How long should I record for?.
 

I'm using the Kensington/Transcend (16gb) combo in my Ex3 and was wondering if its wrong to record the full wedding ceremony or the speeches in one long clip. Is it safer recording in shorter clips.

Just been reading about some users getting a media restore message.
I would be afraid of losing a last clip lasting 30min +

Thanks in advance.

Using 32GB SDHC cards I've recorded nearly 4 hours straight a number of times. I've been using SDHC since January and NEVER got a media restore. That's the FIRST thing you test when you get the cards. Put two cards in and record straight through. Then do it again. If your cards can't do that, return/exchange them.

Thanks Craig, so recording long clips isn't a problem.

If they record right through without errors I take it they are good to use.

Yup. If they do it a couple of times in a row they're not likely to fail. If you start, stop, start, you have to wait for the red light to go green. A lot of my work are long records. Never a problem.

Thanks Craig.

I stop and start when ever I can. I'm just nervous of huge long clips. It makes it easier to find stuff. That is just me. Also if you have some weird problem like pulling the card out while its still rd the odds of screwing of the whole thing is minimized. I also only record on one card and leave the other slot empty.

Thanks Bob for your advice too.


But how would that work during the ceremony or the speeches Bob?

I have 2x16GB cards. With a person helping me I was able to record for 4 hours straight. She would take one of the cards and off load it to a hard drive, erase all the footage, then give it back to me. The '"trick" was getting the card back in the camera without jarring it too much. :)

If you use XDCAM Clip Browser to copy all the clips from all the cards into one folder, the program will join the files together into one long clip. It's really easy.

I should note, that when I'm shooting a variety of shots for a project, I stop/start between shots. I don't want to leave the camera running while I move it to a new location or while I'm re-framing my shot. When I recorded for 4 hours straight it was because I client requested I capture a long corporate meeting. So I couldn't stop, otherwise I'd miss something.