Samsung: The Portable SSD T7 Shield drive behind big ideas

Posted on Aug 15, 2025 by Pro Moviemaker

Samsung’s Portable SSD T7 Shield powered a high-pressure shoot at a new business innovation centre

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When you’re filming in a gleaming new innovation hub with three shooters, four cameras, a drone, zero margin for error, a client expecting to see rushes before you’ve even packed up and only one day to wrap, the last thing you want to worry about is storage.

But for Hannah Buckle, creative director and co-founder of content agency Waldock and Buckle, that was the reality of a recent shoot. And the unsung hero that kept the whole project running smoothly was the compact, ultra-rugged Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield.

“We were filming inside this stunning new space built to support entrepreneurs – it’s clean and modern, ready to be filled with people doing seriously smart things,” begins Buckle. “But behind the scenes, it was a challenge. Cards were filling up fast, footage was being passed between shooters and we had to check rushes while we were still capturing B roll. We needed storage that was fast, dependable and wouldn’t throw a tantrum under pressure.”

With a lot of trust in Samsung storage built over years, she turned to the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield: a pocket-sized and feather-light portable drive that provides a heavyweight performance. With sequential read speeds up to 1050MB/s and write speeds up to 1000MB/s via USB 3.2 Gen 2, the team could transfer full camera cards – sometimes over 50GB of high-bit-rate 4K video – in just a few minutes.

“That speed makes such a difference,” adds Buckle. “The moment a card came out, it went straight to the portable drive via my laptop; no waiting around or bottlenecks. It meant we could dump footage without missing a beat.”

But this wasn’t just a basic dump-and-run set-up. With three shooters capturing different video formats – from cinematic multicamera interviews to 50-megapixel Raw stills, plus aerial drone footage – the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield became the central nervous system of the entire production workflow.

“The fact that it worked with everything was a lifesaver,” she says. “We had various cameras and drones all recording different codecs. I didn’t have time to reformat or troubleshoot compatibility. The portable drive handled it all without complaint.”

Weighing a mere 98g and measuring only 88mm long, 59mm wide and 13mm thick, the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield fits in your pocket but doesn’t flinch in a high-pressure situation. It’s IP65-rated for both water and dust resistance, with an aluminium unibody and rubberised casing that offers drop protection up to 3m. And such resilience proved crucial during the fast-paced, multi-location shoot.

“Stuff gets knocked. It gets left on surfaces while you’re setting up a slider. But the portable drive kept going,” says Buckle. “Honestly, it handled the stress better than I did.”

Two people sit in armchairs in a meeting room with a large map on the wall

A man in a formal shirt sits at a desk in an office working at a computer

The shoot was a promotional push for a business accelerator programme that’s aimed at giving start-ups a physical space to grow with access to expert mentors. Waldock and Buckle was tasked with producing a complete marketing toolkit in a single shoot day: a main promo video, social media reels, interviews, B roll and a suite of photography for online use.

“The building was being opened the next day and would be packed with people, so there was no room for error,” according to Buckle. “We couldn’t go back to reshoot. Every clip had to be checked to make sure it was usable – that’s why I needed trustworthy storage. One glitch, one lost file and it would have been a disaster.”

The Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield comes in capacities up to 4TB, which was more than enough for a full day of high-res footage. And with AES 256-bit hardware encryption and optional password protection via Samsung Magician software, Buckle had peace of mind that material was kept secure, even for handovers and travel.

Samsung Magician software also lets the team check drive health and performance, which proves useful on-set when working across different machines. The portable drive works seamlessly across Windows, MacOS, Android and even directly with certain cameras. It ships with USB-C to
C and USB-C to A cables in the box too.

“One less cable to remember, one less headache!” exclaims Buckle.

For a device so small, the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield became the beating heart of a complex creative operation. From lightning-fast file transfers to on-the-fly editing support and rugged reliability in a live shooting environment, it proved itself more than worthy of a place in Buckle’s core set-up.

Available in 1TB and 2TB in blue, beige and black – with the latter colour also sold as a 4TB version – the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield is ready to handle whatever the real world throws at it.

In a shoot where everything was on the line, Buckle’s vision was backed by a tiny portable drive with a massive impact.

Hi-res drone meets its match

With a drone that can shoot in 5.1K in Apple ProRes 422 HQ, that’s a lot of data to be stored, and a lesser micro SD can’t keep up. Although the drone has a built-in 1TB SSD, it also takes micro SD cards to use as an instant backup. So Buckle made sure both were in play when shooting the building that houses the business think tank.

The choice of card was obvious: Samsung’s latest PRO Plus micro SD. Available in up to 1TB sizes and with a read speed of 180MB/s and write speed of 130MB/s, it’s also V30 rated.

The card comes with an SD adapter, so can be downloaded directly to a laptop with an SD slot or via a card reader. And it’s quick to download, which pays real dividends on shoots.