Importing videos from Canon R5 C

[BGBeeblebrox]

I just got a Canon R5 C and I am trying to get videos I shot with it onto my computer for editing in Premiere.

I recorded three videos in XF-AVC format onto a Lexar 256GB CFexpress B card. I can play back the videos on the R5 C just fine.

However, I have struggled to even see the files to attempt to download them onto my computer, which is running Windows 10. I used a Lexar CFexpress 3.2 card reader to try to read the CFexpress card, but the computer would either spin forever trying to load the card in File Explorer, or when it did let me view the card, would show me all empty folders and no files.

I attempted to mount the R5 C directly to the computer, but this produced the same result - no files to be found.

I also tried to use the Canon XF Utility with the R5 C plugged into the computer (with the CFexpress card back in the camera), but also could not see any files in that interface.

I have now finally been able to see the files at least by putting the CFexpress card back in the Lexar reader and opening the XF Utility again. But the only way I can see to actually get copies of the files onto my computer using XF Utility is to create a backup. That process is taking an estimated 1 hour and 4 minutes to complete.

Is there really no simple way to just copy video files from the R5 C to my computer? Are the issues I'm encountering raising any red flags as far as hardware or software not behaving as they should? Have I goofed up with the recording format I chose?

[rs-eos]

When you mention "backup", isn't that doing a copy? i.e. copying files from the card to your computer's storage?

In terms of the time to make that copy, that is quite slow.  Even if the card was filled, that would mean the slowest link in the chain would be able to only handle around 72 MB/s.  Are you copying the videos to your computer's internal (main) storage?  Is it a hard drive or SSD?

It could also be how you're connecting the card reader to your computer.  Is it USB-C? USB-3.1? Older USB?

As an example to help you find the bottleneck...

I use 256 GB Anglebird cards with read speeds of 300 MB/s maximum.  The card reader is part of an external RAID drive that connects to my computer via Thunderbolt 3 (~5,000 MB/s throughput).  The drive that the video files are copied to has write speeds around 660 MB/s.   In this scenario, the actual card itself is the slowest link in this chain (300 MB/s).  So copying 256 GB would take around 14.5 minutes.

[BGBeeblebrox]

The card reader and camera are both plugged in to a USB 3.1 port. The three videos are very short - the longest is about 5 minutes. I did figure out I could right-click on the videos in XF Utility to copy, then paste into a folder on my computer, but the same thing happens - insanely long estimates for transferring. It also doesn't really transfer - the estimated time only ever goes up, and I can't actually cancel the operation either. It will sit there claiming to transfer and not letting me do anything else in XF Utility until I use Task Manager to close the app.

Forgot to mention originally I recorded at just 1080p, not even 4K.

[AtticusLake]

Sorry to hear about your problems, but I don't really have anything to contribute, other that to say it works for me.

I use a ProGrade 650GB CFe B card with a CFexpress Type B and SD UHS-II Dual-Slot Memory Card Reader.  When I'm done, I put the card in the reader, open it in Windows file manager, and just drag the files out.  Works every time (like 100 sessions so far).  I don't use any of the Canon utilities, just open the files in Premiere Pro.

I'm scratching my head to think of anything helpful to suggest, other than experiment with different USB cables and ports -- USB can be finnicky.

[shadowsports]

Same here for me.  When connected the camera or card reader should work like a mass storage device.  The camera storage can be opened and browsed in Windows Explorer or Finder on Mac.  Files can be dragged or dropped between the camera and computer.  Do you have any security software installed that might be keeping files from being transferred to the PC?

[BGBeeblebrox]

Thanks for the responses! I will experiment with different cables and ports. Or maybe it could even be a bad CFexpress card?

[shadowsports]

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@BGBeeblebrox wrote:

Thanks for the responses! I will experiment with different cables and ports. Or maybe it could even be a bad CFexpress card?

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Thats unlikely if the videos playback on the camera normally, but a formatting issue might also cause issues for storage connected to a computer. If you have another card and cable to test with. thi smight be helpful.  Do photos appear and transfer correctly?  Please update the thread when you figure it out.  

[BGBeeblebrox]

I did not format the CFexpress card before I recorded videos, which I believe may be the issue. I'm going to try to capture the video in Premiere since I can't transfer the files, then format the card appropriately.

[BGBeeblebrox · Accepted solution]

In case anyone else runs into this same issue, I was unable to retrieve my files, but may have been able to using an app like Disk Drill before I initialized my CFexpress card and shot some new videos.

Even after I shot new videos, I initially ran into a new problem - my Lexar 2x2 CFexpress card reader would not mount my CFexpress card onto my computer. Eventually, I used the device manager to uninstall the driver for the Lexar reader, so that when I plugged it back in, the driver was installed fresh. My guess is mounting the unformatted CFexpress card originally may have messed with the driver.

After I successfully mounted my CFexpress card, I did use Disk Drill to see if I could recover the old video files. Disk Drill did find the old video files, but when I recovered one to my computer, Premiere could not open it and said it was corrupted. So maybe those video files were corrupted from the start (though I could play them back on the R5 C) or maybe initializing and shooting new test videos wrote over part of the old files.

Long story short, I didn't know what I was doing my first time using a CFexpress card and didn't know that initialization was required for it to function properly.