Continuous Shooting

[sachin]

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone knows whether it is somehow possible to continuously shoot with a camcorder that takes miniDV tapes without missing anything when you change tapes. Is there some device for instace that can plug into a camcorder in which you can load tapes which records on the next tape in line once the current one has reached the end? It's just that I wanted to film a religious ceremony that will take over 2 hours and I didn't want to miss any of it.

Thanks,

Sachin

[glesgaguyav]

Originally Posted by sachin

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone knows whether it is somehow possible to continuously shoot with a camcorder that takes miniDV tapes without missing anything when you change tapes. Is there some device for instace that can plug into a camcorder in which you can load tapes which records on the next tape in line once the current one has reached the end? It's just that I wanted to film a religious ceremony that will take over 2 hours and I didn't want to miss any of it.

Thanks,


Sachin

You could try using the long play mode on the cam if it has one, this gives more recording time.

Also I know that my HV20 can capture live footage directly to my laptop through the firewire output, so it is possible providing you had enough space on your HD to capture more than the 1 hour limit on tape and a cam with this capability and are prepared to use a laptop/pc.

Only other way is to get/borrow another cam to capture the parts you miss while changing the tape

[sachin]

I thought about using 2 camcorders, about copying direct to pc and about long play mode. For my needs these won't work. Surely someone must have made a mini dv changer - seems like such an obvious invention. Any engineers reading this? You could end up on Dragon's Den!

[Mr Lazy]

You could get a Firestore Firestore - Portable HDD Recorders - Firestore FS-4 HD 40Gb but they are not cheap.

Failing that, hard drive camcorders are ideal for long shoots, and about the same price as the Firestore.

[senu]

Why would 2 camcorders not be ideal for your needs?

Unless they are unattended you wont miss anything if you allow a 1-2 min overlap which can easily be sorted during editing
otherwise capture "live" to HDD on a Laptop . I would rather a laptop than the firestore devices as they work out much cheaper. £299 gets you a half decent new one these days
but
2 Camcorders ( one could be loaned ) works out much cheaper
However to answer you directly , there is no MiniDV tape changer ( domestically or indeed in the industry AFAIK)
You will be surprised how many 2 hr programs you watched have been the result of very skillful editing. In fact you could record the audio ( by whatever means) use a few stills, and then use the next tape in same camcorder to get a seemingly seamless recording

[sachin]

Hi all,

thanks for the replies. The reason 2 camcorders aren't a good idea for me is that I only have one :-). The reason why I wasn't considering the hard drive option is because a) I don't know if my camcorder supports it and b) because I wanted a solution that I could use for another thing I wanted to tape as well which is 48 hours long - non-stop! I don't think hard drives would come that big!

Sachin