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Post by dave45040 on May 24, 2006 10:41:52 GMT -5
Hi everyone, I have just bought an Xacti C5 - which seems like a fantastic piece of kit - but I am experiencing a problem with it, which I was wondering if anyone else had experienced and may be able to help me out with. On 3 different SD cards (2 of which are 1GB cards and all of which have been formatted) the machine will only record somewhere between 30 - 120 seconds of video, then stops recording itself! When it does this, the top red light flashes as if it is writing to the card but the camera seems to lock up and the only way I can start to use it again is to either take the battery or the card out - the power on / off button does not respond either. After restarting, whatever I was trying to record has not been saved and I cannot record any other photo or video, even though the cards do not show as being full, either on the camera itself or on a separate card reader. I think there must be a problem with the camera, but do not want to take it back if it is something that I am / am not doing wrong, or if there is something that I can do to rectify the problem. Any assistance would be grateful. Dave
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Post by Lee Smith on May 24, 2006 11:11:15 GMT -5
Lo Dave - welcome to the forum! Glad you've bought a C5 - how much did you pay and where from? The Xacti range of cameras (and ANY digital camera) seems to be VERY reliable this day and age. I don't think we have had any posts of a malfunctioning camera (yet!) The main two reasons for a the camera to work as the way you describe is possibly down to the memory cards you are using in the device. Just wondering if you could post some more details of the SD cards, ie brand, capacity, card name, speeds etc.... From what you say it seems like that the SD cards you currently have cannot operate quickly enough to keep up with the large data stream being created by the camera. A simple test is to see whether you can take photographs without any problems. Also a second test is to try and record video but at the lowest quality. Lee www.xacti.co.uk |
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Post by dave45040 on May 24, 2006 12:02:48 GMT -5
Hi Lee,
Thanx for your help so far - The 2 1gb cards I am using are made by SanDisk - they were advertised to work with 'All SD compatible devices'.
I have just tried the camera as you suggested - albeit on the 5mp setting. After 5 or 6 photos the camera 'froze' again. However, after re-formatting the card and trying the video camera mode on the lowest setting it is appearing to record OK. I will just have to try doing the same on ALL the different settings for both the camera and video, but what you mention about the memory card does make a bit more sense than the camera itself being faulty. I was under the assumption that if some images etc were stored on the cards that they could not be 'faulty', certainly not realising that different cards may not be able to handle the speed etc - I thought they were all the same.
I bought the camera off e-bay (new through a powerseller) and paid around £230 for it (although no memory card included), which seems a good price for what looks to be a great little camera. When I have experimented more I will post another update.
If it does seem to be the cards, and I have to replace them, how am I able to tell whether any new cards will not give me the same problems?
Dave
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Post by dave45040 on May 24, 2006 14:48:41 GMT -5
Hi again,
The camera does still 'freeze' periodically even in the lowest (webcam) mode, which again does not help.
I believe that the cards are probably 40x speed (i.e. they are normal SD cards), and if anyone can confirm whether they use these or the higher speed cards, it would be appreciated.
Dave
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Post by Lee Smith on May 26, 2006 5:00:55 GMT -5
they were advertised to work with 'All SD compatible devices'. Well that statement is meaningless! lol I have only used high speed SD cards with my Xacti - the speed rating has been 150x speed! SanDisk is a reputable company and produce high quality products but of course, as with any small electronic device, problems do occur - I had to send back one of my SanDisk SD cards for a free replacement! To eliminate the speed of the SD card as a being the problem I suppose you need to try using a high speed card and then take it from there. They are really cheap to buy now and to get the most out of your camera in the future we would all recommend using a high speed card. The only other factor I could think about is how you formatted the card and which format ie FAT, FAT 32 etc.... Lee www.xacti.co.uk |
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Post by dave45040 on May 30, 2006 18:05:38 GMT -5
Hi again - a further update!
Have now purchased 2 Sandisk Ultra II 1gb cards and all seems to be working fine - I believe the transfer rate is 9mb per second write (66 Speed). After more research the previous cards I had purchased and tried to use were only 1.5mb per second write which, thinking laterally, would not be of any use to a quality camera like the C5.
Just a shame that the Sanyo website (nor the instruction booklet which came with the camera) didn't point this out, cos it would have saved me some time and effort.
Now that I have got this problem sorted I can start to play with it and get to know it better. The only thing I have noticed so far is that there is no 'red eye' reduction setting on the flash (to which there is on the C6 I believe), but presumably any red eye can be dealt with via the sostware provided. If anyone can confirm or deny this I would be grateful.
Thanks again
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