Why Does My Camera Stop Recording in the Middle of a Video??

[Kre8ivOne]

Why does my Rebel T3i stop recording in the middle of me video taping?? Is it because I do not have enough space on my camera for a video? It lets me take plenty more pictures. And when it stops in the middle of a recording, I start recording again, and it works for a little while then stops again! I really don't get it. It is extremely frustrating because I am left with all these chopped up video segments and I completely miss something that my baby is doing (the reason I started taping in the first place!) I am begining to wonder if I should just invest in a video camera instead of taping with my camera. I would REALLY prefer not to, seeing as how I spent a fortune on it, and would like it to do what it is intended to do! Can someone please help?? 

[ebiggs1]

The canon T3i will stop recorded video once it hits 29.59 mins or hit the 4 gig mark on the card.

[Kre8ivOne]

So you're saying that it will stop recording once one of two things happen?...1.) either it has reached almost a half an hour of recording time or 2.) it has reached 4 gb of memory (and that can be either video usage or photos or both??)

[Kre8ivOne]

Or is it when the videos alone have taken up 29:59 min/4 GB of space?

[TCampbell]

The camera formats the memory card using the "FAT32" filesystem rather than a proprietary filesystem.  This allows the card to be read by nearly any computer (Windows, Mac, etc.)  

HOWEVER... there's a limitation in that filesystem that no single file can grow above a specific size.  That size is 4GB.

Also, the camera documentation describes that the camera will stop just 1 second short of the 30 minute mark regardless of the file size.  

In pro video, movies are normally constructed by bringing together many very short clips.  The one-long-continuous-take video style isn't used.  If you are attempting to record a long event in one-long-continuous-take then it would be better to use a video camera for the task.

[ebiggs1]

I don't shoot videos as I am a still photographer and alwways have been but a video maker buddy says he uses an external hard drive to overcome the limit. I don't know how he does it or if it even works. But you might want to investigate whether you can extend the built in limits that way, too.

[KarenRice]

You should make sure your SD card is Class 10.  That is, it will have a little 10 (inside a circle) on the front of the card. Some cards are class 4, 6, etc.  I had the same problem because I was not using the class 10 card. I also use a 32GB card.  Hope this helps.

[ebiggs1]

Even so, were you able to pass the 29:59 limit put in by Canon? No? I doubt the speed of the card has any effect on this factory set limit.

[KarenRice]

The OP said nothing about recording for 1/2 hour at a time - you did.  When I first got my camera and I tried recording I was only able to record short segments at a time - which sounds exactly like what the OP said was happening.

I re-read the OP's comments and saw nothing about trying to record for a half hour straight, or longer.

[ebiggs1]

Ms. Rice you are correct about not mentioning the 29:59 limitation but that is only one issue. There are two. The 4 gig mark on the sd card. If the 4 gig mark is reached (approx. about 12 minutes) before the 29:59 mark it will also stop recording.

That is why my video friends overcome this limitation and record via the HDMI to a Atmos Ninja or a device that will record hdmi output to a hard disk on a laptop.

I believe all DSLR's have some kind of time or file size limit that you will run into. These cameras (T3i) are still cameras that will do video. They are not video cameras!

But than again I am a photographer, not a videographer. So, the advice is worth exactly what you paid for it, nothing.