DSLR video limits?

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Brizzol

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Kevin
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Hello all...
I am only a hobby photographer but do some occasional dance photography with my Canon 70d.
A couple of years ago i was asked to video a dance show which i did with my DSLR.
At the time i had worries about the camera/sensor overheating as i had read a lot of stuff online about it (although nothing convincing either way)
The show was about two hours long and I completed it without any problems, it was a steep learning curve getting into the video side of it but i enjoyed the challenge.

I have now been asked to video a show for a different dance school, but this time it will be 4 shows over 2 days, each one about 2 1/2 hours each.
I haven't agreed to it yet as I'm pretty worried that all that work for my DSLR might be too much?
Has anyone here recorded that much video on their camera?
Will this be too much for the capabilities of my camera?

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any advice.
 
I've shot performances by a choir that lasted almost as long, using several cameras with different views (group, soloist, audience reaction) and edited them together afterwards. 128Gb cards did the trick with plenty to spare, even at 4K. Bit demanding on the PC, though :)

I suppose the thing to do is simply perform an experiment. For example, point your camera at a busy road (so that there's lots of movement to keep the processor active) and see if it will last for a bit longer that the required time

Ambient temperature likely makes a difference to overheating, but so long as the venue isn't an oven, you should be able to establish if you camera can last the course by shooting practically anything, then deleting it.

Good luck.
 
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Thanks Mike, I get what you're saying about performing an experiment, but trying to recreate 10 hours of recording could be possible i guess but as it will only record segments of max 30 mins at a time it will be quite difficult. But i guess that's the only way of knowing if it can do it.
Will doing that kind of work with a DSLR shorten the life of the sensor or cause any kind of excess wear on it? I'm not sure if that's a stupid question but I'm just aware that these cameras were not designed to that kind of work.
I wont be recording at the highest resolution as the video will for producing dvds, if that would make any difference.
 
Oh... I forgot about that studid 27 minute limit (to avoid cameras being classed as a video recorded by the EU and attracting extra duty - which is surreal). I bought two Z-cams from the US, which didn't have that limit, and a Panasonic G90 which just bit the bullet and paid the duty.

The point is that the 27 minutes isn't a technical limitation - it's a political one. The camera can do very much more than that.

They get hot because the processor gets hot, so the less data it needs to process before committing to the memory card the better. If you set a camera that can do 4K on 1080p it will run cooler. I don't know what yours was designed to do but if you are working at less than the max, that will help a lot.

If you are doing 2 x 2 1/2 hour shows in one day, there's surely plenty of time for your camera to cool off in between - so if it can do 2 1/2 hours of anything, it can probably handle 4 such shows with a rest in between to chill out. All you have to do is ascertain that it can record for that long (and a bit for luck).

As for sensor degradation - they don't wear out like solid state hard drives and memory sticks do, because they only ever read from, neven written to :) I wouldn't worry about wearing it out.

Your problem is more likely to be annoying breaks when the camera shuts down. I suppose you could bridge the gaps with 'phone footage. and edit it in after - you will have to edit the segments together anyway...

Make sure you have sufficient battery power and data recording capacity and it's dooable.
 
Yes its a ridiculous time limit they put on the recording, luckily the shows im recording are made up of many different dances so i can stop and start recording briefly between dances, it just makes the whole thing way more work than it needs to be.

My camera records a max of 1080p so I can lower it to 720p which will be fine for recording to standard dvds, as well as preserving memory space.
I think if this becomes a regular gig for me, i might invest in a dedicated video camera.

That's put my mind at rest about the sensor thanks, I'm not gonna pretend i know too much about the internal workings of a camera, but in my mind, if the sensor was running hot for a number of hours then it would somehow shorten its life, glad to know thats not the case.

I do actually have a mains adapter for my camera but i found when i used it last time it was giving feedback on the audio as i was using a wireless microphone to pick up audience/stage sound, so i relied on my 3 batteries.
Thanks for your help.
 
Youre welcome :)

BTW, it's not the sensor that get hot - it's the processor which has to compress the video data stream and write it onto an SD card. Also you might bear in mind that if you can do 1080p (and you should be able to) you can render it at a lower definition, which gives you an option to use a video editor to stabilize your footage or even zoom in. You also have the option to distribute higher res video online or even on USB sticks.

If you do go for another camera, make sure is doesn't have that daft video limit.

For now, go with what you're confident with though.
 
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Hi Kevin, for my cameras the 30 min limit does not apply to the HDMI out, so with DSLRs what I've been doing is power the camera with AC and record to SSD either via Ninja V or Atem Mini Pro. It's an investment but a lot less hassle than restarting every 30 minutes. If the budget for the job allows, I'd invest in something like that or a dedicated video camera.
 
Have you considered a (second hand) 80D as a backup and as a secondary camera? You could always rent one for the shows.
 
Mike_9000 said:
Youre welcome :)

BTW, it's not the sensor that get hot - it's the processor which has to compress the video data stream and write it onto an SD card. Also you might bear in mind that if you can do 1080p (and you should be able to) you can render it at a lower definition, which gives you an option to use a video editor to stabilize your footage or even zoom in. You also have the option to distribute higher res video online or even on USB sticks.

If you do go for another camera, make sure is doesn't have that daft video limit.

For now, go with what you're confident with though.
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Thanks Mike, yes if i invest in another camera it will be a dedicated video camera so it wont be subject to the stupid time limit,
 
TimHughes said:
Hi Kevin, for my cameras the 30 min limit does not apply to the HDMI out, so with DSLRs what I've been doing is power the camera with AC and record to SSD either via Ninja V or Atem Mini Pro. It's an investment but a lot less hassle than restarting every 30 minutes. If the budget for the job allows, I'd invest in something like that or a dedicated video camera.
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Hi Tim
That's interesting about the hdmi, yes I would like to invest in a dedicated video camera if this is to become a regular gig, although they are quite pricey so I'll put it on my wishlist for now.
 
Brizzol said:
Hi Tim
That's interesting about the hdmi, yes I would like to invest in a dedicated video camera if this is to become a regular gig, although they are quite pricey so I'll put it on my wishlist for now.
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With the HDMI out option the 30 minute limit doesn’t apply as you’re recording what the camera is monitoring and not pressing record on the camera. They may be other options for recording Eg onto a laptop.
 
Mintchocs said:
Have you considered a (second hand) 80D as a backup and as a secondary camera? You could always rent one for the shows.
Click to expand...

I actually have an old 550d which i take with me as back up, but i dont feel confident enough to use them both at once just yet.
 
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