NON-DSLR question - I need to record hours of footage non-stop?

refocusedmedia

refocusedmedia

Veteran
It's been awhile since I've looked for a camera that didn't have 12 minute recording limit and used SD cards, so I need some help please.

Basically I have a business need to document an event non-stop. Could be anywhere from 1-8 hours. It would be ideal not to have any interaction with the camera during this period, but if I have to restart recording halfway through it wouldn't be the worst thing... just as long as I don't have to do it every half hour, or even every hour.

The only caveat is that tape is not an option, I need something that records digitally for hours. If I need an external recorder that is fine. The only thing I could think of are those JVC Everio's that have 120GB HDDs... but I cant seem to find any info on a recording limit for those.

Anyway, any tips or assistance or recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
A coule of the Sony high end consumer models have a ton of on board memory. Also, the Canon HFS series have dual card slots which will allow for pretty long record times. You will need the extended life batteries in both cases. I should mention that the Sony CX700, 560 and Canon HFS20, 200 are cameras that you could use for other work as well - They all have good IQ, 24P and some great features to sub in for more expensive cameras if needed.
Good luck with your shoot.
 
If it were me I would grab an HVX200 and throw two 64 gb P2 cards in and record at 720. If you do 720 24pn you can get (approximately) 5.6 hours of footage without having to dump. Best of luck!
 
I do a fair amount to video work for the defense industry, one of the test is to record for 2days on a stretch, after many hrs of testing we use the following a laptop with a fire-wire port and a 500gig hard drive on standard mpeg2 test at 6000kbs we get 5days of recording time, hope this helps .
 
Gavin-- do you record into Win Media Encoder or another program?

I was going to suggest renting a Newtek Tricaster.
 
...throw two 64 gb P2 cards in and record at 720. If you do 720 24pn you can get (approximately) 5.6 hours of footage without having to dump...
Click to expand...

Sadly, 64GB P2 cards are pretty expensive at around $669 each. I am a GH2 shooter, so I'm prejudiced, but I suggest you rent or buy a GH2, plug it into the wall with a $14.95 Panasonic DCC8 DC coupler and a $25 third party AC adapter and put a $249 128GB Lexar SDXC card in it. That will give you 12 hours and 26 minutes of nonstop recording at 1080p24 24mbps -- for a lot less money -- especially if you rent.

And because it's mirrorless, it's not a DSLR ;-)

Good luck with your shoot,

Bill
 
Sorry for the delay on answering , you can use any capturing program even movie maker or the best would be Onlocation from Adobe as it has a a few advantages you have a buffer capture also you have codec choice etc..... I use a older version Adobe Premier Elements on the laptop as it does not use alot of resources , also I have used a plug in usb mpg capture they cheap but do the trick. I have not tried was to capture via my HDV camera, in hdv ,tru the firewire port on to the HDD.
 
The GH2's battery will crap out after 1 hour though...so be sure you bring 12 batteries....


You'd probably get more concrete answers if you outlined your exact budget and whether you want to rent or buy. Obtaining a Panasonic AF100 with 2 Lexar 128GB cards will yield 24 hours of recording time at the highest setting in relay mode.....or significantly more if you lower the quality a bit. You can also plug it into a wall socket for power instead of changing the battery.

Also, is space a factor? Do you have room to setup a computer and record directly to a hard drive?
 
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