5D Mark IV video automatically stopped recording on fast SD cards

[chansjsu]

My 5D Mark IV seems to randomly "automatically stopped recording" video when using various fast SD cards. It's strange, it might record for several minutes long clips without any issues but then suddenly stop on it's own on a new clip after a few seconds. After that it would appear to be stuck "writing" as the red LED indicator keeps lit and the rest of the camera is unresponsive for a while. Have even sometimes had to pull the battery after being nonresponsive for a while.

Now these are all fast SD cards of various brands and they've all exhibited this behavior, but again randomly. It doesn't do it on the first video I start shooting on so I've always thought that maybe only some brands/speeds work while others don't, or maybe it depends on the video recording mode/settings and what I'm shooting (like if it's busy/has a lot of info to process it can't keep up). 

After multiple shoots I've seen this happen and have had to revert back to only using CF cards to be safe. 

Cards I've used are SanDisk Extreme PRO SDXC, Transcend and Sony, all of them Class 10, UHS-I U3 with high rated speeds. All bought from reputable retailers like B&H, Adorama, etc and all of them have worked flawlessly on other cameras like Sony and Panasonic shooting 4K video. On my Canon 5D Mark IV I wouldn't even be shooting 4K, am only shooting 1080p footage and this still happens. I remember it happening even on my old 5D Mark III with some SD cards as well. 

Are the U3 SD cards just not fast enough for Canon even though they work perfectly on every other camera? Am I just unlucky and got 2 5D bodies in a row that have randomly defective SD slots? 

Would appreciate any help! 

Thank you!

[Waddizzle]

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@chansjsu wrote:
I will try and test that out. What does low level formatting do exactly and why does not doing so cause these problems with SD cards? It doesn't seem to take much longer than formatting without that option. However on other forums there are comments about low level formatting shortening the cards life.

One thing that was awesome with Sony cameras for example is if you use a slower card, if you are shooting a particular video setting that requires a certain speed, it will tell you before you start shooting if the speed isn't sufficient. I wish our Canon cams had this capability.

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What does low level formatting do?  A new memory card may seem to be fully formatted straight out of the packaging.  But, this formatting is residue from production testing, and needs to be completely erased.

Why does not low level formatting cause problems?  See above explanation by Tim.  Canon DSLRs won't even let you copy photo files on to a memory card, and have them recognized by the camera.  

Performing a low level format on a solid state media does not damage the media anymore than normal use would.  It used to be true of removable media like floppy disks, which were susceptible to mechanical wear and tear, and surface erosion.  Making a similar claim about solid state media is utter nonsense.  There are no moving parts to wear out.

That's a nice feature that you describe in Sony gear.  I guess Sony has the extra programming space to add such a feature.

[chansjsu]

Ok, thank you all for the explanations about low level formatting! If it doesn't shorten the cards life at all, then I will just be doing only low level formatting from here on out at all times just to be safe then.

[Peter]

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@chansjsu wrote:
Ok, thank you all for the explanations about low level formatting! If it doesn't shorten the cards life at all, then I will just be doing only low level formatting from here on out at all times just to be safe then.

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A low level format in camera takes some seconds. A complete overwrite with SD Formatter takes a half hour depending on card size. I haven't seen any papers from Canon what exactly a low level format in camera does, but in the manual this is written:

"Perform low-level formatting if the cards recording or reading speed seems slow or if you want to totally erase data in the card."

Edit: It seems SD card can use a "ERASE" command to erase the whole card.

[Waddizzle]

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@Peter wrote:

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@chansjsu wrote:
Ok, thank you all for the explanations about low level formatting! If it doesn't shorten the cards life at all, then I will just be doing only low level formatting from here on out at all times just to be safe then.

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A low level format in camera takes some seconds. A complete overwrite with SD Formatter takes a half hour depending on card size. I haven't seen any papers from Canon what exactly a low level format in camera does, but in the manual this is written:

"Perform low-level formatting if the cards recording or reading speed seems slow or if you want to totally erase data in the card."

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I think Canon DSLRs perform a "low level" format WAY TOO QUICKLY, for them to perform all of the formatting and testing that I have always thought of as a low level format.  A Canon camera can do a low level format on a 32GB memory card in about 10-15 seconds.  It takes my laptop several minutes to do a low level format on the same memory card.

[michaelgeyer]

hi,

yesterday i have the same issue...the problem can be solved by switch the camera off and on... after that, it will be record more then 3 seconds....very strange.

Do you found another resolution for this?

[jimmerpage]

I had the same problem even though I had fast SD cards (150 MB/s). I would record in 4K and it would only last for about 3 seconds before stopping the recording.

After some fooling around I found that strangely enough it was because I was in the Neutral color profile. For some reason when I switched over to CineStyle or one of the other defaults it worked flawlessly. So maybe try that!

[Stephen]

Hi there!

You want to make sure your SD card has a sustained write speed that meets or exceeds the read/write specification for the quality you want to record. In the case of 4K video on the EOS 5D Mark IV, the card has to be able to read and write consistently (not burst) at 90MB per second or faster. Many cards will achieve burst rate, but not sustained rate, and this will cause the process to fail. 

You can look at our knowledge base article on the speed class requirements HERE. 

We've found that UDMA 7 100 MB per second or faster CF cards tend to be easier to source. 

If you need further assistance, we invite you to reach out to our US-based technical support team at 1-800-OK-CANON (800-652-2666) for one-on-one troubleshooting! 

[Redshift48]

I too have noticed the same problem with my new 5D Mark IV.  I am shooting in 4K and after 3 seconds, it stops recording and dispays a message on the LCD that "the recording was automatically stopped" - no obvious reason.  An earlier post suggested turning the camera off and back on again and that worked at least temporarily.  But that does not seem to be a good long-term solution to me.  This has happened quite a few times.  I'm using a SanDisk Extreme Pro 256 GB SDXC card and a SanDisk Extreme Pro 64 GB CF card.  I have performed several low level formats within the camera on the SDXC card and I ususally reformat both cards once I have uploaded the data to my computer.  This camera is new enough that I am not panicking yet - my interest is still photography primarily.  But I am curious and I do not like having something go wrong with a new expensive piece of equipment.  I have not checked to see if my firmware is the latest but, as I said, it is very new (6 weeks).

[RobertTheFat]

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@Redshift48 wrote:

I too have noticed the same problem with my new 5D Mark IV.  I am shooting in 4K and after 3 seconds, it stops recording and dispays a message on the LCD that "the recording was automatically stopped" - no obvious reason.  An earlier post suggested turning the camera off and back on again and that worked at least temporarily.  But that does not seem to be a good long-term solution to me.  This has happened quite a few times.  I'm using a SanDisk Extreme Pro 256 GB SDXC card and a SanDisk Extreme Pro 64 GB CF card.  I have performed several low level formats within the camera on the SDXC card and I ususally reformat both cards once I have uploaded the data to my computer.  This camera is new enough that I am not panicking yet - my interest is still photography primarily.  But I am curious and I do not like having something go wrong with a new expensive piece of equipment.  I have not checked to see if my firmware is the latest but, as I said, it is very new (6 weeks).

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It sounds as though your SD card may be faster than your CF card. On a 5D3 (and I suppose also a 5D4), if you remove the preferred card, the camera will permanently switch your preference to the other card, and it requires manual intervention to set it back. So it's easy to lose track of which card you're using. To ensure that a difference in card speed isn't contributing to your problem, why don't you try each card separately as the only card in the camera and see if it makes a difference.

[michaelgeyer]

For me resolution was only to write videos also on the CF Card.....