Firmware Upgrade- less capacity on cards?
 

I just upgraded my firmware to V1.20 on my EX1. Everything seems fine, except that my third party 32 GB cards which used to give me 118 minutes of footage at 1080 30p, now only give me 114 minutes... Does anyone have an idea where the missing 4 minutes have gone? Thanks.

This was well documented on here when the latest firmwares came out (about March 2010). It's perfectly normal and I recall it was because there is now a slightly different file structure which enables the newer Sony cards to be used, not just SXS (as well as better stability with SDHC cards in adapters for over-cranking).

A quick search should find the info if it's deemed important to you. Hope this helps.

Just a guess but I think some of that space is now being used as a buffer on the card which is why overcrank and general reliability improves on SDHC cards.

I understand now. Thank you.

I am only getting 112 minutes on a 32GB SDHC card and 55 minutes on a 16GB SDHC card with firmware 1.20 on an EX1.

John

In the worst case scenario you will only get 50minutes on a 16gb card and 100mins on a 32gb card. XDCAM EX is a variable bit rate codec, which means the actual data rate can be less if nothing much is happening in your frame. So the actual recording time suggested is just an estimate of what could possibly be recorded. With the new firmware the camera is just a bit less optimistic about how much it will be able to record.