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!

[Mark777]

HI,

I had the same problem last night shooting in 4k on my vcanon 5d Mark IV i have lost confidence in using 4k on this camera.

Does Canon know what is causing this I would say this is a serious issue as I am using 4k very fast sdxc cards

[FuzzyMarmet]

Hey Mark,

4K records to CF cards fine.  I'm shooting to UMDA 7 Cards and have had no problem.  You can also record to the UHD1 SD Cards as well.  For some crazy reason, Canon did not use the UHD 2 standard when they developed this camera.   It's a bummer if you already bought some UHD2 cards like I did, but you still can record HD with no problem on UHD2 cards. 

When I bought the camera, I thought that was the way to go as I sometimes us a Canon XF400 which uses the UHD2 cards, and I thought I could streamline the media I carried.  I shoot with a 1DX Mark II as well, so I already had to have CFast 2.0 cards to be able to record 4K of any length on that.  Now I have at least 3 different media cards to use for my workflow.  Not ideal...

[Mark777]

thanks Fuzzy Marmet

I'm using sdxc U3 II Lexar professional 150 MBs works on my panasonic dvx-200 just fine I'll try the sd cards you recommend

Mark

ps I wonder if Canon will do a firmware update to fix this or is it unfixable?

[Mark777]

Wow you are right

I just used a sdxc 1 90 MBS and it worked just fine 

thanks for that tip

Mark

[FuzzyMarmet]

Glad to hear it.  I don't think this is an issue that can be solved with a firmware update as the new UHS 2 cards have additional pins and I don't think the sd slot in the camera have the contacts to read them.

Good shooting!

[Mark777]

Thats interesting,

I do love the rich colour when filming with 4k on the Canon and having the touch screen focus is a great benefit.

I am yet to upgrade to the c-log everything I have shot to date looks so great I am at a loss to see why I should go doewn the c log route when I am not totally convinced it will add to my story telling I could of course be wrong in my opinion

[FuzzyMarmet]

I've yet to test the c-log.  I did shoot with it once for a "time lapse" (really just sped up footage) but the lighting situation was far from ideal in any condition, so while it looked fine I can't really make an informed opinion on it as of yet.  I agree about the richness of color from the Canon. 

[chansjsu]

I'm surprised my old thread is still going on... 

It's still such a disappointment that Canon overlooked this issue. I pretty much have solely been using CF cards because the SD performance has been so inconsistent. I still wish that Canon would do like what Sony and others do and tell you right away if a card's speed is not sufficient BEFORE you start shooting video. There's nothing worse than doing a shoot thinking everything is going smoothly and then the video just suddently stops without any warning. Really terrible when shooting a wedding or event where you can't ask them to do another take...

I've mostly just kept the 5D Mark IV use to 1080p shooting only. If 4K is needed, just use Sony or Panasonic and adapt Canon lenses. 

I've switched most of my SD cards to the UHS-II so they can record at the highest settings on the other cameras. It's really annoying that I can't use them on the 5D because not only does it not support it, it sometimes works fine, sometimes not. I guess another problem too is the SD speeds and labeling between the different brands are all over the place. 

[FuzzyMarmet]

Funny that you say that chansjsu; before I purchased the 5d IV, I considered a Sony.   Ultimately the idea of having hassle free compatiblity with my 1DX II won over the other options.  Fortunately, I did find the issue early on with a shoot that wasn't critical and I was able to sort through the issue, partly with this very thread.  One other issue that I know people have is with creating a smooth workflow with the massive MJPEG files.  I don't shoot long clips in general, so this hasn't been a huge issue for me, though the workflow isn't the smoothest.

[Mark777]

I guess the lesson here is we never stop learning it was just as well I did  a free gig the other night anddiscovered this problem I wa sabout to go on Friday to film a live concert and I was s considering using the 4k on the Canon 5D Mark IV but have scrapped this idea now and wont be using the 4k muntill I'm 100% confident of what works.