550D stops recording after about 20 seconds for fast shutter speed

Granjow

Active member
Good day,

My brother recently got a 32GB SanDisk SDHC card, Class 4. When recording with 1/4000 s the 550D usually stops after around 20 seconds. The buffer indicator still shows only one bar then (which I interpret as it not being full). When lowering the shutter speed to 1/30 this problem does not exist and 3.7 GB videos can be recorded in one piece.

Comparing the file sizes of footage with different shutter speed shows that the bit rate is equal.

It cannot be a heat issue as well as it is possible to record as long as possible right after recording has been stopped when switching back to 1/30. And using a Class 6 card does not show this problem at all.

This does not make sense to me. Why should the shutter speed cause the 550D to stop recording?

Granjow
 
try a class 6 card. or another brand. or a different capacity.

added; just thought about the class 6, i was thinking of my CF card in my 7D not sdhc card, so i'm not sure if it has this type. But in any case, try a different card.
 
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These cameras require fast cards. the slow ones can't handle the data rate. Its not your camera. its the card.

In another forum, one user reported them overheating after a short number of minutes, changing the card fixed his problem.
 
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Please, my question was:



and not whether I should take a faster card. I've already written that it does work with a faster one.

Remember that shooting @ faster shutter speeds means that its writing data faster. So your issue is the card which everyone is mentioning.

1/1000 = its writing 1000 frames per second..
1/30 = its writing 30 frames per second..

So if your card cant write fast enough, it'll cause the buffering issue.. Class 6 or higher.. I'd honestly grab a class 10 if you are shooting that fast for long periods.. (i havent shot that fast, so maybe class 6 may be sufficient, but better safe than sorry right?)

OR

ND filter so you can lower your shutter speed and avoid the buffering, but we dont know what you're shooting so thats up to you..
 
Remember that shooting @ faster shutter speeds means that its writing data faster. So your issue is the card which everyone is mentioning.

1/1000 = its writing 1000 frames per second..
1/30 = its writing 30 frames per second..

So if your card cant write fast enough, it'll cause the buffering issue..

???

Sorry, either I'm missing something very fundamental or someone else is.

I've written that

  • NO, it does NOT seem to be a buffering issue because the buffer indicator displays 1/4 full only.
  • It can't be a buffer issue either because switching to 1/30 caused EXACTLY the same bit rate, but then it is possible to record as long as the FAT32 file system allows it.
  • 1000 fps? haha. This was a good one.



@teddybear So the card overheated? Will check that. Doesn't explain either why it does only for high shutter speeds though.

Granjow
 
A lot swear by sandisk class 6 or higher. This is for sdhc. For CF my 7D is running on transcends and kingstons.
What card maker are you using?
 
LOL a couple of years ago a film school professor told me the same thing about 1/1000 shutter recording 1000 fps haha... I kept saying "are you sure?"...

Do you see the buffer icon? As you say it's kind of weird, the camera should even have more time to process the frames right? It's not like a faster shutter requires more processing, or maybe it does?

Maybe somehow something happens and at certain moments the camera ends up needing to work faster with the next frame.
 
Yes, there is the buffer icon. I only once saw it going to level 2, but then it went down to 1 again. Interestingly it's rather at 0 when shooting with 1/30 s and at 1 with 1/8000 s.

I also wondered whether processing «fast» frames might require higher computational effort, but again, it works with a fast card. So it must be something with the card. And apparently buffering is not the problem.
 
Remember that shooting @ faster shutter speeds means that its writing data faster. So your issue is the card which everyone is mentioning.

1/1000 = its writing 1000 frames per second..
1/30 = its writing 30 frames per second..

So if your card cant write fast enough, it'll cause the buffering issue.. Class 6 or higher.. I'd honestly grab a class 10 if you are shooting that fast for long periods.. (i havent shot that fast, so maybe class 6 may be sufficient, but better safe than sorry right?)

OR

ND filter so you can lower your shutter speed and avoid the buffering, but we dont know what you're shooting so thats up to you..

That's simply not the case, it's writing 1/1000th of a second at 24fps or 30fps. In any case, the reason you would get card speed errors with this is how much detail is being encoded as you move the camera around at a 1/1000th shutter speed. None of it is being turned into motion blur, it's just all there for the camera to have to compress, so it's causing problems with a slower card. A faster card should help, but even then the codec will likely start breaking down with that much stuff happening...probably want to go to an ND filter.
 
I will try recording at a high shutter speed on my class 10 cards that have never produced a buffer, when I get home tonight.

Ben B is right, it is only taking a 1/1000th of a second sample 24 times a second. The only thing that is going faster is the time each pixel is sampling light for. Theoritically, this COULD be overloading the processor on the camera and causing it to "trip" over itself...

It's like when you try and take a still photo during recording using really high quality settings, the manual states sometimes recording will stop because the camera's processor becomes overloaded.

I will do a test a home (or someone else can, before I get home) to see if the same thing happens to me.
 
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