Captain Video
Member
While recording with the AF100 can you swap the first card for a blank one after it has switched over to the second card? Does anyone have a user manual or experience doing this yet?
AF100 card swapping
- Thread starter Captain Video
- Start date
Barry_Green
Moderator
You cannot do that. Opening the card slot door cancels any current recording.
You can record six hours of PH mode on a single 64GB SDXC card, so there are ways around it. Relay recording will go from one card to the other, but not continuously, and if you open the door it stops recording completely.
You can record six hours of PH mode on a single 64GB SDXC card, so there are ways around it. Relay recording will go from one card to the other, but not continuously, and if you open the door it stops recording completely.
Brian@202020
Veteran
Yeah I was wondering that too. I assumed not since when the door opens you get a warning. It probably has to do with recording to SD cards. If you did this with higher quality P2 cards it would probably be fine, but SD cards would probably have a higher likelihood of becoming corrupt. Of course that is just a guess.
Well it wouldnt be hard (you would simply need to jam the little pin button that releases when the card door is opened ****WARNING DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK) BUT, you wouldnt be able to use relay record function. So at the end of one card you would have to stop and then start on the next.
Barry_Green
Moderator
IF you were absolutely certain to take the non-writing card, then maybe -- but the risk is that you could blow up an SD card if it's being accessed and you eject it. SD cards aren't P2 cards; P2 cards are designed to be able to be ejected even when they're being accessed. SD cards don't have that kind of protection in them -- which is why the whole "stop recording when the door is opened" safety mechanism was put there in the first place.
Brian@202020
Veteran
What they could have done to get around this is to have 2 doors, one over each card. Maybe the AF100A will have this
Captain Video
Member
Noel, sort of like tricking the older washing machines to continue washing when you lifted the lid up. The new ones won't let you do that so easily but there is always a way. Makes shooting roll over and agitation videos a little more difficult.
Thanks for the replies everyone. I do a lot of event recording and once in awhile hot swapping would be helpful but I can see why it can't be done with SD cards. I can usually find a breaking point to swap cards. Tape requires at least 30 sec though.
Thanks for the replies everyone. I do a lot of event recording and once in awhile hot swapping would be helpful but I can see why it can't be done with SD cards. I can usually find a breaking point to swap cards. Tape requires at least 30 sec though.
So then the question is, does the camera access both cards in some way while recording to just one? Also, does the camera know when it has already relayed from one slot to the other? So, if the camera relayed from slot 1 to 2, would it know that when slot 2 is full not even to check if slot 1 is full and can be written to?
If a card is removed while being accessed, is it permanent damage to the card? If not, I might consider testing it with mine. If it is permanent damage, if I can get hold of a couple cheapo cards for next to nothing I'd be with to test it.
Barry_Green
Moderator
That would have worked...
Is it that much of an issue though? Load up with two 64GB SDXC's and you can record for 12 hours in PH mode. It's not like the P2 days when we were using a couple of 4GB cards to record an hour-long interview! (trust me, I've been there...)
Barry_Green
Moderator
Don't know. That's why I say there's risk. Might work, might not.
Well, that's interesting, I don't know... it may not have the ability to recognize a card having been inserted while it's recording.
The warning is that yes, it could be. You can blow up a card that's ejected while it's being accessed -- either reading or writing. You might get away with it, you might not.
mkfotos.com
Well-known member
It wouldn't take much to test this - 'jam' the door microswitch, use two mostly-full cards, watch them until they've relayed, give the 2nd card a couple of minutes, replace the 1st card with a 3rd, examine the results.
...and with 128GB SDXC cards already available, that bumps the record time to the camera's maximum of 12 hours anyways, right?
...and with 128GB SDXC cards already available, that bumps the record time to the camera's maximum of 12 hours anyways, right?
Robert Sharpe
Active member
This is an interesting idea. I thought of that possibility when I first saw that it had slots for two SD cards. I think you would have to create a means for the camera to close the card as soon as it was full (whether firmware can do this I don't know).
12 hours is the max because 2 64GB cards is 12 hours, right? So if you shoot on 2 128GB cards you should get 24 hours. I think they said the limit is 12 hours because the largest card available at the time was 64GB. Or is it something Panasonic has limited in their programming.
Realistically I would never need to shoot that long, but given the possibility it could be interesting. You could easily just do an interval recording instead because what could possible run for that long straight that you'd want to record and play back in real time?
Barry_Green
Moderator
12 hours is the limit for any one recording.
Does relaying even work from card 2 back to card 1? If not, it'd be more than just turning off the card door check.
Also, as Barry mentioned, once you open the door, you better know what card is or isn't writing. And if the camera DOES relay from card 2 to 1, then you can't just assume card 1 is the one to pull.
If it had two doors like others have said AND two card access lights, this could work with as much worry.
Ah, well then it doesn't matter then. Just get 2 64GB cards if you need to.
You can tell by looking at the lights and the LCD/EVF.