How many minutes of video?

[Jeff Cook]

On average for a full day wedding, preps up until the dancing of the reception, how many minutes do you guys record. I have a 60d with 2 32 gig cards, and I am sure I will need more than 3 hours of card space. I also have 5 batteries. I am just shooting right now with one camera.

[James Manford]

I capture about 70 gigs worth of data. And have multiple 16gb Sandisk Ultra cards. If one damages, at least it will be 16gb of data, rather than 32 or 64 ...

Better to have lots of small cards if you ask me.

[Jeff Cook]

Yeah, that is true. I am always afraid that I will run out of space just when I need it though. I should pick up some 16 gig cards.

[Chris Harding]

Wow that's a lot of data for a wedding?

I have one 16GB card in each of my EA-50's and I seldom have to change cards so at most that would be 32GB of footage, plus the GoPro will add probably another 8gb or so ..but definitely not 70GB!! How many cameras is that for and how much actually record time??

Chris

[Tim Bakland]

Usually about 45 GB of non-transcoded cards, including WAVs from audio recorders.

[Jeff Cook]

I guess it just varies. I will probably pick up 2 16gb cards just in case. I know when I shoot news I always over shoot, that is good and bad. Thanks again for the feedback

[Don Bloom]

In the weddings I've shot over say the last 15 years I shoot enough footage to give me the feeling that I have covered the event and have the footage I need to edit it properly and tell the story. Doesn't matter to me if I'm doing doc style or cine style which frankly I stopped doing about 5 years ago. You can't edit what you don't have and if you promised to cover a certain event then you need the footage of that event. Period. Time is not relevant. For instance, I've shot weddings where I've had 2-2 1/2 hours of footage from my A camera and that's it. small weddings, 10-15 minute ceremony, short reception. B camera footage doesn't count and I only use 2 cams for the ceremony. I've had weddings where it became something more and I had 6 hours of A camera footage. Doesn't matter. The finished product is going to be pretty much the same just one is longer than another. I don't worry about how much footage I have, just that I have the right footage to put together the finished product the client is expecting from me.
BTW, I have 4 32 gig and 4 16 gig cards and I don't use them all on any one job but since I have been known to do more than 1 job in a weekend, multiple cards are a necessity. Plus they're cheap and it's always nice to know they're there just in case but that's just me.

[Nigel Barker]

How many GB you use will depend on the bit rate that your camera records at. My XF105 records at 50Mbps which equates to 82 minutes for a 32GB card. A 5D2 records at a bit over 40Mbps & a 5D3 at about 30Mbps i.e. about 130 minutes on a 32GB card. Shooting solo with an XF105 GoPro plus 2x5D3 I return home with about 100-150GB.

[Jeff Cook]

Hi Don,
I couldn't agree with you more. You need the footage, so shoot shoot and shoot. I was just curious on how many more sd card I need. As if now I will be able to shoot 3 hours of footage. I am going to buy some more cards, cause you don't want to be in a situations where you say, "I should of got more cards."
How about battery life, do you think 5 batteries should cover a full day shoot? Again I use dslr.

[Steve Bleasdale]

Similar to Don, I have stopped my short form edits and returned to doc style but mixed with short form, as much footage as possible from say 10.30 in the morning to 9pm at night, using two 32gb cards and one 16 gig. On the following day or the nights downloads I generally have 20 minutes left on each card...So roughly 50/60 gig of data..

[Don Bloom]

number of cards is determined by how much footage (time wise) you can record to a card. Like wise, how many batteries is determined by how long a single battery runs the camera if recording for say 75% of the time. why 75%? Well, that will give you an approximate time the battery will last for just about any job.
Every camera uses differing amounts of power when recording so just saying you have a DSLR doesn't mean anything. I could say I have a full sized shoulder rig and that doesn't mean a thing without knowing the power draw. For instance, years ago when I had a Sony DSR250 it drew 12 watts. My 90W batteries would last a very long time. MY JVC GY-DV5000 drew 22 watts and the batteries didn't last nearly as long. My JVC HM700 draws 24 watts and my 68 w batteries last about 2 1/2 hours while my 95 watt batteries of course last longer. It also depends on what other accessories you might be running off the battery. Are you running your wireless receiver or it? If so while it is a minimal draw it is still pulling power. Are you running a light off the battery? Be prepared for a rather large draw. Since you're running a DSLR I doubt that either of those things are happening but it gives you an idea as to the different things you have to consider when buying power for a camera.

[Adrian Tan]

Hi Jeff, here's AU$0.02.

-- If you want to cover your butt completely: if it's a 14-hour wedding, bring 14 hours worth of cards. (Same for batteries... I'm there to work, so that camera is only really going to be switched off when I'm between locations.)

-- Realistically, the rule of 1/2 seems to be pretty safe for me, and I'm a big overshooter. So, if it's a 14-hour wedding, then the minimum I'd personally be comfortable with is 7 hours worth of cards. Very unlikely to use anywhere near that data, but then again I also change out cards before I've filled them completely. Don't want to get a "card full" message in the middle of the vows. So, if I'm setting up for a ceremony, or setting up at a reception, then all the cards get swapped out before things start, just in case.

-- In general, I think the less experienced you are, the more you're going to be shooting. (Might apply to gear as well -- maybe the more experienced you are, the less you bring.) For guys like Chris and Don, it's probably a case of "editing in camera", and shooting pretty close to what they need.

-- Whatever number of cards you come up with, double it, so that you can shoot weddings back to back.

-- I'm a fan of 32gb over 16gb. Firstly because I carry a tonne of cards as it is, to feed four cameras, and I don't want to double that amount. Secondly, because I personally think 16gb is not quite long enough to comfortably cover ceremonies. On a Mk2, 16gb is about 45 minutes; and on a Mk3 it's probably more like an hour. But Catholic/Greek ceremonies, for instance, can often go longer than an hour, especially if you're recording stuff before and after the ceremony proper.

-- All depends on your end product, of course. If you're supplying a 5-minute highlights, and that's it, then maybe one card for the whole day is enough. But if you're supplying continuous coverage of ceremony and special events at reception, as well as coverage of a couple of dances, that's easily 2-3 hours right there, let alone all the highlight stuff. Different cultures will have different expectations as well. So, Serbian/Croatian weddings, for instance, might expect hours and hours of footage...

[Jeff Cook]

Adrian,
Thanks for the words of wisdom. I think I will get a couple more 32 gig cards.