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Recording 12 hours of continuous footage?
Hey all –
I’m working on an art installation and I’m exploring the different options for recording a 12 hour, continuous shot with my EX3.
A couple of options I’m looking at:
1) Capturing to a PHU-120k Hard Disk Recording Unit.
2) Plugging into my MBP and logging straight to a drive.
3) Streaming video to the internet and recording off of the internet feed.All of these options look feasible (although the PHU120 may only be able to capture 7 hours), so I’m wondering if anybody has any experience with something like this and would advise one way or another?
Thanks in advance,
TG -
9 Replies
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Or a Nanoflash. The last option is the most far fetched/lowest quality idea.
Noah
Unlock the secrets of 24p, HD and Final Cut Studio with Call Box Training. Featuring the Canon 5D Mark II and 7D.
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Yeah, option #3 is my least preferred.
Thanks for the advice! Very appreciated. I’ll look into the nanoflash right now.
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What’s your subject matter? If it’s just something like talking heads at a convention I would first of all go with the SP setting for all the shots. This will dramatically extend the recording times on the media you end up using.
Personally, I’ve only had experience with SxS Pro cards so I would be using those for an extended shoot. A 32G card shooting SP 1080 would last 160 min and the cards are near bulletproof. If you don’t have any rent some and hot swap the cards during the shoot. Use your laptop to transfer the footage from card to hard drive. Anyway, this is what I would do.
If you have a reliable and tested way of recording direct to hard drive using your lap top then that would be an option. I’ve never used the PHU-120 recorder but a friend has rented one with success. If you rented 2 of them your recording problem would be solved for the 12 hours.
Whatever you decide to do make sure you test everything thoroughly beforehand. You don’t need any surprises on shooting day.
– Don
Don Greening
Reeltime Videoworks
http://www.reeltimevideoworks.com -
Don, thanks for the feedback! Very useful. I’m definitely going to do a lot of testing beforehand.
The subject matter is a 12-hour performance art piece, so it’s sort of a one-shot deal. Also: it’s a piece about endurance, so a continuous 12-hour shot would be in keeping with the artist’s intent.
I’ve never tried hot-swapping cards before, so I should try that out and see how it works.
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I shoot some very long surgical procedures with three cameras at times like this. I have never had to shoot 12 hours straight, but close on a few occasions. My technique involves hot swapping SxS cards and ingesting the footage onto an external hard drive through my Mac laptop using XDCam Browser, then once I have verified I downloaded the BPAV folder into its own folder, I erase the SxS card there, then reinsert it into the camera and keep with this seesaw technique. At the end of the day, I use XDCam Transfer to fuse all those cards into one clip. It works pretty well when I need to sync all three cameras too.
Greg Ondera
http://www.Plexus.tv
http://www.SurgeonToday.org -
I like the 32GB swap idea or the Nanoflash idea. Of the possibilities you listed, the Sony hard drive unit makes the most sense. Both of the others add another layer of potential problems. Say the MBP chokes on the footage for some reason…unlikely, but still a possibility. The Internet stream could be prone to any number of disruptions.
I’ve heard mixed reviews of the “Foo” 120K. It uses a USB interface, so I don’t know if it would gradually “fall behind” on you. Then you will probably corrupt a very long clip. Of the people I’ve read using this thing, none of them have mentioned using it for a long, continuous shot. Stopping and starting allows everything to “catch up” to the footage you are sending to the SxS slot, adapter, and hard drive. Rolling continuously doesn’t give it any room for that.
If you really want some security, do the 32GB card swap AND record to NanoFlash from the SDI output of the camera. Redundancy is a shooter’s best friend. You could shoot “SP” mode on the camera’s SxS cards to conserve space, treat them as the backup, and record whatever quality you want to the NanoFlash. Just make sure you’re keeping track of the cards diligently.
Cf
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If you have 6 32G cards, you’ll have enough space. Put 2 cards into the camera, when it switches to the 2nd card, pop out the first, replace it and keep going.
You’ll want to plug in the camera to a power source for such a long shoot and have someone to relieve you for badly need bathroom breaks and lunch.
You can also plug in a laptop with enough hard drive space for a 2nd feed and redundant recording.
You can also buy round circle stickers pre-numbered and place these on the cards after recording and ejecting from the camera to keep the cards in order for importing later.
I would never eject, load, erase,record, repeat in the field. This will open you up to lost data, mistakes. Unless you have a 2nd person to concentrate on this sole task.
Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.netSony EX-1, V1U
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro Tower, Quad Core,
with Final Cut StudioHP i7 Quad laptop
Adobe CS-5 Production Suite -
I agree with Brent. If you can get your hands on the older Flash XDR it’ll take four CF cards and probably do the who;e job for you depending on codec.
Alan
FlashXDR,XDcamHD,XDcamEX,D9 etc
FCS,AE,Combustion,LiquidSilver,Vegas,Edius,
G5,MBP,Vista64,XP -
[Alan Lacey] ”
I agree with Brent. If you can get your hands on the older Flash XDR it’ll take four CF cards and probably do the who;e job for you depending on codec.”
The NANO have “Hot swapping” now.
rafael
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