Not sure if this is the right place to request this, but:
When shooting raw/mlv, ml creates 10 empty files as placeholders to be used as needed while recording, files 2-10 coming into play for longer takes where spanned files are necessary (due to fat32 file size limitation of 4 GB).
If a take requires more than these 10 files (40 GB), the recording stops. This limits the length a raw take can be, depending on data rate (frame rate and frame size).
Recently I ran into this limitation while recording a long number from a live musical production. I was shooting at 1792x1008 23.976 fps with sound and got 9 min 22 sec before recording stopped with the message "unable to open file."
The number of files appears to be set with the variable MAX_PRECREATE_FILES in mlv_rec.c.
I found this:
/* pre-create that number of files befroe recording starts so that file catalog doesnt have to get updated while recording */
#define MAX_PRECREATE_FILES 10
I am thinking it would be good to allow for ~128 GB. That would fill up the largest currently used card, and would allow about 25 min of 1920x1080 raw video (no sound).
So 128 GB / 4 GB = 32 files, and the new code would be:
#define MAX_PRECREATE_FILES 32
I was thinking of attempting this myself, but I ran into some difficulty getting set up.
Any comments welcome; thank you.
Admins ... does this limitation go away if I use ExFAT since it doesn't need to use 10 files? I had this same thing happen today during a speech.
exFat is such a lifesaver and also it should keep it all in one MLV file... Per take that is.
I would still like to try to do this when I get a chance to figure out how to compile, but if anyone else can jump in and do it, that would be great.
How to do what? Format it into exFat?
Sorry for the lack of clarity.
I meant increasing MAX_PRECREATE_FILES.
make your change like you have it in the OP and type 'make zip' from the platform directory of the appropriate camera
if you need more help refer here:
http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=991.0