Cinedeck Extreme is the creme de la creme for recording footage

Ingenuity. Listening to the customer. Cutting-edge. These are all words that to me describe Cinedeck the makers of Cinedeck Extreme. This amazing “on the go” field recorder will make any filmmaker or videographer fall in love with it at first glance. Once they use it they are hooked forever!

Yes I too have tried many external recorders. Some work for a while. Others had a complicated workflow. This recorder is the real deal.

So what is this Cinedeck Extreme?

Cinedeck Extreme is a portable recorder, previewer and playback monitor. weighing in at a mere 3.5 pounds, this bad boy is a force to be reckoned with. For power it can use DC or battery. It comes with a mount for v mount or Anton Bower batteries. I used an Anton Bower battery in my trial.

Capturing on the cutting edge

The Cinedeck Extreme has ports on 2 sides. Side 1 has HDSDI In and Out. Single link 444. Side 2 has HDMI In and Out. The links are strategically recessed to protect the connections. I wish more gear did that. Im always messing up my cables!

The hard drives are hot swappable standard SSD. I recommend macsales.com as a place to pick them up. They are still pricey but will ultimately come down in price. At least thats what I was told at CES this year.

The Cinedeck Extreme captures using the CineForm Digital Intermediate codec, an extremely high end codec. It will record up to 2k resolution, 12-bit 4:4:4 or 10-bit 4:2:2 in avi or mov. I used CineForm on a feature I did a few years ago. It was awesome then and even better now!

The dimensions for the recorder are 5” x 8” x 3” with a super clear high rez LCD touch screen. The touch screen is easy to use and master. Changing project or scene names on the fly is simple. Watch playback and even loop it. View timecode, focusing tools, edge detection, clipping, add grids, scopes, and waveforms. This is a one stop shop!

I tested this unit with one of my Canon XHA1 cameras and did not really feel too much extra weight even when I included the Anton Bauer battery. The Cinedeck Extreme was definitely a huge addition to the workflow.

Conclusion

This is one intuitive, high quality, cutting edge product. Simple to set up and going with. The Cinedeck Extreme comes in at just under $10,000. While this may be out of reach to indie filmmakers its definteily worth saving money for. the speed to your workflow will free you up to do other things like editing! I give this product 4/5 stars for its ease of use, high quality images and functionality. If Cinedeck can ever drop the price a few grand it will fly off the shelves. For more info visit http://cinedeck.com