[tampamiketaylor]

Hey guys,

Apologize in advance if this is a dup on here, but I do not see anything. I recently picked up a new K3 and love it, but over the weekend I was recording my kids karate test and missed most of it because it stopped at 25 minutes. I read something about 4G limit and fat32, but anyway around this?

Thx!
Mike

[rawr]

It's not the filesystem, it's how the camera is designed.

EU rules make continuous video recording over 30 minutes impractical for DSLR makers to support. So you have to stop/start the video if you want to continue past 30 mins. It's usually not a big deal, since 30 minute long takes are awkward to watch, and handle/edit as files.

[tampamiketaylor]

It's not the filesystem, it's how the camera is designed.

EU rules make continuous video recording over 30 minutes impractical for DSLR makers to support. So you have to stop/start the video if you want to continue past 30 mins. It's usually not a big deal, since who records 30 minute long takes.

Thanks Rawr! I was not aware of that so I have to work with it.

[rawr]

I was not aware of that so I have to work with it.

There seem to be lots of web pages and YouTube videos with suggestions and workarounds for the issue. Might be worth Googling it.

If you need to shoot long continuous video, best solution may be a proper video camera. For example, I have a cheapo JVC HD video camera with a 120GB HDD inside that could theoretically do 50 hours of continuous recording (in one of it's lower-quality HD modes).

[tampamiketaylor]

There seem to be lots of web pages and YouTube videos with suggestions and workarounds for the issue. Might be worth Googling it.

If you need to shoot long continuous video, best solution may be a proper video camera. For example, I have a cheapo JVC HD video camera with a 120GB HDD inside that could theoretically do 50 hours of continuous recording (in one of it's lower-quality HD modes).

Thank you!

[johnmflores]

It's not the filesystem, it's how the camera is designed.

EU rules make continuous video recording over 30 minutes impractical for DSLR makers to support. So you have to stop/start the video if you want to continue past 30 mins. It's usually not a big deal, since 30 minute long takes are awkward to watch, and handle/edit as files.

It's actually a tariff issue not a technical one. If a device can record longer than 25 minutes then it is classified as a video recorder which is tariffed differently (higher?) than a stills camera.

The only stills camera that I know of that can record longer than 25 minutes is the Panasonic GH line. I have the GH2 and can record over 90 minutes nonstop.

[tampamiketaylor]

It's actually a tariff issue not a technical one. If a device can record longer than 25 minutes then it is classified as a video recorder which is tariffed differently (higher?) than a stills camera.

The only stills camera that I know of that can record longer than 25 minutes is the Panasonic GH line. I have the GH2 and can record over 90 minutes nonstop.

Thanks John!

[kadajawi]

There are actually 3 different reasons why you can hit a limit, depending on the camera.

Some cameras overheat and shut off, the original Sony NEX 5 for example. Rather unpredictable.

Some cameras, especially the ones with higher bitrates, stop recording depending on the file size. Lowering the quality setting helps in that case. i.e. the K-5 in the highest quality setting hits 4 GB (the maximum of the antiquated FAT32) after 5 minutes (though the files look absolutely great, you don't see any compression at all, no matter what the situation is). At the lowest 1080p setting it manages to go for 10 minutes. Some cameras will simply create a new file, and you can stitch them seamlessly. I believe that is what those better Panasonic cameras do. There is also a new format called ExFat, which supports larger than 4 GB files. I don't know if your camera supports it though.

Finally the 30 minute EU tariffs limit... higher import taxes for import into Europe for cameras that are declared as video cameras.

Since you get less than 30 mins I would say a file size limitation is what bothers you.

A possible solution would be to set an alarm when you start recording, so you return to the camera in time.

I just tried exfat with my K-5 (my Canon SX130 does support it, IIRC). Nope, doesn't work. It says the card isn't formated.

[anemone]

I am unable to test, as I use only 4G cards. Reason: Single card failure looses only limited amount of data.

Some Coolpix camera recorded nicely until card was full if the area setting was China/Japan but when changed to Western, it stopped in 29 minutes. Now it comes to my mind that if you set K-3 to China/Japan/English mode from debug options, would it record longer? It may also be that this 25 minutes is technical reason.