Camera Labs

Hi everyone,

I'm going on a surf trip to costa rica and would like to record video of the trip. Is it better to shoot surfing in 720 @ 60fps or 1080 30fps?

How many minutes of video will I be able to record using an 8gb memory card?

What are the pros and cons of each.

I edit in Final Cut Pro

Thanks for your help!
-Evan

You can only shoot 12 minutes of continuous footage when shooting at HD resolution. With both of those resolution/frame rate combinations, the full 12 minutes will take up about 3.8GB so you'll get about 24 minutes of footage on an 8GB card.

In case you're not aware, when recording HD video with an HD DSLR, you are best off using Class 10.

I'm not recommending one resolution/frame rate combination over the other but if you're likely to slow your footage down during editing, there's perhaps no getting away from the likelihood that shooting 720p@60fps will give smoother playback.

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Bodies: Canon EOS 550D w/ Magic Lantern
Lenses: Tokina AT-X 116 Pro DX f/2.8, Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS, Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
Accessories: YongNuo Speedlite YN-468 Flash, Neewer Macro LED Ring Light, Meike Battery Grip, YongNuo RF-602 Wireless Flash Trigger & Receiver YongNuo WR-128 Wireless Remote Control

thanks for your input. Is class 10 the highest SDHC cards go?

Yes but there's a little more to it than that. Class 10 is a minimum specification including at least a 10MB/s write speed so not all Class 10 cards are created equally. For HD video, the Class 10 cards with higher transfer rates of 20MB/s or even 30MB/s would be most suitable.

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Bodies: Canon EOS 550D w/ Magic Lantern
Lenses: Tokina AT-X 116 Pro DX f/2.8, Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS, Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
Accessories: YongNuo Speedlite YN-468 Flash, Neewer Macro LED Ring Light, Meike Battery Grip, YongNuo RF-602 Wireless Flash Trigger & Receiver YongNuo WR-128 Wireless Remote Control

Sandisk Ultra at the moment are 20/mbs and the Extreme version is 30/mbs

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1) Olympus OM1 [Zuiko Auto-S 50mm f/1.8]
2) Pentax MZ-60 [Sigma 28-90 & 100-300]
3) Canon 7D [EF-S 15-85 & 70-200mm f/4 IS]

Leo's Flickr Page

I intentionally didn't mention brands as recommendations weren't requested but since Leo's started, I use Sandisk, Duracell and 7dayshop.com's 20MB/s+ Class 10 cards.

_________________
Bodies: Canon EOS 550D w/ Magic Lantern
Lenses: Tokina AT-X 116 Pro DX f/2.8, Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS, Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM
Accessories: YongNuo Speedlite YN-468 Flash, Neewer Macro LED Ring Light, Meike Battery Grip, YongNuo RF-602 Wireless Flash Trigger & Receiver YongNuo WR-128 Wireless Remote Control

I suppose it depends what you are going to do with your video. If you just want to display it on the internet somewhere like youtube then recording at 1080p may be overkill. Recording at 60fps will give you the extra frames to allow you have slow motion playback.

I have also used 'cheaper' 16Gb PNY class 10 cards in my 550d with no problems at all.

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My Stuff: Canon 550d, 18-55mm kit lens, 50mm f1.8, Tamron 90mm f2.8 Macro, Tamron 70-300mm (never buy one of these EVER), and a whole bag of other gadgets, filters, flashguns etc.
My Flickr Photostream

I have to chime in here with a recommendation of the KomputerBay 32GB Class10 20MB/s cards. They are available at Amazon and allow for smooth and reliable recording at a really fantastic price. I currently have two of those cards and have had nothing but good results with them on my 600D. They come at about £19 on Amazon UK.

best wishes,

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BrotherBloat
London RC Project
http://www.rc-forc3.com
Canon Kiss X5 (600D/T3i), Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 UMS, Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II (kit), Tokina RMC 135mm f/2.8 P/K-conversion, battery grip, CowboyStudios Shoulder Pad