CF Card to USB Hard Drive - File Manager Request

Started by DannyField, May 24, 2014, 08:13:40 AM

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DannyField

Hi guys

[REQUEST]
The option within File Manager to copy / dump CF cards to USB Hard drives.

I'm heading to the States in a month, and would love to take some MLV footage of Austin, Texas. Due to the file size, I only seem to get about 16 minutes on a 32GB CF Card. Doing this, would chew up my cards and seeing that I won't be travelling with a laptop, taking RAW footage just doesn't seem plausible. I've looked at some CF to HD portable drives and tempted to buy one; as long as they can dump the CF, and not simply copy across the CR2 files only. Then it dawned on me; ML has a file browser!

An option to copy/move files from CF card to external USB devices.

Of course, you'd probably need to purchase a Mini USB to USB adapter as most small Portable HD's have the standard plug; but it's better than spending $400 on a CF to HD unit.

Just an idea. Love to hear what people think of this, and if it's required. Imagine out on the field, when you run out of CF space, and you simply pull out a portable HD and copy across. Or even a little USB flash pen!! Oh and I have the Canon 5D mark ii; but I'm guessing the file manager is on most Canon cameras.

Thanks
Danny

ted ramasola

what kind of resolution are you using? On average, say 1728x972 @ 24fps is only around 7min give or take on a 32gig cf. And if I recall, around 12 or 13 min on a 64gig cf.
The file manager works only within the camera and cannot be used across a usb connection. You probably need to buy more CF cards.
5DmkII  / 7D
www.ramasolaproductions.com
Texas

DannyField

Oh thanks for the speedy reply Ted

Oh I'm using 1792 x 762 [2:35:1] at 24fps. The 16 minutes was an approx [from shooting some footage the other day] I was still testing out the differences between RAW vs MLV vs H.264; and purely testing the waters of RAW video. I'm really happy with the results. At the start, I had a lot of noise with some footage; but once I had converted and color graded within Resolve; I saw the benefits.

That's a pity that it works within the camera as it would have been really handy. The costs of fast speed CF cards are pretty high here in Australia. I was planning on getting the Black Magic HyperDeck Shuttle 2; and still in the process of doing more research. There's pro and cons with it, and I'm thinking of biting the bullet and simply buying a 4K black magic camera, and using the Canon 5D purely for photography.

Thanks for the reply Ted

eduperez

I do not think the camera can act as a host controller, as it lacks the hardware needed, but I may be mistaken; in that case, the problem is not to write a file manager, but to be able to control the hard drive from the camera.