REcording across multiple cards

malcolm man

malcolm man

Active member
Okay, I just wanted to double check this.

I have two cards, 16GB and a 4GB. I plan on recording to my 16GB card first and then my 4GB. You see, once my 166GB is full, I want to eject it and offload to my PC while the other card is being used.

So, can I eject my 16GB p2 while the camera is still on and recording to my 4GB p2 without messing any files up?

Also, once I re-insert my clean 16GB card, will it begin to record to that once again after it has filled up the 4 GB card?
 
Technically that's not a problem, but from a practical perspective you'll be hard-pressed to offload the 16GB card in less time than it takes to fill the 4GB card if you are shooting continuously.

The camera will switch over to the other slot automatically when a card fills up, so as long as you insert a formatted card with space left on it, you can keep shooting until the batteries die.
 
Excellent. I know I probably won't be able to offload the card completely, but it will minamize the down time. It's okay if there's a small gap being that there will be two other cameras at the event.
 
Two same-sized cards are ideal since they offload in a fraction of their recording time. You can record nonstop by pulling card 1 as soon as the camera flips to card 2, which it will do seamlessly as soon as card 1 is full. Then offload card 1, format it and put it back in the camera. Once card 2 is full, the process starts again as above in the reverse card order.

Doing it with 4GB cards might wear you out a bit, but if you're game it would be feasible. If you have other cameras going, maybe you can sort the various cards into same-sized pairs and go that way.

I'm offloading last night's shoot right now, using FCP's "Log And Transfer" window, which is slow, but it still is happening at about half playing time. A direct copy from the card to a hard drive is faster. Don't forget to copy the "last clip" file.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top