T3i- Movie recording has stopped automatically

[dpalkowski]

I just bought a brand new sandisk 'extreme pro' 32g card, and set the camera on a windowsill trying to record a jar. It still stopped recording after a few seconds.  It has done this with the last three cards I've tried in it. This is pretty much a brand new camera.

[willfoxylove]

Wow, really?

[dpalkowski]

seems like a pretty random (but apparently widespread) phenomenon.  The obvious fix would be a firmware update that allows one to choose whether or not the camera aborts or reduces quality momentrarily if the card can't keep up.  The camera is completely unreliable for professional use, even as a backup, until this issue is resolved. I usually keep this one on a tripod as a second angle and use a MarkIII for the main shoot, but a lot of good that's going to do if it aborts recording the moment my back is turned!  The card I just tried out in it is theoretically the best available, so that can't be it.  And it isn't a motion issue, cause like I said, I was recording a closeup of a jar....

[willfoxylove]

This is extremely enlightening. Yeah mine does the same thing. I'll record me playing piano or something and it'll cut out within ten seconds. Yet soemetimes it works, this makes it extremely frustrating.

[dpalkowski]

perusing the interwebs a bit more, i decided to give magic lantern a try. Seems to be working. (There goes my warranty). Also changed the framerate from 29.97 to 24, but, really Canon...if you're going to sell me a camera that claims to record 1080 29.97 on an sd card you should either sell it with a BIG disclaimer or provide cards that you know will work.

[MajBurke]

Im not really sure if this is any new information or not but im having the same issue. "SanDisk Extreme PLUS" that writes at 80MB/s. For some reason it seems that when shooting in 1080p 24FPS that once it hits about the 4 gig mark in video size it stops recording. I would be fine with this if it immediately starting recording again (Just starting a new file like how GoPro s does) but it just completely stops and i have to go and get it to start recording again.

Sorry for bringing up what is possibly an old thread but this is a really frustrating issue. Especially for a camera of this quality.

[Mykolas]

MajBurke,

It is normal for the camera to stop recording at 4GB.  Due to file system limitations, each clip that is recorded cannot exceed 4GB.

[RobertTheFat]

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@inactive010823 wrote:

MajBurke,

It is normal for the camera to stop recording at 4GB.  Due to file system limitations, each clip that is recorded cannot exceed 4GB.

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It's not obvious why those file system limitations should prevent the camera from immediately starting a new file and continuing to record. If, as MajBurke asserted, GoPro has made it work that way, one would think that Canon could as well.

[MajBurke]

Although I understand that write speeds and what not can cause these kinds of limitations it would be nice to see maybe a firmware update that resolves this. Maybe this is an issue that is not seen in the higher spec cameras. I just feel that this limits people on things like timelapse footage and what not.

[RobertTheFat]

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@MajBurke wrote:

Although I understand that write speeds and what not can cause these kinds of limitations it would be nice to see maybe a firmware update that resolves this. Maybe this is an issue that is not seen in the higher spec cameras. I just feel that this limits people on things like timelapse footage and what not.

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The solution (other than just starting a new file) may not be simple. 4GB is a magic number in the Windows world. I believe it's the maximum file size in the FAT32 file system. To go larger, you'd probably have to format the card with the NTFS file system, which the camera might have to be told (via a non-trivial firmware upgrade) how to support. I don't have a card here at work, so I can't just pop one into a card reader and see what file system it uses. But you could do the exercise at home with any Windows computer. If it's FAT32, that probably explains the limitation.

Even if you could get the camera comfortable with NTFS, you might have a problem with the computer itself. Some tablets, Notably the Surface Pro 2 and 3, have rather limited support for NTFS on USB devices.