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A2 and Movie length.

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Of course, it does NOT make any sense at all, that Minolta can not just make an A2 that does as specified...

But since we all try to find some solution our selves, did the following test (see my former link) from our friend albutch not make (any) sense ?:

Recently bought an Ultra II 512Mb CF card and at first I could only record around 1min 32secs with a 50second flush to the card.

No difference after re-formatting the card in my laptop but then I formatted in the camera and everythings great.

Recorded 10mins 21 secs with 35secs to flush. This was at max res 30fps set to Standard and produced a 481Mb file - card full.

Well, it makes sense enough to me, UNTIL it is possible to film unlimmited at a 4GB MD at FAT32 (- of course, so without in camera formatting)...

If that can not be done, it could well be possible (refering to all former posting examples) that in camera formatting (which is FAT16) makes it possbible to shoot one film of 2GB, making it (IMO) SENSE to do so, resulting in the poor 'fact' that MINOLTA could make you 'limited' by using 4GB cards.

But of course first of all still, it is MINOLTA that has to solve this issue !

EricP
John Shelton said:
EricP said:
(see this link:)
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1024&message=7998833

...it means that, if you want to do some filming (that 'works')
with your A2 in full res. 30 fps, you should NOT buy a CF that is
bigger than 2GB...
Click to expand...
This make no sense at all. Not saying it isn't true, just that it
make no sense.

John
Click to expand...
 
EricP said:
Recently bought an Ultra II 512Mb CF card and at first I could only
record around 1min 32secs with a 50second flush to the card.

No difference after re-formatting the card in my laptop but then I
formatted in the camera and everythings great.

Recorded 10mins 21 secs with 35secs to flush. This was at max res
30fps set to Standard and produced a 481Mb file - card full.
Click to expand...
Congratulations! I am very glad it works for you. I, on the other hand, have tried reformatting both by computer and by camera. Finally, got over 2 minutesof recording, made it all the way to two minutes and 10 seconds before it stopped recording.
I will keep trying, until minolta tell us what is wrong.
John
 
One possibility is, the size of the A2's output may vary by subject. A movie of a blank wall would be more easily compressed, and written to the card quicker, than a hundred kids in a swimming pool. I can't imagine this would cause the wide descripencies for shooting times, but perhaps it's a factor.

--
Musenik
Chief of Mischief
http://www.mousechief.com
 
This has made me very worried

I was looking at the Sony and the A2, in the end, I got the A2, It will arrive later this week.

The movie mode was high on my list… now I’m very worried at this point but I have not got any new C/F media. What should I get? Or should I sent it back and get the Sony?
 
Keep sending them emails until they acknowledge a problem exists.
John Shelton said:
EricP said:
Recently bought an Ultra II 512Mb CF card and at first I could only
record around 1min 32secs with a 50second flush to the card.

No difference after re-formatting the card in my laptop but then I
formatted in the camera and everythings great.

Recorded 10mins 21 secs with 35secs to flush. This was at max res
30fps set to Standard and produced a 481Mb file - card full.
Click to expand...
Congratulations! I am very glad it works for you. I, on the other
hand, have tried reformatting both by computer and by camera.
Finally, got over 2 minutesof recording, made it all the way to two
minutes and 10 seconds before it stopped recording.
I will keep trying, until minolta tell us what is wrong.
John
Click to expand...
--



Beauty is in the eye of the Bee-holder...
 
Indeed you're right, I filled my card by filming in complete darkness...

When filming in MF and not totally correct focussed, I got more than 8 min. of filming (max. res. 30 fps) in stead of 4 min. before....

Hmm... / Ggrrr...

EricP (1GB IBM MD)
musenik said:
One possibility is, the size of the A2's output may vary by
subject. A movie of a blank wall would be more easily compressed,
and written to the card quicker, than a hundred kids in a swimming
pool. I can't imagine this would cause the wide descripencies for
shooting times, but perhaps it's a factor.

--
Musenik
Chief of Mischief
http://www.mousechief.com
Click to expand...
 
This perhaps suggests there's some kind of bug or badly written software.

The best way of testing this would be to film some leafy bushes, slowly zooming or panning, since bushes tend to have huge amounts of detail. If the camera is tripping up due to large amounts of detail (hence large amounts of data it can't cope with) then this kind of test should cause the camera to halt qute quickly.

Jawed
EricP said:
Indeed you're right, I filled my card by filming in complete
darkness...

When filming in MF and not totally correct focussed, I got more
than 8 min. of filming (max. res. 30 fps) in stead of 4 min.
before....

Hmm... / Ggrrr...

EricP (1GB IBM MD)
Click to expand...
 
...since I chose the A2 over the A1 for its more than 320*240 pixels at 30 fps unlimited filming.

