Keeping footage safe with the Samsung Portable SSD T9
Posted on Nov 2, 2026 by Lily Smith
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There was only one chance to capture Hatton Locks changing from a carpet of green to a working waterway, and Samsung’s Portable SSD T9 made sure the footage was safe.
Sometimes there is no possibility of a second take. When boats were finally allowed back through the historic Hatton Flight after months of inactivity, a small production team had one chance to document an extraordinary transformation – and keep every frame safe – so they turned to the Samsung Portable SSD T9.
The scorching UK summer of 2026 brought severe drought, hosepipe bans and restrictions on canal traffic, including sections of the historic Grand Union Canal between Birmingham and London. At Hatton in Warwickshire, the lack of movement allowed duckweed and algae to spread until the water surrounding its famous flight of 21 locks resembled a vivid green carpet.
When the locks were scheduled to reopen, the Canal & River Trust wanted to document the occasion and explain the work it carries out across our waterways.
“Shots from a drone were essential,” explains John Owen, who was charged with producing the video. “The locks were used as a location for several episodes of the hit TV show Peaky Blinders, thanks to the original historic Victorian buildings, so we had to make sure they were captured too.”
Alongside aerial views of boats churning through the algae-covered water, the production required dramatically lit talking-head interviews with two key members of the charity, plus location footage of engineers and their vehicles maintaining other parts of the lock system.
“With just one day to capture everything, there was no room for errors and the water was only going to get stirred up once,” says Owen. “With all the lights, four cameras and one of the camera operators also being the drone pilot, the pressure was on.”
That made safeguarding the footage throughout the day every bit as important as shooting it. A mix of mirrorless cameras was used alongside a 4K DJI drone, generating large quantities of high-resolution footage across different memory card formats.
Rather than waiting until the end of the shoot to discover whether everything was safely captured, files were regularly transferred via laptop to a Samsung Portable SSD T9. That meant footage could be checked, the client could approve the look and there was another copy of those irreplaceable files away from the cameras’ memory cards.
Samsung Portable SSD T9 features
Even in the slow-paced world of canal boats, speed matters in terms of memory. The Samsung Portable SSD T9’s USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 interface offers transfer speeds of up to 2000MB/s and Samsung’s TurboWrite technology provides a 180GB buffer to help maintain performance during transfers or editing. Yet all that capability comes in a drive measuring just 88x60mm and weighing only 122g.
Location production can also be a tough environment for technology. Powerful LED fixtures were used to create the dramatic look required for the interviews, adding more stands, cables and heavy equipment to an already busy location. The portable SSD’s rubberised exterior provides additional protection against the inevitable knocks of life on-set, while its specified operating temperature range of 0°C to 60°C means Britain’s more extreme summer weather poses little threat.
Advanced thermal materials and efficient power consumption help maintain stable performance when the workload increases. AES 256-bit hardware encryption provides protection for sensitive material, while Samsung Magician software offers drive-health monitoring, benchmarking and firmware updates.
By the end of the day at Hatton, the boats had done their job and the water had been churned into a working waterway. It was a transformation that happens very rarely.
For the production team, fast storage wasn’t merely about saving a few minutes copying files. The compact Samsung Portable SSD T9 provided the speed, durability and reassurance needed to keep an unrepeatable day’s footage safe – and the whole production flowing smoothly.
More information: samsung.com/uk/memory-storage/portable-ssd
New Samsung T9 256GB microSD card
There’s a new option for filmmakers looking to capture demanding footage straight to microSD that works perfectly alongside the Samsung Portable SSD T9. It’s the new Samsung T9 256GB microSD card, which combines high capacity with the speed needed for data-heavy recording – making it a natural fit for the 4K DJI drone used on the Hatton shoot.
Sequential read speeds reach up to 200MB/s, while writes of up to 130MB/s keep pace when the bit rate climbs. The UHS-I card carries U3 and V30 ratings, confirming its suitability for 4K UHD video capture, alongside an A2 rating for application performance.
Being fast is only half the story when a card is heading out on location. Samsung has also engineered in protection against water, extreme temperatures, X-rays, magnets, drops and wear. So whether it’s high above the canal in a drone or being swapped between kit on the towpath, there’s some serious resilience packed into that tiny 256GB card.
