a7s LONG recording over hdmi

P

Propertv.be

Member
With slash9.tv we are recording dj sets and concerts in various clubs and festivals. At this moment we are using canon vixia/legria mini x camera's for this purpose. These are great camera's, but they lack a bit of low light capabilities.

Soon we will have some budgets to buy new camera's, and i was looking to replace our current camera's with sony A7s dslr's. This would allow us to shoot very usable video even in pitch dark clubs, something that would even be impossible with video camera's that cost 20x more.

To buy 4 of these camera's will be a huge investment, and i can't find all the info needed to make a decision.

We sometimes run our camera's 12+ hours continiously, while transferring the image over hdmi out over an sdi converter to our video mixer.

Anyone ever tried to record such a long time with an a 7s?

Will it overheat?

Will it enter sleepmode over time?

Should we record internally while using the hdmi out?

Thanks!
 
I saw a report that recording to an external recorder via hdmi bypasses the 29 minute limit. Don't think heat is a big issue then.
This is all second hand info for me though so take it for what it is.

Biggest question though: why would anyone want to film a DJ-set? ;)
 
To answer your biggest question: because it's valuable content and good promo material for deejays and promotors. Check out the websites of boilerroom.tv, be-at.tv or our own: slash9.tv. We have 70k views in 3.5 month on our channel, people really like this content :D
 
I've been making the main part of my income as a DJ for the last 20 years, there's nothing I want to watch less than people DJing ;)
Now if I could only get my video making to make a bit more money I wouldn't have to embarrass myself anymore by DJing. Maybe I should start filming other people DJing as well? ;)
 
If you want to take the risk and have the network, go for it.. We get booked on average once a week and make a little money with it.. But the initial investment is really high, you'd better book us instead :D
 
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I'm a fan of Boiler Room ... subbed to that channel on Youtube. Fantastic sets :)

And regarding the A7S ... I seriously don't think it can be used for such durations, why ?

Because I own the NEX 5N and NEX 7 both over heat before reaching the 30min mark. Sometimes you get lucky and it films for 30 mins but try it again and it will overheat within 5-10mins.

I think this issue still remains in the A7S. I am not sure. But I wouldn't be surprised if all the Sony NEX compact line all suffer from this limitation.
 
Would it help to remove the battery and use an ac adapter? I use this trick with many other camera's to prevent them from overheating.
 
I've recorded in excess of an hour from my A7S to an external recorder. It handles it just fine with uninterrupted output. Internal recording will still stop at 29 minutes. I've never had my A7S overheat, and I don't think running 12-hours through the HDMI will be a problem. (That said, I haven't done that specifically.)

The NEX 5/7 are totally different cameras. I previously owned the NEX7 and sent it back because it was horribly unreliable due to "overheating" errors. Never once had this issue with the A7S and I recently wrapped shooting for several days, outside in 100 degree weather (with high humidity) around Miami. The A7S was flawless. Remember, the A7S was designed to be video heavy. On the NEX series it always seemed like a poorly implemented afterthought.
 
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Allright, that's good news. I will rent one before buying. It's just a matter of finding a rental company that supplies it with an AC adapter, looks logical, but difficult to find one :)
 
Propertv.be said:
Allright, that's good news. I will rent one before buying. It's just a matter of finding a rental company that supplies it with an AC adapter, looks logical, but difficult to find one :)
Click to expand...

The limit for the a7s is 29 minutes and a single SD 64 gig SD card will hold about 2.5 hours of XAVC video and the battery lasts about 90 minutes. I use mine with the nija blade and it will go non stop no problem until I need to swap the battery.
 
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