Sony announces new ‘G-Series’ branded solid state drives for pro video recorders

 

 

Sony has announced a new series of solid state drives designed for professional-level external video recording devices. The drives are docked to camcorder or high-performance DSLRs, and their major selling point is their long life. The speed of the new drives provides a more efficient, stable and flexible high-bitrate recording flexibility that shooters in the field will be happy to find. Sony says their "G Series SSDs deliver optimal performance for several popular professional video recording devices, while offering a far longer lifetime" than other drives available. 

Using Sony’s Error Correction Code technology, the 960GB G Series SSD achieves up to 2400 TBW (terabytes written), while the 460GB drive can reach 1200 TBW, resulting in less frequent replacement while shooting. 2400 TBW translates to about 10 years of use for the SV-GS96, if data is fully written to the drive an average of five times per week.

The drives are also designed for ultra-fast, stable data writing. Sony says that "while other SSDs have a tendency for data write speeds to suddenly drop after repeated re-write cycles, Sony G Series SSDs feature built-in technology preventing sudden speed decreases, while ensuring stable recording of high bitrate 4K video without frame dropping." Their example is use with the Atomos Shogun Inferno, which the new drives are able to record on at 4Kp60 (ProRes 422 HQ) mode stably and without interruption. 

When paired with the necessary connection cables, the new G Series drives can be effortlessly removed from a recorder and connected to a computer for file downloading, making editing easier and faster with read speeds up to 550MB/s. The G Series SSDs also offer data protection technology that keeps content secure and intact, even if a sudden power failure occurs. To add to the drive’s stability, it features a durable connector which withstands extreme repeated insertion and removal up to 3000 times – or 6 times more tolerance than standard SATA connectors – even in harsh conditions.

Sony’s SSD G Series is planned to be available May 2017 at suggested retail prices of $539 for SV-GS96 and $287 for SV-GS48.