My feeling is getting stronger in returning my A2 as well. If it takes half a year between an A1 and an A2 to come out, I can give them this time (or more), for Minolta, to solve their issues/'problems' and come back with some Ax, where they have not 'cheated'...

It's getting to be a sad story...

EricP
UKA2 said:
UKA2 said:
Box Brownie said:
See this link

http://www.minoltaeurope.com/pe/digital/en/faq_en_2720_c23_d1934.html

HTH ?? : )
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
At the end of the day ~ so to speak ~ the choice of A2 is down to it's feature set.

Now, this is afterall a still camera with movie capability (which I love in my Fuji F700) so, if the movie function is the prime reason for buying it then it probably is not the best choice?

I say the above bearing in mind the various posts here about how variable the movie length is apparently depending on the camera (?) and the CF or MD used. And a lot of posters want to be able to film continuously to fill their CF card or MD.

I have already bought a 1GB Sandisk CF card (not the Ultra or Ultra II) and will certainly test the movie length. But total length in movie making is not the issue for me because I see my digicams ability to take a movie a supplement to my still images, likely use after editing/conversion to suitable format for streaming on my Gallery page. And for those snatched moments when a movie catches the "mood" where a still image may not.

Just to note here that I have yet to find a circumstance with my F700 when I have taken a movie of greater than 60 seconds per clip & with my Sony Digital 8 DV the maximum clip length has been 3 minutes. Because like PPing the stills all video needs editing to get the best flow and hence enjoyment/lack of boredom from it.

I appreciate that the "only" downside to the A2 (& any digicam taking full frame 30fps movies) is the card write from buffer time. I suspect that this will always be the case unless KM and other makers build with a sufficiently large buffer together with firmware that can handle the data density transfer to CF/MD. But would we be prepared to pay for such a camera?

Having said all the above it is about time KM updated their "Compatibility Chart" to include the A2 and make clear which makes/speed of CF are best choice for movie recording.

Thanks for reading this far. : )
 
All of a sudden I'm getting 41/2 minutes at 30fps. Last night I reformatted in my XP box, but have since reformatted in the camera. I also set the camera to manual focus, took a movie, and it lasted for about 4:30. Now it will do 4:30 each time, even with auto-focus. I'm glad I'm getting the longer times, I'm not sure what caused it. I noticed in the specs that the camera only does a "quick format." Oh well, for those of you getting less than these times, I suggest you paly arounfd with formatting in Xp.
fotog said:
Okay, as I posted in an earlier thread, I am getting only about
1:15 at 30fps. Someone at KM support told me that I should be
getting 6 min. at 30fps, and 15 min at 15fps. At his suggestion, I
tried another brand of card. A friend just got a Sandisk 2GB Ultra
II, so I tried that and get about 1 min. and 50 secs., with a
nearly 50 sec. write to the card. This is the fastest CF card made
right now, so it ain't the card.

The rep suggested that I send the camera in for repair, but I won't
give up the camera for a week or two until I am convinced that this
is not a firmware issue. I suggest that anyone having similar
write-time issues email KM so that this will be recognized as a
known issue, and hopefully they'll issue a firmware update soon.

The only email address I could find was:

[email protected]

--



Beauty is in the eye of the Bee-holder...
Click to expand...
--



Beauty is in the eye of the Bee-holder...
 
Living in Europe, I could try to buy a $200,- MP3 player with this Hitachi 4GB MD in it, yes in the US, since here in Sweden they let you pay $300,- for it. @$£#¤!

And I'd like to be able to shoot films longer than 4 minutes, like I can do now max., with my 1GB IBM MD...

Some have asked in this thread, what firmware version is in the camera, so I'll ask you too (mine is 1.00)... in case that could do the trick...

Q no.2:

I got a 2 times improvement by formatting my MD 'in camera'. But since you can not do this (true..???..), while you must have FAT32 to get over 2GB, and everybody in this thread is having difficulties in making long films, could you try filming again (with full batteries) to see how long you'll get (and you'll still get that)? With sufficient light and not in MF 'of course', since like that I can also fill up my card.

I'm still having difficulties to decide whether I'll bring my A2 back, so I hope you can help me some...

Thanks in advance,

EricP
PDM said:
Paul
EricP said:
...at 30fps & 544*408

With my S602Z at 30 fps & 640*480 I could easily film more than 10
minutes...

@£¤#@!?!

