jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I'm putting this in the "Main" section. Let's see if it gets moved.

I recorded a play last night using three camcorders and three tripods. The big Canon was recording in 4k, and that was a mistake. The 64GB card filled up a few minutes before intermission. I didn't bring another card, so I put my spare Sony on the tripod. No matter what I did, I wasn't able to set the camera (G60) to record internally. I'll have to read the manual. The next time, I'll use both card slots with larger capacity cards.

The battery in the smaller Canon Vixia died, but I had spares. In a sample of poor planning, the Vixia and the G60 use batteries that look identical. I had to put labels on them to tell them apart. The two old (2012) Sonys worked okay, one with a MicroSD and the other using internal memory.

The best tripod is my old Vanguard Tracker 4 from 2007. It is liquid smooth. The newer Vanguard isn't as smooth. You need smooth to shoot video.

It took 22 minutes to transfer the 4k video from the card to the computer.

Orphoto Loc: Oregon

Moral of the story is that 4k stresses your resources a great deal

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Failure to plan is a plan to fail.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

A 64 GB card should have held about 80 minutes of 4K.

Is the play interesting enough that anyone will sit still for that long and actually watch it?

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

If you think you might be using panning, cropping, zooming or other effects in editing, 4K is worth it. It also provides the opportunity for "freeze frame" photos that are pretty good.

BebuLamar

You have to shoot much longer video to edit down to a short video.

ncribble Loc: Albuquerque, NM

Bravo in mentioning will " anyone will sit still for that long and actually watch it"!

I video Social Events and Chapel Services in our Retirement Home. I've found the presentations under 15 minutes get three times the readership of 45 minute presentations. I also follow the YouTube productions of two large churches. Their YouTube videos, of Sunday Worship Services, follow their live broadcasts, running an hour and twenty minutes plus, resulting in minimal readership. They should take a lesson from UHH Rab-Eye!

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

I'm in a retirement community too and have the same experience. There is a very good book by Steve Stockman called "How to Shoot Video That Doesn’t Suck". One of the primary lessons is about length. A watchable video has to have traits that consistently hold and reconnect you to the story. Shortness is one of them!

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

The Canon chart says 55 min, and that seemed to be exactly right, almost to the second.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

I'm sure you know this..... Most cameras have choices including "bit rate" and "frame rate" that will change the size of the file.

You also probably know that most of what we produce will rarely be seen on a screen big enough to "see" 4K quality. HD at 1920x1080 is perfect for the displays most will use.

That said, my default is 4K because I can use the extra pixels in editing HD projects for effects that keep the viewer's eyes engaged.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Right. If I had known, I would have switched it to 1920x1080, but I didn't want to switch while shooting. It all worked out okay. I got good video from three angles, but I didn't bother to use a separate audio recorder. I used an external mic on the G60, and that got very good audio.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

If you're posting to YouTube, 1080P 30 fps (29.976) is plenty of data for most purposes. If you're making a film, 24.000 fps is the standard. For sports, 60 fps can help stop action. In bright sun, I carry ND 8, ND 64, and ND 1000 neutral density filters, so I can record at a shutter speed twice the frame rate (1/48 or 1/50 for 24 fps, 1/60 for 30 fps, 1/120 or 1/125 for 60 fps). Higher shutter speeds make choppy video! Some Panasonic cameras have a "shutter angle" setting, which will give you the right shutter speed for the video frame rate you are using, if you set it to 180°.

4K is a resource hog. I don't use cards smaller than 64 GB. Even 128GB is a small card in some modern cameras, if you're recording at the highest frame rates and data rates. For post processing video on Windows, you really need a PC with a powerful video card, HUGE SSD, HUGE spinner hard drives for storage, and minimum 16GB RAM. Any M1, M2, or M3 Mac can handle moderate data rate 4K video, so long as you have sufficient SSD space, storage drive space, and 16 GB minimum RAM. The Pro, Max, and Ultra versions of M(x) Macs can handle high data rate video with no real issues.

I always carry three fully charged batteries when recording video, and I keep a car charger in the car and an AC charger in my camera bag. When a battery is older than five years, I recycle it and buy a new one. I number and date all my batteries to be sure I don't get caught with an old one. A freshly charged new battery in my camera usually records for over two hours without stopping.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

One good reason to record 4K if you will release in 1080P is to CROP in editing. Focus has to be dead on to do that, but it's like having a two-camera set with only one camera, if you plan it right.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Would there be a problem combining 4k with 1920. Well, I guess it does work because my son has been merging those two kinds of videos.