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Thus, companies like Canon and Nikon decided to cap their video clip lengths, preventing their enthusiast and prosumer cameras from being considered video cameras.įor years, companies have been able to avoid this tax because the EU considers photography cameras “information technology products”. What determined whether a camera was a video camera? In short, the ability to record longer than 30 minutes. In 2006, the European Union created a law that added an import duty of 5-12% to any video camera. The problem is, most of these video cameras come at an extreme cost. It seemed you needed a true video camera in order to record any long-form interviews or shoot without having to stop and start your recording. Nikon, Sony, and more – all capped at 30 minutes. Consistently, they met this 30-minute recording cap. More companies began to add video features to their DSLR and mirrorless cameras. Suddenly, 30 minutes became the new video recording limit.
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Seamless file spanning also fixed the 12 minute cap. This big brother to the 5D Mark II had a newly designed interior, overcoming the overheating issue. Canon released the 5D Mark III in 2012 and recording limits started to change. If there was no cap, the camera would overheat.Īs time went on, the cameras got better at this. Because of the way the camera stored files on cards, the files needed to have a cap. There was a very good reason: a 4GB size limit on files in the FAT32 file system the camera used. The camera came with a 12-minute recording limit. One of the first DSLR cameras to break into video recording was the Canon 5D Mark II. But why? What are these limits? Today, we’ll look at the recording limits of various cameras and discuss some ways to overcome these issues. For years, DSLR and mirrorless cameras have been bogged down by video recording limits that prevent users from recording for too long.