Why 3min video recording limitation?

[georkal]

Hi,

I own a powershot G3 and i was wondering why cannon have set a 3 min video recording limit.
I never found a reasonable axplanation for that so if anyone knows why please let me know.
Also G5 came out with the same 3min limitation!?!?!why?
Im completely satisfied with the wide range of features i get from my G3 but the 3min limitation really annoys me!I've been in many situations where i want to record more than 3min...
Is there any hacked firmware availiable out yet, that bypass that limitation?

[Warman]

Must be something wrong there because i have done movie clips bigger than 3 minutes. Are you sure that is not just the limit of your CF card's capacity?

[georkal]

Originally Posted by Warman

Must be something wrong there because i have done movie clips bigger than 3 minutes. Are you sure that is not just the limit of your CF card's capacity?

Its really weird because i never heard G3,5 can record video for more than 3min.
I use a Crucial 256mb.

As you can also see from reviews about G3 :

[url]http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong3/page2.asp

and G5

[url]http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canong5/page2.asp

the limitation is clearly stated :

• 320 x 240, 15 fps, max 3 mins (including audio)
• 160 x 120, 15 fps, max 3 mins (including audio)

Im really curious on how you actually manage to record video longer than 3min

[Warman]

Yep, you are right, i just tested it and it only recorded 3 min.
The file i had was just below 3 mins but because it took so much time i was sure it was bigger.
And to satisfy your curiosity, i cant! :P

[Andy_T]

If I'm not mistaken, the maximum time you can record with video is determined by the buffer of the G2/G3, which seems to be around 4MB (that's about the size of a 30 sec high quality video).

So if the file is larger, it has to be saved to CF, and the camera obviously can't do both ... writing to CF and recording.

Best regards,
Andy

[twl845]

It allows about 3 minutes because that's all that will fit. If you want to take longer videos, why don't you get a video camera where you won't have to worry how much time is left to record? Some video cameras allow you to take stills as well.

[Andy_T]

Just a personal experience...

After having had my G2 for about a year, I also decided to get a state of the art Panasonic MiniDV (NV65) camera.

Great 0.8 MP video camera with a great lens and IS, takes great videos.

Do I use it a lot? Nope.

Main reasons is the time needed to transfer:
You can only download about 15 minutes of video, this takes half an hour to download to the PC and uses up some 5 GB on the hard disk. If you decide to convert it to MPEG in order to burn it to VCD or DVD, prepare for a night of rendering for a half-hour video. That means you have to spend a lot of time on the PC, until your video is downloaded and processed.

Of course, you can spend some $500 - 1000 on a Pinnacle 500 or Canopus Storm video accelerator card that allows real-time rendering, but I couldn't get myself to spend that money on something that clearly isn't as much fun as taking digital pictures.

But that's just my story... bottom line is ... I wanted it badly, but when I had it, I found out I don't really like it enough to use it.

Best regards,
Andy

[twl845]

Andythaler - Wow that's a shocker. I haven't tried out the video feature on my G3 yet. Do you know how long it takes to transfer the 3 minutes of video from the G3, and how much hard drive space it takes?

[dfrost]

I use the video feature of my G3 fairly often - great with playful animals, dog agility runs, overall pans of a classic car show, an animated Christmas lighting display, etc. They're great to play back through the TV. Three minutes is about the maximum a viewer would want to watch these "home movies."

Downloading to the PC takes about one-third the recorded time with my Lexar CF card reader.

I didn't consider this mode all that valuable when I selected the G3, but now find that it's one of the more satisfying and fun features.

Now if I could just figure out how to convert the .avi files into something my DVD player could read from a CD.

[rgravel]

Originally Posted by georkal

Hi,

Also G5 came out with the same 3min limitation!?!?!why?

I own a G5 and Andythaler's explanation about the buffer makes sense. Also, at 15fps, the video quality is poor at best.

I also have a Mini DV camera with fire wire and the download is quite fast, and the quality is much better. I beleive its at 30fps...not sure about that one though. For every 10 minutes of video, it requires 2 gig of hard disk space

[Duke107]

I have a Sony TRV 25 with Carl Zeiss lense and love it and use it. The G2 and the movie cam are two seperate beasts with completely differant goals. I would never bother with movie mode with my G2 because as with the two cams I have bought them for their individual talents. But to Andy the movie cam is like anything else, you have to cave the right software and you will find burning to DVD is a breeze, simpler than shooting raw image and photoshoping and printing. My 2 cents, sorry if a little off the canon forum topic base.

[Barton1968]

I have an IBM 1GByte smartdrive, and even when empty, video only runs for 3 minutes on my G5.

[Barton1968]

Canon Support said that a limit of 3 minutes has been set internally and cannot be changed, however large a capacity card you have

[stefG5]

im not sure how long the video fragment was, but i recorded a 30MB clip with my G5 once.

I think the max lenght of the clip is determined by the size of the flash card (obviously) but dont forget that the camera also needs working memory to compress the file. this working memory comes from the flash card also and thats why you'll never be able to record a 250mb clip on a 250mb flash card

but you will be able to record 250mb *worth* of material. filming a white sheet of paper will also go on for longer than filming a really busy scene

the quality is not that good, but its still a good function and fun to watch. most cameras come with cables to attach to a tv and you would be surprised of the quality ... its also fun to use some ulead software (or even windows movie maker) and paste all the clips together into a movie

S

[Barton1968]

I contacted Canon support.

Incident Number 1070065



Thank you for your recent enquiry regarding your Canon product.





Please be advised that the maximum movie length which can be shot on the Powershot G3 and G5 is three minutes. It is not possible to override this length, as it is based on the buffer size of the Camera which is unable to be upgraded.





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