In the near future I will be videoing an event for a local club. The video only needs to be static and can be left all day recording. The questions going around my head are; Could I hook up a camera to my laptop and leave it recording all day? What could I expect the file-sizes to be? ( i know this can vary depending on codec and compression but a general ball park figure would be excellent. ) Are there any cameras that would suit this kind of scenario? I'm sure i will have other questions as time goes by, so i'll add them as the thread progresses.
Depending on the camera and the settings you choose, you could end up with a whole field of results. However, as a random data point to start, in my experience a Canon XF-305 high definition camcorder will record .mxf files that are in the ballpark of 750 MB per minute (presuming 720p, 50mbps). You can record to compact flash cards, or you could output the video to a solid state recording device. I'm not sure off-hand whether that particular camcorder will output to a laptop, but it might be possible. Your mileage will vary with other cameras. What is the intended destination or use for the video? Is there a reason to just leave the camera sitting in the corner, recording all day? Do you need high definition video? That will help narrow the camera selection.
It's to record an event area, there's about 60 events throughout the day each 5 - 8 minutes long and i wont have time during the event to stop and start it all the time. I can then split the events up into sections once I have the video file on my desktop. I would need high definition as some of the event items are quite small so the extra detail is a must. I'll take a look on the Canon website and raise a support ticket for some of their less pricey models lol.
Looking at between 500-1gb a min depending on settings used. You could easily double this if you want 1080 recordings. If you wish to leave it unattended you need to make sure the camera can output to something as there is no memory cards that will last all day recording video.
I left two Sony camcorders recording at a martial arts competition last year and got about 70GB of 1080 footage (.m2ts). One camcorder was 3D. If you are leaving them all day, plug them in to the mains. I only had the 6 hours batteries and the older one ran out. Something like a 128GB sdxc card would last all day
think i'll have to get a camcorder and record something to find out. Seems its heavily dependant on which camcorder to use. It will be plugged into mains so battery isn't a problem.
