Best Media Storage Solutions for Pro Photographers

Andrew Hancock isn’t the type of photographer that has a lot of downtime from shooting. As one sports season wraps up, he’s already looking ahead to what’s coming up. And when Hancock is covering a sporting event, he’s typically overseeing the remote cameras aimed at the athletes—he estimates for a basketball or baseball game he’s managing anywhere between six to 12 cameras at a time. For horse racing, it can be as many as 20 cameras.

It’s a massive amount of data that needs to be managed after the fact. Hancock trusts the SanDisk® Professional G-DRIVE® PROJECT desktop solution which has a built-in PRO-BLADE™ SSD Mag slot, and SanDisk® PRO-CINEMA CFexpress™ Type B cards to stand up the challenge when he is out in the field.

“I’m only as fast as my slowest point and speed is everything, especially when you’re doing work for the teams,” Hancock says. “Cards can be the Achilles heel for sports photographers—we’re using high speed frame rates, and trying to get as much of the action as we possibly can. SanDisk PRO-CINEMA CFexpress Type B cards help let me push my camera to its limits.”

The SanDisk PRO-CINEMA CFexpress Type B card is a key part of Hancock’s workflow. The card is designed for professional photographers and videographers who need a high-performance, reliable storage solution. The card is compatible with a wide range of cameras, and it offers read speeds of up to 1700MB/s¹ and burst write speeds of up to 1500MB/s¹. This means that Hancock can capture high-resolution photos and videos without having to worry about his cards slowing him down.

Hancock says that SanDisk’s line of professional products has allowed him to create a daisy-chained ecosystem that works well together. The reliable, fast PRO-CINEMA CFexpress cards are loaded into the cameras, media on the cards is offloaded using the SanDisk Professional PRO-DOCK 4 or PRO-BLADE SSD Mag slots, eventually getting archived on a G-RAID® MIRROR.

“The ability to be able to pump this data as fast as it can go and wherever it can go, means I’m not having to worry about overheating issues or filling the buffer,” Hancock says. “In a clenching situation, where I want to get as much as I possibly can, these cards allow me to actually focus on capturing the moment, without worrying about missing frames.”

For Hancock, having these fast, top of the line cards and drives is as essential as his cameras and lenses when he’s on a job.

“I know I’m not going to be covering a massive event and then something’s going to fail or underperform. At the end of the day that comes back on me,” he says. “It’s like being the quarterback of the team. It doesn’t matter if the receiver dropped the ball, everything comes back to your shoulders. It’s on you. As a photographer you’ve got to make those decisions. And it’s a business decision, quite frankly.”

Professional sports photographers typically spend a good deal of time on the road—Hancock mentions that some years he has up to 200 travel days a year. Having a storage solution that’s been easy to pack up and set up on location has also been a huge part of the appeal for him. Beyond its compact size, the SanDisk PRO-CINEMA CFexpress Type B card also comes with a durable enclosure, withstanding up to 1-meter drops and the pressure of up to 50 newtons², so Hancock can be confident his data will be safe on the go.

“I’m like water, I want the path of least resistance. Having a streamlined workflow takes all the stress out of the situation for me,” he says.

For Hancock having such a streamlined workflow with storing and archiving, enables him to perform at a higher level and be more creative when he’s working. But it’s also helped him get valuable back time. “It’s made my job easier and more efficient, which ultimately means more time with my kids whenever I’m home,” he says. “I love what I do, but any second that I can get back, I want it.”

¹Up to 1700MB/s read speed; up to 1500MB/s write speed. 1400MB/s minimum sustained write speed. Based on internal testing; performance may be lower depending upon host device, usage conditions, and other factors. 1MB=1,000,000 bytes.

²Based on internal testing.