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Comment by keehun | Hacker News Reader

Semi-Off Topic: Do DSLR cameras now support large/long video files? It seems that reviews don't seem to outright state whether or not there are limits to the length of capture.[0] Maybe I am just super behind the times?

My Canon T2i only supports video recording up to a certain amount (the size-limit of a single file in a FAT file system) or duration which I believe is 12 minutes—whichever comes first. Apparently this is based on European Union import laws about what constitutes photography equipment and what is a video capturing equipment and different tariffs.

Whether or not it's AVCHD or a single large-file does not matter to me. It seems like video is rarely reviewed in depth.

[0]: https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canon-eos-m5-review/6

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There is a 6% import tariff in the US and many other places on 'video cameras' which is classed as anything able to record more than 30 minutes.

Thus article says they were looking to renegotiate it in 2012, but I'm not sure what happened. https://www.dpreview.com/articles/0794343949/wto-looking-at-...

This varies quite a lot. My Sony A7RII has a time limit of 30 minutes which can be hacked (https://petapixel.com/2016/04/25/hacker-cracks-video-limit-l...) while my Panasonic GH5 has no limit at all (though I use a Ninja Shogun anyway).

And I think one reason it isn't reviewed in much depth is that DSLR shooters are likely to do one of the following:

- Use a dedicated video camera rather than an SLR.

- Not care about a 30 minute time limit, how often do you need 30 minutes of continuous video?

- Use an external recorder like a Ninja Assassin, which doesn't have a time limit.

The 80D is a popular camera with YouTube content creators and it allows 30 minute videos. I don't know why the limit - perhaps to ensure that anyone even more serious about video than what the 80 can offer needs to buy a dedicated video camera?

Cameras that can record more than 30 minutes are classified as professional video cameras and have to paid additional taxes.

That is what I've read. I would love if Canon or Nikon could create a setting that allows auto-restarts of video recording once the 30 minutes are up. And the next file automatically has the last X seconds of the previous file so that I can stitch them smoothly in an editor...

I know that Green Lantern can auto-restart video recordings, but I noticed that it can't really do that smoothly without dropping at least a second of video—at least on my T2i.

Magic Lantern

Regulators tend to get unhappy when you do things that directly circumvent the intent of their regulations. AFAIK, this is primarily an EU thing.

A limit of 30 minutes is not so bad. I am an orchestra conductor with photography "enthusiasms" and would love to have a DSLR that could satisfy the requirements for both. For conducting, I need a camera that can reliably record 2 hours. I have a cheap Sony 1080p camcorder that does the job but the image quality is not great and does not have an external mic port.

Most cameras can only record up to twenty or thirty minutes of video because the image sensor needs to cool down. These cameras are designed primarily for capturing still images, not video, which is the only reason this limit exists. It has nothing to do with taxes or market segmentation.

In this [0] interview, Head of Olympus Imaging Division hints at that being the case indeed:

> Technically, the major challenge is heat management. This is a stills-oriented camera, primarily, and that’s one of the reasons why [video recording] time is limited to 30 minutes. If we wanted to provide a more video-oriented product, we’d have to overcome heat.

[0] https://www.dpreview.com/interviews/6838833139/cp-2017-olymp...

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