7D video recording time ...

[colin_davidson1]

<p>Hi,<br>

When the firmware for the 7D was released allowing video files of 29.99’ to be recorded, we all downloaded the update. However, it would appear that this function has now stopped working on my 7D (despite what it says in the lower left of the screen).<br>

I am using Lexar x 300 and x 600 UDMA cards which are excellent but still the 7D drops out of ‘record’ mode after 12/15 minutes.<br>

Any ideas as to why? Finger trouble in the menus maybe?<br>

Thanks,<br>

Col</p>

[alan_bryant1]

<p>How hot is the camera? It might be overheating. Could also be the battery dying.</p>

[ljwest]

<p>There are a few caveats to that, as I recall. You might like to review these points below, as well as the manual section on movie shooting, just in case you overlooked something that is going on when it stops recording.</p>

<p>BTW - Canon issued a new manual download for the 7D with Firmware 2.x. These references are from a PDF copy of the USA manual.</p>

<p>Manual page 163, 1st bullet point: "If the attached lens has an Image Stabilizer, the Image Stabilizer will operate at all times even if you do not press the shutter button halfway. The Image Stabilizer may cause the total movie shooting time or the number of possible shots to decrease."</p>

<p>Manual page 163, 6th bullet point: "If you use a card having a slow writing speed, a five-level indicator might appear on the right of the screen during movie shooting. It indicates how much data has not yet been written to the card (remaining capacity of the internal buffer memory). The slower the card, the faster the indicator will climb upward. If the indicator becomes full, movie shooting may stop automatically."</p>

<p>Manual Page 164, 3rd bullet point: "If movie shooting continues while the <temperature> warning icon is displayed, the camera's internal temperature will further increase and movie shooting may stop automatically"</p>

[colin_davidson1]

<p>Alan, Larry, thank you both for your replies.</p>

<p>Firstly, the function was working well up until a few weeks ago (using the same cards), but let’s go through your points:</p>

<p>1 - The camera is not showing any signs of increasing in temperature. No parts of it appear hotter than any other.</p>

<p>2 - The batteries are fully charged and working well.</p>

<p>3 - I am using a 35mm lens without IS.</p>

<p>4 - I am using a 16GB x600 Lexar Pro UDMA. The function worked with this until a few weeks ago.</p>

<p>5 - Other than the red recording dot, no other information is displayed top right of the screen. I have pressed ‘INFO’ so that I can have the max amount of info displayed on the screen.</p>

<p>I have recently upgraded the firmware to 2.0.5 but the function was not working before the upgrade.</p>

<p>Movie recording lastes between 12 and 15 minutes, despite 29,59’ being indicated lower left.</p>

<p>I look forward to your suggestions ...</p>

<p>Col</p>

[phule]

<p>[[When the firmware for the 7D was released allowing video files of 29.99’ to be recorded, we all downloaded the update.]]</p>

<p>Where is this part of the 2.0.x firmware? This page in particular states, for movie mode, "- the file length limitations are still there"<br /> http://www.cinema5d.com/news/?p=12587<br /> <br />I don't think anything has changed. The camera will stop recording when the file reaches 4GB or when you reach 29 minutes 59 seconds, whichever is first. If you're shooting full HD, you're always going to get to the 4GB mark first.<br>

<br /> This is indicated on page 161 of the user manual.</p>

[colin_davidson1]

<p>Thank you Rob. I’ll junk the 7D.</p>

[phule]

<p>[[i’ll junk the 7D.]]</p>

<p>Excellent, I have a 7D camera junking service. I'll make sure it's taken care of if you ship it to me. I'll even pay freight. </p>

[bobatkins]

<p>4GB is a hard limit set by the FAT32 file system. That's all it can address.</p>

<p>As far as I know the 7D 2.0 firmware update didn't address video in any way apart from allowing manual microphone gain settings for the recorded audio track. No change to resolution, frame rate or length of recording.</p>

[ljwest]

<p>7D firmware 2.x Manual page 161 bottom notes:<br>

"After you start shooting a movie, the movie shooting will stop automatically if the file size reaches 4 GB or if the movie time reaches 29 min. 59 sec."</p>

[PuppyDigs]

<p>If I'm shooting full HD on my 7D, I only get 11 or 12 minutes of video for stage shows (outside is slightly longer). Looking at the files, they're all 4GB. I can hit the 30 minute length only if I drop to a lower rez. As others have written, the 4GB limit is due to FAT32 size limits, not the 7D itself. So junking the 7D and buying another DSLR will have the same problems.</p>

[bobatkins]

<p>I'm not sure about this but I think some DSLRs automatically start up a new file when the 4GB limit is hit, so you do lose a couple of seconds of the action but you don't have to manually start recording again. I'm not sure how much this helps though.</p>

<p>The 30 minute limit is actually artificial in that anything that records video for more than 29min and 59.99999 seconds is classified as a video camera and subject to different international taxes (which are higher from video equipment for some reason). It's not, as is sometimes suggested, to prevent overheating. If the camera overheats it will shut itself down anyway.</p>

<p>

I think the EOS Cinema C300 will record for over 6hrs on a 64GB card with no interruptions. It's $14,000 though and I'm sure it's classified as a video camera and doesn't use the FAT32 file system.

[phule]

<p>You don't need to spend $14K on a C300 when a $5500K C100 will do. :)</p>

[jchinphotography]

<p>Does anyone know if the 7D mark 2 has a longer limit? Meaning, the ability to start writing to another file when it hits the 4GB file size?</p>

[james_volker1]

<p>I agree with Puppy... Fat32 is limited to files NO LARGER than 4gb. Canon needs to change the file system to ExFat or Mac Journaled (MJ is compatible with Windows AND Mac). Will likely never happen in a firmware update for this camera; but they may change it for newly released models.</p>