EOS R50 Video clips with file size of 0

[elijahrockers]

Hi, just testing out my new camera.

I just returned from playing pickleball with some friends. We played three games and I attempted to record all three games to a 64GB SD card (200MB/s). I stopped recording between each game. The camera created three associated files, but the files are practically empty except for the thumbnails.

The first one is 3 seconds long, at about 50MB (I'm recording at 4k, 29fps) and the other two are 0B filesize. But somehow the thumbnails are there...

Anyway, from some back of the envelope calculations, it looks like the SD card should have been able to fit all three games on there. One thing I did notice is that when I plugged the camera into my PC, the OS showed the card was about 50% full, even though it only had a couple GB worth of files on it (There were a couple other very small video clips of me basically just testing the record functionality for a minute or two). I copied everything the OS recognized over to my storage drive, and reformatted the card using the camera, so if there were some hidden data I wouldn't be able to recover it, and anyway the clips are not that important - I'm just testing the video record function out.

Couple other things, it was about 68 degrees F outside, but I placed the camera in the shade. And I was kinda keeping my eye on it the whole time to make sure nobody knocked over the tripod, etc.

Any ideas what happened with the these clips? This is the first time I tried to use it to record any extended length of video outside, and I'm a computer scientist but I can't really think of any reason it would've generated three empty files.

[Waddizzle]

What shooting mode are you using?  It is more likely cause is some setting that you were experimenting and learning that has been forgotten about.  For example, I believe the camera is able to capture a “video snapshot”, which is a feature that matches your description of your issue. 

Try setting the mode dial to Green[A+] mode and try to capture a test video.  If it works properly, then there is some perfect storm of camera settings causing the issue.  Set the camera shooting mode to P, and find the menu item that resets the camera.  Be sure to reset everything.

This screenshot is from a different camera.  You should have a similar menu in your camera.

[elijahrockers]

So, I was chatting with some other canon folks (on reddit) and it seems the consensus is it's probably the fact that I wasn't using the card reader. I was able to recreate the issue by just taking another 5 minute video, and it doesn't copy to or play from my PC, but the camera is actually able to playback the entire 5 minute video. So it seems to be an issue of actually getting the data over to my PC correctly (makes sense)

[rs-eos]

What specific card are you using? And what is its V-rating? The 200 MB/s value is only a theoretical read speed. Perhaps your card is struggling to keep up with the writes.

[stevet1]

elijahrockers,

What method have you been using to copy the videos from your camera to your computer?

If you have Windows, have you been using EOS Utility?

Steve Thomas

[rs-eos]

After re-reading this, it could be that you don’t have proper permissions set up for the destination folder/directory.

Or, perhaps the files are too large for the format of the destination drive?

[elijahrockers]

I was just plugging the camera in via USB-C and drag/dropping the files over from the SD card. I do actually have the EOS Webcam Utility installed, but I am not sure if just plugging the camera in and using it basically as an SD card reader would activate it (I thought it was more of a video capture driver)

[elijahrockers]

It seems that I am unable to copy them to my large storage SSD because the operating system doesn't see the data in the first place. I can copy the files over but they copy over instantly because the OS thinks they are 0 bytes. This is essentially the same issue I'm having on my OS drive (which would quite possibly have filled up from a few of these videos)

[elijahrockers]

Hey waddizzle, just to follow up on your suggestions, shooting an the fully auto mode has the same problem when the camera is set for 4k30. If I go down to HD resolution, it seems to work though.

I'm leaning towards it maybe being a USB issue and I've got a card reader on the way to see if maybe that can help, since the videos playback fine on the camera body.

[stevet1 · Accepted solution]

elijahrockers,

EOS Webcam Utility is not the same thing as EOS Utility.

They are two different programs. The EOS Utility let's you download files from your camera to your computer and put them in a folder of your choosing (along with a few other things like remotely controlling your camera).

It handles the transfer process.

The Webcam Utility let's you use your camera as a webcam.

I don't understand how you could have enough data to generate a thumbnail, but still tell the file has 0 bytes.

That's over my head, I'm afraid.

Steve Thomas