Digi Cam & HDD

[The Moose]

Right, I have a Cannon EOS 5D.

I also have (and can buy if I don't have exactly the right kit!!) a 1TB Western Digital (eSATA/Firewire/USB/Ethernet HDD).

I want to be able to take photos to the hard drive directly and until the HDD is full (so obviously I need a fast data connection hence why I was thinking eSATA or similar!). I want to take the photos on max quality and RAW (possibly with low res jpg samples).

Any ideas on the kit I would need to make this work - I want to set the camera off and have it take photos (10 a second) until the HDD is full.

Any ideas??

Cheers

The Moose

[Quick silver]

Are you looking at creating an animation or maybe a time lapse film?

[The Moose]

Well, that would be the effect, but not actually what I am looking to do!

Cheers

The Moose

[jon-]

Easy, a windows laptop.

The Canon camera software is actually quite excellent at shooting tethered. You just simply install the software, tell it where you want your photos to be saved to (in this case your HDD) set up the shot (from the laptop if you're feeling lazy) then start interval shooting. It will keep going until it runs out of space or power.

[jon-]

Actually I just read "10 a second" in raw + JPG.

I'm afraid 10fps is far beyond your 5D, and far beyond anything that exists currently for raw shooting. You'll fill your buffer in a few seconds then it will slow to a much slower FPS. Also 10 raw files would probably be around 200mb from your camera, which is probably realistically faster than an external harddrive can sustain for more than a short burst.

To summarise get a video camera. Or a 5d MKII and shoot HD film then create the effect you're after in post.

ETA: Your camera can shoot 3fps for just under 4 seconds before the buffer will be full.

Edited by jon- on Friday 7th August 15:57

[plg101]

And... At 5fps constant =

300 frames/ min
18000 frames / hour

With a shutter service life of 100,000 actuations = 5.5 hrs of shots before a service (ish)

[jon-]

plg101 said:

And... At 5fps constant =

300 frames/ min
18000 frames / hour

With a shutter service life of 100,000 actuations = 5.5 hrs of shots before a service (ish)

Don't worry, even at 10mb an image he'll have filled up the 1TB HDD in just over 50,000 actuations

[The Moose]

Sorry about not coming back to this sooner - holiday and all that!

Thank you for the info chaps - helpful!

So, how many would I be able to shoot in RAW at a continuous rate downloading onto the HDD??

I will have to play with the teathering software I recon!

Cheers

The Moose

[plg101]

The Moose said:

Sorry about not coming back to this sooner - holiday and all that!

Thank you for the info chaps - helpful!

So, how many would I be able to shoot in RAW at a continuous rate downloading onto the HDD??

I will have to play with the teathering software I recon!

Cheers

The Moose

For a 10mb transfer via a tethered USB, I would be surprised if you get more than 0.5 fps.

I'll advise again... if you plan on doing continuous shooting for hours or even minutes on end, then you may get less grief if you consider:

1) upgrade to a 5Dmk2 with HD goodness (expensive)
2) hire a canon for a day (not that expensive)

Continuous shooting will trash your shutter. They are designed for burst shooting of a few frames, not movie emulation.

[jon-]

Why do you even need to shoot raw constantly? Raw files are only a benefit if you're going to spend some time in post, and given you want 1tb of raw files you're hardly going to post them one by one.

There are better ways to wipe slack space on harddrives you know

[Quick silver]

The Moose said:

Well, that would be the effect, but not actually what I am looking to do!

Cheers

The Moose

Then maybe you want to experiment with HDR animation/time lapse photography?....if so, sounds very interesting.

[The Moose]

Quick silver said:

The Moose said:

Well, that would be the effect, but not actually what I am looking to do!

Cheers

The Moose

Then maybe you want to experiment with HDR animation/time lapse photography?....if so, sounds very interesting.

Hey QS

Any chance you could PM me with some more info please??

Is this something you know about??

Cheers

The Moose