Is 320GB enough for XAVC S-I 4K on A7SIII / FX3?

[Kenneth Hansen]

I just ordered an FX3 and can't decide on wether to go for a 320GB or 640GB CFexpress Type A card?

I'm will be shooting in XAVC S-I 4K from 25fps up to 125fps (in S&Q). I use a good amount of slowmotion in my workflow.

I'm not really sure if 320GB is enough for a day of shooting? A day of shooting for me is somewhere between 1-2 hours of footage, and on rare occasions up to 3 hrs.. Every day after a shoot i backup the footage and format the card for the next day. So i only need the card to last for a day (1-2hrs footage).

I was also thinking about getting a V90 card and a smaller 160GB CFexpress. Then i can shoot 25fps on the V90 (i think the V90 card can handle XAVC S-I 4K) and 125fps on the CFexpress. But then i'll have to manually switch between the cards every time i switch frame rates, if the camera doesn't do it automatically? I guess it's possible to setup the different framerates and cards in shooting mode - so it won't be such a big problem.

Does anyone shoot with either of these cameras and have experience in using the XAVC S-I 4K format with different frame rates that can maybe guide me to what the best option is for me?

I found a guide which states that in this mode in 50/60fps you will get approx. 25min on a 160GB card. So 25fps would be around 50min. And with a 320GB card that would be around 1hr and 40min. If this is true the 320GB won't be enough right? So 640GB is the safer option? But $1400 is crazy! 🤯

Thank you!

[VTC]

For that kind of money you could buy a Ninja V+ (on sale) + 1TB SSD drive (and not a $400 Angelbird one) and still have Close to $600 in your pocket. But if you ignore my suggestion I'd lean towards the larger card. It's always a disaster when you get a 'Card Full' message with nowhere else to go.

[Interceptor121]

On 12/16/2022 at 11:57 PM, Kenneth Hansen said:

I just ordered an FX3 and can't decide on wether to go for a 320GB or 640GB CFexpress Type A card?

I'm will be shooting in XAVC S-I 4K from 25fps up to 125fps (in S&Q). I use a good amount of slowmotion in my workflow.

I'm not really sure if 320GB is enough for a day of shooting? A day of shooting for me is somewhere between 1-2 hours of footage, and on rare occasions up to 3 hrs.. Every day after a shoot i backup the footage and format the card for the next day. So i only need the card to last for a day (1-2hrs footage).

I was also thinking about getting a V90 card and a smaller 160GB CFexpress. Then i can shoot 25fps on the V90 (i think the V90 card can handle XAVC S-I 4K) and 125fps on the CFexpress. But then i'll have to manually switch between the cards every time i switch frame rates, if the camera doesn't do it automatically? I guess it's possible to setup the different framerates and cards in shooting mode - so it won't be such a big problem.

Does anyone shoot with either of these cameras and have experience in using the XAVC S-I 4K format with different frame rates that can maybe guide me to what the best option is for me?

I found a guide which states that in this mode in 50/60fps you will get approx. 25min on a 160GB card. So 25fps would be around 50min. And with a 320GB card that would be around 1hr and 40min. If this is true the 320GB won't be enough right? So 640GB is the safer option? But $1400 is crazy! 🤯

Thank you!

I would not recommend XAVC-SI unless your default is 60 fps

Generally at 10 bits 422 it works like this 25fps -> 250 mbps 60fps ->600 mbps 10 mbps per frame

Consider that XAVC S 4K does 25/50/100 without issues (other than editing the files you need a robust machine)

Unless you get motion artifacts I would go XAVC S and forget SI entirely. 

If you want to go XAVC-SI you will need twin 256 GB cards to give you some autonomy this may be more expensive than buying an external recorder however you can then take it anywhere while a recorder is really for controlled environments