shooting long video with D70

[ibrahimwalied]

I've just bought a D70 with a main objective of shooting Full HD videos. I'm currently facing an issue where the D70 is stopping the video shooting at a maximum lenghth of 29:59 minutes. My videos are longer than that limit. I've been searching the forum since morning and what I can see is some advices to have a high speed reading\writing memory cards. Mine is Transcend 200x (30MB/s) and I don't see that this is the real problem. In the operating manual it says that the video will be ended automatically after 29:59 minutes and if needed to continue shooting, one has to press again on start/stop button!

is there any solution to that challenge? I can't stop my video shooting and shift my focus off what I need to say in the video just for a sake of another press of a button!

[RobertTheFat]

I haven't verified the details myself, but according to those who think they know, the problem is that the European Union taxes video cameras at a higher rate than still cameras and defines a video camera as one that can shoot 30 minutes or more of uninterrupted video. So the limitation is built into still cameras to keep them from being taxed at the higher rate.

[TCampbell]

I've done some research on this and, it turns out... yes, there's international trade agreements that tariff products differently based on what they are.

The US does not tariff "video" cameras different than "still" cameras, but many countries do.  Since virtually all "still" cameras can also record video these days, the trade agreement says that as long as the camera limits video recording to less than 30 minutes, it gets to be treated and tariff'd as a "still" camera (which is cheaper.)

So... thanks to trade agreements, we have this rather silly artificial limit.  EVERY still camera vendor has the same problem and again, the US doesn't treat it differently but since many countries do and these cameras are sold world-wide, we still have to put up with the limit.

Apart from that issue, the other limit has to do with the fact that the memory cards on all these cameras use the FAT-32 filesystem.  That filesystem has a 4GB limit (regardless of card capacity, no "single" file can exceed that 4GB limit.)

[ibrahimwalied]

Thanks Robert & TCampbell for your replies. I consider this as lack of transparency from Canon. When they said this camera can shoot Full HD videos without clearly mentioning these limitations, non professional users can easily being cheated. I've invested around $ 1500 in this camera hoping that it'll fulfill my goal of shooting professional videos. And If I knew that beforehand I simply could have invested less amount in any camcorder that will keep shooting Full HD without these silly limits.

[RobertTheFat]

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@ibrahimwalied wrote:
Thanks Robert & TCampbell for your replies. I consider this as lack of transparency from Canon. When they said this camera can shoot Full HD videos without clearly mentioning these limitations, non professional users can easily being cheated. I've invested around $ 1500 in this camera hoping that it'll fulfill my goal of shooting professional videos. And If I knew that beforehand I simply could have invested less amount in any camcorder that will keep shooting Full HD without these silly limits.

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Yes, if Canon didn't make the limitation clear in their description of the camera's capabilities, then I agree that they should have. But part of being a professional is knowing and understanding the political, social, and technical issues that affect the profession. I think the crux of your problem is identified in your note: a non-professional user trying to shoot professional videos. If you haven't done your homework, blaming Canon, even if they richly deserve it, won't undo the mistake. The fact is that there are many in this forum, some of whom have never taken even one video with their DSLRs, who were aware of the 30-minute limit.

[TCampbell]

They do list it on the specs page:  

http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras/slr_cameras/eos_70d#Specifications

* The maximum recording time is limited to 29 min. 59 sec.

I did notice that if you exceed the 4GB single filesize limit for FAT-32 that this camera automatically starts a new file and keeps going (not all cameras do that -- many of them stop and you have to restart the recording to a new clip.)

They don't list it on the "features" page where they mention it's ability to record in Full HD (and they probably should.)  The limit is well-known among DSLR video shooters because every camera has the same limit (it's a trade-agreement problem between countries... not a technical problem.)  But people looking to buy their first camera for video would probably not have run into this before.

[ibrahimwalied]

Yes. You're absolutely right.

[Peter]

Magic lantern has the feature of restarting the video again. In some cameras, you can also format the SD-card into exfat.