Remaining recording time and memory usage, is this normal?

[Harm Millaard]

I just noticed something strange with my XF300 and wonder is this is normal, or some firmware error.

I have a 32 GB CF card in the camera. The camera indicates only 2 minutes of recording time left on this card. So, one would think the card is pretty full, right?

Well, it is not. See the picture below. Only 22.9 GB used and 6.86 GB free. Why does the camera indicate only 2 minutes remaining recording time? IMO it should be much more.

Any thoughts on this?

[Josh Morgan]

If you are recording at 50MBPS at 1080P, your full recording time should be around 80 mins...How much have you recorded so far?

[Harm Millaard]

1:02 when it switches to the next card, so 62 minutes and the free space on the card is still 6.21 GB.

Recording at 1080i/25 fps 50 MB/s.

[Josh Morgan]

What CF card are you using? Canon recommends specific brands to be used with this camera...

[Harm Millaard]

SanDisk Extreme 32 GB

[Josh Morgan]

Try to record until the camera stops the recording...Then see how much space is left on the card.

[Harm Millaard]

After it says END, there is still 6.21 GB free.

[Harry Pallenberg]

Reformat the card and record till full again and see if it actually fills up. I would say that is not normal - but I've never check to see how much space I have on a card... only how much time.

[Roger Averdahl]

I see similar issues on the XF100 sometimes. (Sandisk 32GB)

I have also seen 32GB Sandisk cards formatted in the Canon C300 and when they are formatted only 8GB can be used on the card. The Sandisk card somewhat "offended" the C300 since it formatted correctly in a Canon 5DMKIII.

So there seems to be something with the Canon cameras internal software that does this. Are you on the latest firmware for the camera?

[Ann Bens]

I have seen this also with the xf100 and 32 gig Transcend cards.

[Harm Millaard]

I just updated the firmware to version 1.04. I had 1.02 up to now.

I will initialize a new card and see where it leaves me. I'll let you know.

[Vincent Oliver]

I have a problem with one of my 16gb Lexar Professional 300X cards. It records in 4.7 gb sections, which do not join up properly on a long production (stage play or wedding service) Also the Stereo tracks jump from Audio 1&2 track to Audio 3&4 track on a Premiere time line. Have given up with this card, unless I am shooting very short sequences.

[Bob Safay]

So the question is, How often should you initialize a CF card? Once when you first install it, after every download, once a week? Bob

[Graham Bernard]

Originally Posted by Bob Safay

How often should you initialize a CF card?

After material is backed-up in 2 separate places, I initialize after every shoot. I have the firmware previous to this last XLR User Manual "description" compliance.

Grazie