DSLR wedding question

[L.J. Morelli]

I'm an EX-1 user, with 5D as a 3rd backup / B Roll camera. I'm relatively up to speed with what people are doing and all the work-arounds. But how are you dealing with the 12 minute limit, say, for a ceremony? Are you using more than one camera, and staggering their start & stops? Also, since most people are recording audio on the H2n, having the audio unbroken I'm sure can solve lots of issues by just using a cut away. Please enlighten and share some thoughts with me. Thank you

[Lee Thomas]

Not to sound flip, but I think you answered your own question. Actually, we went all-dslr this year and found the transition much easier than we originally thought. Like you, we were concerned about the 12 minute limit but that has really been an (almost) non-issue. During the ceremony, or during long toasts, are the only real times it's an issue and it's really not an issue. Like you said, you use 2 cams, stagger start/stop, and use off-cam audio. You just adjust your shooting style accordingly and move on.

[L.J. Morelli]

Yes, thought so. Thanks for confirming. My 5Dmk2 will sometimes just stop recording after less than a minute, not shut off/power down, it'll just stop. Any thoughts on this? Speed of card?, low battery power? I'm fairly confidant it isn't any of those. Or maybe I just have an intermittent problem. Lastly regarding the AGC for audio. Since I did a firmware update last year, I thought that gave me manual control over the audio, so, what's the purpose of the Magic Lantern update? And why are people using the Juiced Link device. They say it enables using a balanced mic cable, never really sure what that meant. Can't one just go XLR to mini plug into camera? Thanks so much.

[Buba Kastorski]

Originally Posted by L.J. Morelli

Yes, thought so. Thanks for confirming. My 5Dmk2 will sometimes just stop recording after less than a minute, not shut off/power down, it'll just stop. Any thoughts on this? Speed of card?

yes, or could be card malfunction, but that is less likely,

[Joe Thompson]

Hi L.J.

Not sure what your workflow is, how you format your cards, or the speed & type of cards your using? But if there are people on here using the same type and speed of cards without issue, then best to avoid it happening in future, and losing sensitive files.

I've got 4 16GB x Kingston cards which capture mov files without issue on the 5D, yet when i go to the 7D with these, I get about 1 min into my HD recording, before the buffer timer completes, and interupts the recording. When I see errors relating to the buffer, I would assume it's related to speed, though that said, I understood both 7d & 5d to process data at a rate of 8MB/s. All cards above are 30MB/s & I think the speed is 133x on these.

I've also got 2 16GB X SanDisk cards, (30 MB/s Ultra & 60 MB/s Extreme (UDMA)) which do not read on 5D or 7D, or via card adaptor on mac. Unfortunately there are files on at least one of these cards, which I've tried retrieving with recovery software, and with technician to no avail.

If I try reformatting SanDisks cards in camera now, they will freeze, and i have to eject battery to regain normality.Up to now, I havn't been formatting in camera before use, but either way I've had to buy new cards for Dec weddings.

I've kept both cards aside at last wedding, without any issue encountered, but would like to get to a cause, just to be safe in future

[Mark Davidson]

These cards can be fine and then go out at the worst moments. One of my PNY 8GB Class 10 went out at this critical point just as I was setting up the shot:

Class 10 Card Malfunction on Vimeo

That's all I got.

[Taky Cheung]

Originally Posted by L.J. Morelli

I'm an EX-1 user, with 5D as a 3rd backup / B Roll camera. I'm relatively up to speed with what people are doing and all the work-arounds. But how are you dealing with the 12 minute limit, say, for a ceremony? Are you using more than one camera, and staggering their start & stops? Also, since most people are recording audio on the H2n, having the audio unbroken I'm sure can solve lots of issues by just using a cut away. Please enlighten and share some thoughts with me. Thank you

I switched to all DSLR over a year ago. I was worrying about the 12 min limit too.. and same like Lee described, it is an non-issue. First I always remember to stop/start recording. Now with magic lantern, the movie non-stop function will continue to shoot with a half a second break. I can deal with that.

I shoot with 2 to 3 cameras. Mainly for multiangle, but have the third one as backup as well as on steadicam/slider.