EricP
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
After several reformats, and a good nights sleep, my A2 now records to six minutes and thirty seconds at 30fps. First try today was to five minutes, last try made it to 6 and 1/2 minutes. Go figure. I did charge the battery overnight...hmmm?
John
fotog said:
fotog said:
Okay, as I posted in an earlier thread, I am getting only about
1:15 at 30fps. Someone at KM support told me that I should be
getting 6 min. at 30fps, and 15 min at 15fps. At his suggestion, I
tried another brand of card. A friend just got a Sandisk 2GB Ultra
II, so I tried that and get about 1 min. and 50 secs., with a
nearly 50 sec. write to the card. This is the fastest CF card made
right now, so it ain't the card.

The rep suggested that I send the camera in for repair, but I won't
give up the camera for a week or two until I am convinced that this
is not a firmware issue. I suggest that anyone having similar
write-time issues email KM so that this will be recognized as a
known issue, and hopefully they'll issue a firmware update soon.

The only email address I could find was:

[email protected]

--



Beauty is in the eye of the Bee-holder...
Click to expand...
--



Beauty is in the eye of the Bee-holder...
Click to expand...
--
John
 
I was reading in the manual the sectio about movie length, at it says 6 minutes at 30fps. But then in the very next sentence it says that the times may be shorter in dim lighting. What's this all about?
John Shelton said:
fotog said:
fotog said:
Okay, as I posted in an earlier thread, I am getting only about
1:15 at 30fps. Someone at KM support told me that I should be
getting 6 min. at 30fps, and 15 min at 15fps. At his suggestion, I
tried another brand of card. A friend just got a Sandisk 2GB Ultra
II, so I tried that and get about 1 min. and 50 secs., with a
nearly 50 sec. write to the card. This is the fastest CF card made
right now, so it ain't the card.

The rep suggested that I send the camera in for repair, but I won't
give up the camera for a week or two until I am convinced that this
is not a firmware issue. I suggest that anyone having similar
write-time issues email KM so that this will be recognized as a
known issue, and hopefully they'll issue a firmware update soon.

The only email address I could find was:

[email protected]

--



Beauty is in the eye of the Bee-holder...
Click to expand...
--



Beauty is in the eye of the Bee-holder...
Click to expand...
--
John
Click to expand...
--



Beauty is in the eye of the Bee-holder...
 
The following is word for word from the specification page:

http://www.minoltausa.com/eprise/main/MinoltaUSA/MUSAContent/CPG/CPGProducts?cname=dig
"Movie
Standard movie mode:
Maximum 15 minutes at 30 frames per second with monaural audio
Night movie mode:
Maximum 15 minutes at 30 frames per second with monaural audio
(Automatic selection function between standard and night movie modes available)"

To my knowledge no one has posted recording times of greater than 8 minutes. Of course, the potential purchaser would assume that the 15 minute maximum would be dependent upon storage media size, not on available light, or any other factor. Seems like some false advertising to me.
John
fotog said:
John Shelton said:
fotog said:
All of a sudden I'm getting 41/2 minutes at 30fps. Last night I
reformatted in my XP box, but have since reformatted in the camera.
I also set the camera to manual focus, took a movie, and it lasted
for about 4:30. Now it will do 4:30 each time, even with
auto-focus. I'm glad I'm getting the longer times, I'm not sure
what caused it. I noticed in the specs that the camera only does a
"quick format." Oh well, for those of you getting less than these
times, I suggest you paly arounfd with formatting in Xp.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Perhaps by "standard movie mode" they are referring to the smaller mode and the near-VGA mode it is limited to 6 minutes as stated in the manual? I don't have the manual in front of me - is the smaller mode limit 15 min? Why do folks want to use a still cam to record a movie more than a couple of minutes? Wouldn't a MiniDV recorder be the more appropriate tool?

Regards,
Tom
John Shelton said:
http://www.minoltausa.com/eprise/main/MinoltaUSA/MUSAContent/CPG/CPGProducts?cname=dig
"Movie
Standard movie mode:
Maximum 15 minutes at 30 frames per second with monaural audio
Night movie mode:
Maximum 15 minutes at 30 frames per second with monaural audio
(Automatic selection function between standard and night movie
modes available)"

To my knowledge no one has posted recording times of greater than 8
minutes. Of course, the potential purchaser would assume that the
15 minute maximum would be dependent upon storage media size, not
on available light, or any other factor. Seems like some false
advertising to me.
John
fotog said:
John Shelton said:
fotog said:
All of a sudden I'm getting 41/2 minutes at 30fps. Last night I
reformatted in my XP box, but have since reformatted in the camera.
I also set the camera to manual focus, took a movie, and it lasted
for about 4:30. Now it will do 4:30 each time, even with
auto-focus. I'm glad I'm getting the longer times, I'm not sure
what caused it. I noticed in the specs that the camera only does a
"quick format." Oh well, for those of you getting less than these
times, I suggest you paly arounfd with formatting in Xp.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
Regards,
Tom
 
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