Z90V will no longer do simultaneous record (i.e. record to both cards at same time)

L

littlefish

Member
We just upgraded our Sony Z90V to 1.01 and the ability to record to two cards at once i.e. "simultaneous record" is not working. The setting and even visual icon on screen indicates simultaneous record, but the camera only records to one card.

I'm hoping its just my user error, but simultaneous record was working before I did the update. Maybe there is another setting I"m missing?

We are recording in 1080 30p, 4:2:2, 50mbps, 10 bit. I tested it with the same cards I was using before the update and also a new set of SDXC cards.

Thanks for the help!
 
I normally shoot PAL being in Australia and the Z90 is working fine here in simultaneous record mode with v1.01 in 50Hz. As a double check I switched the camera to 60Hz mode and used the HD settings you outlined, 30p 50Mbps and it functioned correctly. Recorded on both cards simultaneously. To confirm that I did a playback on the files from both cards and all was good.

Following those results I got curious. On further investigation I can reproduce your problem. Whether this is your problem or not you will have to check your REC SET menu. Under this menu you can have SIMULTANEOUS selected but have only one card recording IF under the REC BUTTON SETTING menu you have either of the two lower menu settings selected. I find you have to have the top menu line selected, the REC BUTTON A+B if you require both cards to record simultaneously. With the bottom two menu selections you can assign card recordings to either the normal hand grip record button or the top handle button... or vic a versa. To me it seems counter intuitive that if you have assigned different REC start buttons to to each card that simultaneous recording is not disabled. There you go, Sony's lovely logic.

Trust this where your problem lies otherwise it may mean a trip to your friendly Sony service center.

Chris Young
 
Yes! I complain about this in my camcorder training videos . . . only one of the three settings is actually "simultaneous" recording when you press one record button. The other two MIGHT do simultaneous recording but you would have to press two record buttons (one for each card) to have both cards record at the same time. How many people are using this feature?
 
Thanks Chris! Yes, this was my mistake and confusing as you say. So appreciate the time you took to test and sus out the problem!!
 
littlefish said:
Sorry Doug I somehow missed this in your excellent training course.
Click to expand...

No problem, it is a lot if information to absorb and I can't remember it either. You'd surprised how often I have to refer back to my script to see what the hell I said months or years ago. And I must admit that if Chris hadn't already suggested what the problem was I might not even had thought of it myself.
 
Doug I know of only one person who has used the "two button" record mode on two cards. He's a news shooter and uses the top button to record on card B on stake outs. When action starts he shoots normal stop start recording on card A. He says he does this as the X70/90s don't have Cache recording. He says if he is late on catching the action on card A he knows he has it on card B. On stake outs he restarts recording on card B every 10-15 minutes and deletes the earlier files if nothing on them is worth keeping. Different strokes for different folks I guess.

Chris Young
 
littlefish said:
Thanks Chris! Yes, this was my mistake and confusing as you say. So appreciate the time you took to test and sus out the problem!!
Click to expand...

Yes we can all get caught at times. Easy to do. I just happened to have the X90 sitting in its bag under the desk when I read your post so not too much time committed to the solution. It's something I wasn't aware of so it might just save me in some situation so as far as I'm concerned it's time well spent. Glad to hear nothing wrong with the camera!

Chris Young
 
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