I have RODE videoMic mounted on each DSLR for interview purpose. Then have a Zoom H2 positioned near the speaker, or placed on top of speaker with the lav mic dangling. I got good sound out of it without connecting to DJ sound board (which could be quite a hassle dealing with some DJs). Check out at my blog Recording Good Sound at Event | L.A. Color Blog

Memory cards... lots of them. I have 18 Sandisc 16GB class 6/10 cards. I won't chance it by going cheap on memory card. Good thing is, those cards were $70 each 2 yrs ago now down to $28 each.

Magic Lantern is a must for focus assisting.

[Michael Simons]

L

Originally Posted by L.J. Morelli

I'm an EX-1 user, with 5D as a 3rd backup / B Roll camera. I'm relatively up to speed with what people are doing and all the work-arounds. But how are you dealing with the 12 minute limit, say, for a ceremony? Are you using more than one camera, and staggering their start & stops? Also, since most people are recording audio on the H2n, having the audio unbroken I'm sure can solve lots of issues by just using a cut away. Please enlighten and share some thoughts with me. Thank you

LJ, during a church ceremony, there are many opportunities to start/stop the camera. Nothing really happens at a church ceremony that last longer than 3 minutes. Non church weddings can be a little more tricky but the officiant usually has some sort of pause somewhere.

[Luke Gates]

Originally Posted by L.J. Morelli

Since I did a firmware update last year, I thought that gave me manual control over the audio, so, what's the purpose of the Magic Lantern update? h.

auto record restart. after the 12 min limit the cam will stop recording for 1-2 seconds and continue rolling. problem solved

[L.J. Morelli]

Really? I didn't know that. But that wasn't my problem. Sometimes after only a few seconds it'll just stop.
But I've use the camera on a lock off, unmanned and just let it roll. It never restarted recording.

[David Tripp]

Originally Posted by Taky Cheung

Memory cards... lots of them. I have 18 Sandisc 16GB class 6/10 cards. I won't chance it by going cheap on memory card. Good thing is, those cards were $70 each 2 yrs ago now down to $28 each.

Magic Lantern is a must for focus assisting.

Am i right in thinking that ML has to be pre-loaded onto all of your memory cards so you can carry on using it throughout the day when changing to new cards. I pretty much know this but just wanted some confirmation. Never used it before but would like to start.

thanks
DT

[Warren Kawamoto]

Originally Posted by L.J. Morelli

Lastly regarding the AGC for audio. Since I did a firmware update last year, I thought that gave me manual control over the audio, so, what's the purpose of the Magic Lantern update? And why are people using the Juiced Link device. They say it enables using a balanced mic cable, never really sure what that meant. Can't one just go XLR to mini plug into camera? Thanks so much.

Since you're using the EX1 as your main camera, I would bypass relying on DSLR audio and plug everything into the EX1 instead. That way there's no gaps or breaks at all, and 1 less step in synching audio for you.

[Danny O'Neill]

Hi L.J.

It's a common question and not as big of a problem as you think.

We've just done a huge write up and video tutorial on our blog about just this issue. Have a watch and a read and hopefully all of your questions will be answered. Now, obviously this is based on how UK weddings go but I'm sure you get the same opportunities that we do.

Minty Slippers | FILMING WITH DSLR’s | WORKING AROUND THE 12 MINUTE LIMIT

Hope that helps

[Greg Fiske]

Originally Posted by L.J. Morelli

Really? I didn't know that. But that wasn't my problem. Sometimes after only a few seconds it'll just stop.
But I've use the camera on a lock off, unmanned and just let it roll. It never restarted recording.

LJ, I would suspect the speed of the cards. If you get a little battery type symbol that comes up on the right of the viewfinder, that indicates the read buffer can't keep up. I have two Chinese knockoff cards that do this on my camera. Get a better card and then test it out to see if the memory card is the issue.

DT, correct, magic lantern is on the memory card, and then you go into the magic lantern menu to format the cards when you need to, while still retaining all the magic lantern files.

[Taky Cheung]

Originally Posted by David Tripp

Am i right in thinking that ML has to be pre-loaded onto all of your memory cards so you can carry on using it throughout the day when changing to new cards. I pretty much know this but just wanted some confirmation. Never used it before but would like to start.

thanks
DT

David, you have to format the SD card making it bootable. Then install the ML software files onto the SD card. So if you have 10 SD cards, all of them will need to have ML on them.