iPhone filmmakers are living on the edge - of a technology revolution in media. While other image capturers are borrowing friend’s trucks and vans to lug portabraces full of camera equipment, batteries and chargers to a legitimately permitted location, the enlightened are sliding their 4.9 oz film studio out of their pocket and quietly whispering “action”. Ok, maybe I’m laying it on a little thick, but the truth is, if you’re using your iPhone to make any kind of expressive media, you are out there. And one thing that every pioneer has experienced is roadblocks. Rarely is the path clear. For instance, what do you do with all this wonderful stuff you’re shooting? In this case I’m not referring to how to edit it, or what cool effects to put on it. I mean, where are you going to store it? Sure, you could keep it on your hard drive, but come on, everyone knows that’s a no no. Ok, so you get an external drive. A nice firewire 400 or 800 or even a USB 2.0 drive. Yeah, at the lower bit rate of h.264′s that should probably work, but we all know that faster interfaces make you go just a little less crazy when making movies, and what happens when firewire is finally put out to pasture? If you’ve bought a new mac lately, you’ve probably seen that the writing is on the wall. The storage tech of the future (at least for mac users) is Thunderbolt. Ugh.
ECHO ExpressCard/34 Thunderbolt Adapter by Sonnet
Don’t get me wrong, I think Thunderbolt is amazing, with its 10 gigabit throughput it puts every other storage interface to shame (including Fibre Channel - WHAT!?), and its port is so small and cute, I kinda want to take it out for a couple of drinks. But like any new technology, it ain’t cheep! Also, because of its unique architecture, its sort of an “all in” storage solution. If you bought a new mac then you have it, but if you want to incorporate it into an existing system, you are out of luck. Finally, if you’re anything like me you have a hodgepodge of storage solutions sitting around with media that you can’t get rid of but that you also don’t feel like letting take up any space on your awesome new 12 terabyte Thunderbolt Pegasus (no, I don’t have that, but I do dream of it). If only there was a way to plug the end of your amazing thunderbolt daisy chain into something that could plug into some of your old firewire stalwarts or an eSata periphery that you just can’t live without but that you’re new Macbook air doesn’t have a port for or your new Macbook pro has run out of port space for.
Enter the ECHO ExpressCard/34 Thunderbolt Adapter
Does it solve all of our thunderbolt issues (or more importantly, the really big one of plugging new thunderbolt drives into old systems)? No. However it is an example of how the Periphery industry is trying to catch up to what Intel and Apple are doing. Basically, it has thunderbolt in the back and a slot in the front with a firewire adapter or eSata adapter up front as well as some Memory card readers. I’ll let them describe why this is awesome:
“Imagine adding more FireWire® ports or an eSATA interface through a single Thunderbolt adapter! This card adapter allows you to choose your connections and add more to your setup. Because this adapter supports hot-swapping, you can select and change the ExpressCard to use as needed—it supports most Sonnet ExpressCard/34 cards (with a PCI Express interface), such as our FireWire interfaces, CompactFlash and SDXC card readers, and select eSATA controllers. It also will support most specialty bus-interface products like the interface adapter for AJA io Express.”
Did you catch that at the end? The AJA io Express… Aha, that is where this becomes useful. If you have a media system where you are importing HD footage using the AJA io Express, but you are switching to a new thunderbolted system, this could be for you. Or, if you are using a video card that uses an eSata interface with your old mac pro and are switching to any other type of mac where you can’t just pop cards in and out, this could open up a whole new world to you as far as peripheries are concerned.
The truth is if you’re an iPhone filmmaker, you probably don’t need this for the specific job of creating with your studio in a pocket. We can edit on our phones and store in the cloud. Bandwith Schmandwidth. But, if you’re an iPhone filmmaker, then you should be interested in these kinds of things. They are on the bleeding edge, just like you, and who knows when your paths may need to cross. Its best to be informed.