Doco Capture on the Road

Alexis Evangér

Alexis Evangér

Active member
Hi guys. I'm leaving the 12 to start a month of filming for our doc about human trafficking.

I'm borrowing some HDV cameras and will need to capture to harddrive while on the road since I have to give them back when the project is over.

So my question is, how much harddrive space do you think I'll need to capture 50 hrs + of HDV codec footage? 1Tb? Any thought? (I don't mind not Raid-ing the footage since if Necessary we can re-capture, it'll just be harder).
 
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The math on that is not difficult to calculate.

My Canon 5D Mark ii puts out about 4GB per 12 mins of footage (the 5D has a 12 min max, per shot)

give your camera a couple of test runs. Let it run for 1 minute, 2 minutes, then 5 minute, maybe even 10 minutes, and figure out what size your captured files are. Then do the math.

BTW, i highly recommend taking at least 1 backup hard drive. If you bring the exact # needed, and one fails, you'll be SOL.
 
Well the problem is I won't have time to do the tests because the cameras won't be here till the day before. So maybe if someone knows the average size of HDV files?
 
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The good news is that 1TB hard drives are only around $100 for the drive and if you get 1 enclosure for 2 or 3 drives you won't go above $240 (for 2 drives) or $340 (for 3 drives). Also I recommend you purchase your drives from newegg.com if you are ordering them online.
 
I ended up running to frys and grabbing two cheapish two 2tb hd's. Threw them in an owc raid 1 enclosure I had and I'm good! Gracias! (in Mexico for the trip right now)
 
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