Newbie: How to record at 720p on 5DMkII ?

[Dihelson]

Hello, friends,

I installed v2.3 on my 5Dmk2 and I would like to know how to record videos at 720p 30fps ( if it´s possible, since I continue to get only 480p and 1080p, but not 720p ).
For my daily tasks, 720p is better than 1080p, besides the fact that we have that 12min limitation on 1080p which is awful.
It would be amazing if we could record videos at 720p and over 30 minutes without stopping. I often need to work with interviews, so, it would be nice having more than 30 minutes.

-> IT DOESN´T NEED TO BE IN RAW

Thanks any help

Dihelson Mendonça

[alsey7]

ok from my understanding on canon dslr they are not able to pass 29.9 minute mark because they would be taxed as video gear ( i think some UK tax ) not sure. f you want to record longer then 30 minutes get a pro Vid Camera

[painya]

ok from my understanding on canon dslr they are not able to pass 29.9 minute mark because they would be taxed as video gear ( i think some UK tax ) not sure. f you want to record longer then 30 minutes get a pro Vid Camera

Canon does this (many people think) because of a heating issue with the sensor. Being Canon you wouldn't want everyone breaking their cameras via overheating, and needing replacements.

[Dihelson]

Hello, Alsey7, thanks for the answer, but do you have any idea if there is a way to set up 720p on 5DmarkII ?
BTW, I wouldn´t like to spend more money on a camcorder. I´ve spent so much in buying different cameras recently, so
I´m trying to figure out ways to use what I´ve just got here. Thanks.

[painya]

Steal
Choose 720p at 60fps in the canon menu, and then use fps override to your desired frame rate

[alsey7]

Canon does this (many people think) because of a heating issue with the sensor. Being Canon you wouldn't want everyone breaking their cameras via overheating, and needing replacements.

nope i was right about the tax on dslr
http://www.dpreview.com/news/2007/10/3/cipaeustatement

[painya]

nope i was right about the tax on dslr
http://www.dpreview.com/news/2007/10/3/cipaeustatement

Everythings political these days  . Thank you for informing me though  . What about the twelve minute limit on the Rebels such as the t2i?

[Dihelson]

Hello, Alsey7, thanks for the answer, but do you have any idea if there is a way to set up 720p on 5DmarkII ?
BTW, I wouldn´t like to spend more money on a camcorder. I´ve spent so much in buying different cameras recently, so
I´m trying to figure out ways to use what I´ve just got here. Thanks.

Steal
Choose 720p at 60fps in the canon menu, and then use fps override to your desired frame rate

Hello Painya,

5DMark2 doesn´t have 720p on the Canon menu. That´s the problem. I thought that ML could enhance this somehow.

Thanks,

Dihelson

[painya]

Oh sorry I misunderstood you. I hope this goes well for you, and if you figure something out make sure to post it on here.

[PressureFM]

Everythings political these days  . Thank you for informing me though  . What about the twelve minute limit on the Rebels such as the t2i?

There is no 12 minute limit but a filesystem FAT32 limit, which can only handle files up to 4GB. This, incidentally, corresponds to around 12 minutes of H.264 recording with complex scenes. Point the camera at a wall and you can easily hit the 29 minutes and 59 seconds limit imposed by EU law.

[jose_ugs]

With 5D Mark II you can't record 720p... forget it! Regarding the time limit, just tune your ML 2.3, there's the "auto-restart after buffer overflow or 4 GB limit" option.

[painya]

There is no 12 minute limit but a filesystem FAT32 limit, which can only handle files up to 4GB. This, incidentally, corresponds to around 12 minutes of H.264 recording with complex scenes. Point the camera at a wall and you can easily hit the 29 minutes and 59 seconds limit imposed by EU law.

Hmmnn interesting. Thanks for the tip!

[5D3shooter]

Does the formatting to Exfat trick work on the 5dII?

[jose_ugs]

5DM2 won't recognize an Exfat CF... I'm sure there were a few cases like this, described here somewhere...

[dmilligan]

ML will let you lower (or raise) the bitrate of the encoder. So you can record in 1080p just at a lower bitrate (lower quality), effectively the same as what you want to do.

I'm fairly certain this functionality is on all cameras, but I don't have a 5D2 so I couldn't tell you for sure.

[jose_ugs]

@dmilligan, how is lowering the bit-rate (which is possible on 5DM2) "effectively" going to give him 720p ?

[dmilligan]

Reducing resolution from 1080p to 720p is degrading the footage by throwing out information.
Lowering the bitrate is degrading the footage by throwing out information.

Granted you might not neccessarilly end up with the exact same result, because you're not throwing out exactly the same information in each case. But I bet it will be close.

I think his true objective is not actually 720p, but to be able to record longer, sacrificing quality. Recording at a lower bit rate accomplishes this. So it is "effectively" the same thing as what he wants.

[a1ex]

A bitrate factor of 0.4 should give 30 minutes of continuous recording. For more, use movie restart.