[Nishi Sharma]

Yes, process of elimination might be the only option. I suppose I an still use my 32GB card for stills… They are expensive.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

[Nishi Sharma]

Thanks Angie for taking time to reply to my email. I had upgraded the firmware of 7D last year but after that I have had no problem filming continuously for 11 minute sessions on 7D. I had formatted the card in 7D last week and had filmed some short clips with it, which were sitting on the card. Before filming the show I had checked that there was plenty of space on the card as I had used up around 1 GB of memory.

Could it be that there was some data sitting on the card, which got in the way in the writing of the bigger chunks of data. May be I can’t use a partially used card for 11 min recording sessions. However, this shouldn’t really be the case.

It seems from your experience that the problem is with the memory card and not with the camera, which is a relief. Thanks again.

[Nishi Sharma]

The Ansman batteries are virtually new. I have three sets and they just keep going for hours in my Canon 430 EX2 speed light on full power. H4N has really frustrated me no end, though I love the functionality of it.

I have a 6 volt high capacity battery pack if I were to power it externally but H4N required only 5 volts – don’t know if it will damage the recorder.

[Nishi Sharma]

Yes, ordinary Duracell batteries don’t last over an hour either. I wonder if my H4N is malfunctioning now, it’s never been very good running with batteries – sadly.

[Nishi Sharma]

Yes, I have done it that way in the past but then Compressor takes a long time to prepare the files for DVD SP, especially for a 45 min programme.

Where as if I convert it to DV PAL frmat first then a 45 min long programme takes only 15-20 min to prepare files for the DVD SP. So, that seemd sensible.

[Nishi Sharma]

Thanks John. I decided against it in the end as there is so little work done with it on vimo. Many people have posted ‘tests’, only two clips that were good. Cropped sensor also have problems when it comes to a decent wide angle lens for it. So, I decided to get a Canon 5D body. I already have some lenses for it, which I have been using with Canon 7D.

Thanks for replying to my post.

[Nishi Sharma]

Good thinking Noah. I suppose I just need to make sure that the flash drive can deliver the data at fast enogh speed so that the movie doesn’t stutter! Thanks again.

[Nishi Sharma]

Noah, H.264 is incompatible with DVD SP. DVD is cheaper than giving the clinet a harddrive. We are talking about 16GB+ of material – 45 min of rushes.

[Nishi Sharma]

Thaks John-Michael. It’s a good idea to go straight to Compressor. It takes quite a while to process a 45-50 min movie, and I was thinking of a time effective way of burning it to a DVD. Still bypassing FCP will save time too. I do have a Sony DVD recorder with firewire input but it doesn’t talk to my Mac.

[Nishi Sharma]

Thanks Jiri. Since my original question I have shot lots of interviews in PAL using H4N and had no synch problems at all. I wonder if it doesn’t work in NTSC!