HD video card capacitu on a 5Dmk2

[specialman]

A mate has a 5d2 and wants to film HD video but isn't sure A) what size CF card to buy and how much HD video he'll get in the card, and B) what write speed he should get.

I'm on my iPhone at the moment and my web access is too slow to do a proper web search, although I can remember reading something recently that a 4GB card will carry 12 minutes of 1920x1080 HD footage at 30fps - is this right?

He was looking at some Sandisk 32gb cards with a 60mb/s write speed but it was £250+ and wasn't sure if this was overkill.

Any help will be greatly appreciated

 

[specialman]

Anyone?

 

[arad85]

Umm... Google? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_EOS_5D_Mark_II

Bitrate: 38Mbit/sec (5Mbytes/sec)
There is a 4Gb file size limit imposed by the filesystem, so longest you can record is 12mins in one go. Clearly you can have more than one file on the card.

I'd probably go for 30Mb/sec Sandisk in 8G cards - much cheaper.

 

[1.2f]

i use 60mb/s cards you can get 32gb 60mb/s cards from premier ink for 120. the camera will record up to a maximum 4gb in one recording shot - i.e basically you can start recording and as soon as the camera has recorded 4gb of footage it will stop and you have to press record again - have i explained that right???

at the same time you have to remember that the camera will also be getting pretty hot - i only use my camera for short shots 2/3mins at a time.

 

[specialman]

Cheers guys. Good info there. He already has a couple of Extreme IV 8gb cards so hd should be okay with those. It's just for web featurettes if 3-4 mins but he's heading out to Norway and doesn't want to be left in the lurch with card space while he's out there.

BTW, ny iPhone is steam-powered and dislikes going on the Internet with a passion, hence the request to TP members....