No heating
 

My 7D arrived yesterday, and the first thing I did this morning was check it out thoroughly. I got one 8 gig card and shot for a total of 3 cards' worth, in other words about 75 minutes, stopping only to delete the footage and start over. I had the live view mode on continuously before and after shooting, for probably over 2 hours.

No heating at all. No warning light. Camera gets barely warm to the touch, no hotter and maybe not even as hot as my xH A1 when it's on for as long.

I was doing 1080P/24 only because that's what I'll do almost all the time. If I do any 60fps it will be for slomo and would only be in short takes.

I'm sure that if you're shooting in hot sun when the ambient temperature is over 100 degrees (F), the warning light might come on. But in my case anyway I don't shoot for as long continuously as I just did. If I were doing an event or a long talk, I wouldn't use this camera anyway. I'm not saying some haven't seen the heating warning, but I have not been able to make it come on with my camera. I'm indoors, and it's cool outside so the furnace heat goes off and on, and I set the camera on a tripod in front of a heating vent up near the ceiling, aimed down on the camera. So anytime the house heat was on, the camera was getting the warm air. Not like shooting in summer sun in Scottsdale or Baghdad, but best I can do today. I'm a happy camper here. No heating problems.

hey Bill,

I think it might be unit specific... mine is doing just fine as well...

Granted, I hear higher ISOs generate higher heat, so that might be linked...

I shot for 25 minutes at 6400ISO, no heating.

What firmware version does it have?
That has been my experience as well so far with the 24p and 30p modes. I've shot a few hours in 30 C with the camera on nearly continuously, but haven't done lengthy tests yet in 60p mode.

@Bill Pryor:

Camera was in LiveView Mode 2 h before filming and 2 h after filming for 75 minutes?

That mean the display will not the critical heat source so setup a scene with display on will not a real problem?


Daniel von Euw

Total time for the display on was over 2 hours, about 75 minutes of that time was shooting. I don't know what firmware version it is...battery is charging at the moment so I can't look.

I got mine last wensday (firmware 1.07) and did exactly what bill does. I recorded on my 2 16 gb cards, so about 1h30 of video at 24p without any heating warning.

My only problem now is that the computer is not seeing the camera when I plug it in. Nor does it like the card when I try to use the old card reader I have. I can use EOS Utility and find the camera but it only grabs stills off each video clip. I should be able to plug the camera in and see it like a drive but I get nothing. Mac, latest OS, FCP studio 3. Opening FCP won't do anything either.

No heating so far at 24 fps
 

"(patient) Doctor, my arm hurts when I do this. (doctor) Then don't move your arm like that."

Will somebody please do the same tests using 60fps. I need to shoot a lot of 60fps and the same testing at 60fps will help us all get closer to what is causing the temp icon to keep showing when the ambient temp is not hot.

Bill,

I have this same issue with my camera, my Mac won't see it as a drive. My PC sees it just fine and I can copy files straight to my HD. I can also copy the files to my Mac using Iphoto, which sees the camera just fine. It's not a huge issue, but I think it is kind of strange.

Don't bother connecting the camera to the computer, guys... there's really no reason to do that, unless you want to run the camera remotely from your computer keyboard. Use an SDHC card reader instead (less than $15 and available locally). This keeps your camera -- and its battery -- free for shooting.

That's because your old card reader isn't SDHC compatible. Toss it, and get a new one -- pretty much all of the new ones are SDHC compatible these days, and they're dirt cheap.

Be sure to not plug the camera into the computer before you install the software or the software will not work, (my mistake on the first camera, did not read the instructions installion software) I sent my first one back cuz of dead pixel, my new one arrived with 1.0.9 firmware and so far no heat warning, but the temp here in TX is much cooler now that a few weeks ago when I had the heat warning so can't really tell if the new firmware fix it or not.

Could be the card reader. But why won't the computer see the camera? When I open the EOS Utility software I installed, it does talk to the camera, but it downloads a still frame out of each video clip, not the video. And the camera doesn't show up as a drive at all. It's weird that the EOS utility grabs a freeze but I can't find any way to get video.

I'll get a new card reader tomorrow and see what happens on that front. I prefer that anyway, but the camera should work too.

Well, this is interesting...I suddenly remembered that my wife's laptop has Snow Leopard. I've never got around to getting it for my editing system yet. I plugged the camera into her computer, iPhoto opened up and imported all the video clips perfectly. I would prefer to see the camera like a drive and put them in a folder, but as Adrinn said, it's weird but you can live with it. I'd prefer to drag and drop to a folder off a card reader. I'll go to Best Buy tomorrow morning and pay 30 bucks for a $15 reader and see if that works. The old one I have I got when the 20D first came out and a 1 gig card was a thing of great size. Chris is probably right about that situation. Hopefully. And, I guess I'll get Snow Leopard for my computer as well. It's cheap, I just never got around to doing it.

Alex, there's been lots of 720p/60 testing on the 7D already and that's when it gets hot. I already knew that so I didn't bother to try it. I'll only use 60fps very rarely and for short periods of time so it's not an issue for me. If you want to shoot for long periods of time in that mode, it may not be a good camera for you.

Canon doesn't implement the USB mass storage device profile, only the PTP interface, so the 5D can't be treated as an external drive.