (SKC300S37A/240G)

Kingston 480 GB SSDNow KC300 (SKC300S37A/480G)

OWC 120 GB Mercury Extreme Pro 6G (OWCSSD7P6G120)

OWC 240 GB Mercury Extreme Pro 6G (OWCSSD7P6G240)

OWC 480 GB Mercury Extreme Pro 6G (OWCSSD7P6G480)

PNY CL4100 240 GB (SSD7SC240GCL4)

PNY CL4100 480 GB (SSD7SC480GCL4)

PNY Prevail 240 GB (SSD9SC240GCDA-PB)

PNY Prevail 480 GB (SSD9SC480GCDA-PB)

PNY XLR8 480GB (SSD9SC480GMDA-RB)

Sandisk Extreme 240GB (SDSSDX-240G-G25)

Sandisk Extreme 480GB (SDSSDX-480G-G25)

Transcend 256 GB SSD370 (TS256GSSD370)

Transcend 512 GB SSD370 (TS512GSSD370)

Transcend 1 TB SSD370 (TS1TSSD370)

Transcend 256 GB SSD720 (TS256GSSD720)

Important Notes About SSD Speed

Some models of SSD can’t save video data at the speed the manufacturer claims. This is due to the disk using hidden data compression to attain higher write speeds. This data compression can only save data at the manufacturer’s claimed speed when storing data such as blank data or simple files. Video data includes video noise and pixels which are more random so compression will not help, therefore revealing the true speed of the disk.

Some SSDs can have up to 50% lower write speed than the manufacturer’s claimed speed. So even though the disk specifications claim an SSD has speeds fast enough to handle video, in reality the disk isn’t fast enough when used to store video data for real time capture. However, this mostly affects HD capture and often these disks can still be used for playback.

Use Blackmagic Disk Speed Test to accurately measure whether your SSD will be able to handle uncompressed video capture and playback. Blackmagic Disk Speed Test uses data to simulate the storage of video so you get results similar to what you’ll see when capturing video to a disk. During Blackmagic testing, we have found newer, larger models of SSD and larger capacity SSDs are generally faster.