Recording Media on the 1D X

[cariewang]

With both CF cards inserted, can we dedicate 1 card specifically for shooting stills,
and the other for movies.

I do not seem to locate this information in the Operation Manual.

 

[Peter Dawson]

Unfortunately I cant help you with the stills vs movie recording.

If you dont mind me adding a second question regarding the dual card slots.
If i record RAW's to both cards then the camera indicates 30 shots remaining in a burst. But RAW's to Slot 1 and JPG's to slot 2 and the burst depth drops to 16. Can someone please explain why? I would have thought that dual writing RAWs would reduce the burst depth rather than RAW and JPG writing.
Thanks
Peter

 

[bdunbar79]

I'm thinking maybe the conversion? I don't know.

 

[Leejo]

As far as the recording speed is concerned, it's not going to be the conversion alone, as the camera will have converted to JPG anyway for the back of the camera screen display and for embedding in the RAW file (OK not necessartily the highest quality):

it sounds like the buffer is writing in parallel when writing both RAWs (sending the data to both cards at once).
Thus from one central buffer sending the data to card 1 using one interface chip (or portion thereof), and via a separate interface chip (or portion thereof) sending the data to card 2.
Both interfaces control the handshaking (data sent, received OK, data written OK, next data block sent etc).
Thus except for the initial command to send the data to two cards instead of one, any minor delays as the two interfaces conflict when tryiing to read the same memory area, and any differences in the card write speeds, this is practically as quick as writing to one card alone.

When storing RAW + JPG this sounds like a serial operation - the data is written form the same memory area/buffer as above to one card, and then from a separate memory area/buffer to the other card as JPG.
Although the JPG is smaller than the RAW file, there is still enough data to write, and this would explain the practically halving of the throughput.

 

[Drizzt321]

As far as the recording speed is concerned, it's not going to be the conversion alone, as the camera will have converted to JPG anyway for the back of the camera screen display and for embedding in the RAW file (OK not necessartily the highest quality):

it sounds like the buffer is writing in parallel when writing both RAWs (sending the data to both cards at once).
Thus from one central buffer sending the data to card 1 using one interface chip (or portion thereof), and via a separate interface chip (or portion thereof) sending the data to card 2.
Both interfaces control the handshaking (data sent, received OK, data written OK, next data block sent etc).
Thus except for the initial command to send the data to two cards instead of one, any minor delays as the two interfaces conflict when tryiing to read the same memory area, and any differences in the card write speeds, this is practically as quick as writing to one card alone.

When storing RAW + JPG this sounds like a serial operation - the data is written form the same memory area/buffer as above to one card, and then from a separate memory area/buffer to the other card as JPG.
Although the JPG is smaller than the RAW file, there is still enough data to write, and this would explain the practically halving of the throughput.

This could be it. Try and see what the actual number of frames? I've seen people doing a variety of tests around the net, try and duplicate their tests yourself and see what your specific setup & cards will do.

 

[M.ST]

to: cariewang

I send this wish to Canon, but Canon dont want to put this function in the 1D x or 5D Mark III.

With a trick its possible. Save some settings for stills and a settings for video. If you want to record video on the other card, change your overall setting to your video setting and after the video shot for still setting.

If you have the 5D Mark III use C1 to C3. C1 und C2 for stills settings and C3 for video settings. If you turn to C3 the vid is saved to your CF programmed in your vid settings.