Canon S1 w/ Microdrive Overheating issues...

[Bob01]

When taking movies with the S1 & Microdrive, my camera always manages to overheat after about 10 minutes or so. Afterwhich, no matter how long I leave it in photo mode while underwater, it never cools down enough for me to take video again, until I take it out of the housing. Is this common for anyone else out there with the same setup? Have you found a way to counteract this issue?

Im thinking since the S1 underwater housing is pretty roomy - putting some small rods/nails in the freezer, then right before I head out to dive, put them in the housing with some extra silica packets to absorb any condensation. Is there any problems with that idea?

 

[Taxgeek]

Hi Bob. I shoot movies with my S1 - and it has never overheated. Perhaps your microdrive is creating enough heat to kill the camera?

I use CF cards, and haven't had a problem.
Hope you get the problem figured out!
Taxgeek

 

[Bob01]

Hi TaxGeek,

Thanks for replying to my question.
How big is your CF card/whats the longest time you've recorded movies continously?

Im pretty sure the microdrive is whats causing the premature overheating. At first it seemed like a smart purchase (6 Gigs for 200 bucks), just not in this instance, camera being in an small airtight box with no circulation...well lesson learned...

 

[Taxgeek]

I have a 4gig card, and can get about 32 minutes of movies at best quality. Haven't filled it on a dive yet . . . but then, I've just been diving anywhere particularly amazing since I got the card.

 

[Bob01]

Could you do a test for me?

If you are able, could you record for 32 minutes straight, or off and on within an hour with the camera in the housing and see if it overheats? - you can do this while watching TV ;-)

If you dont get overheating issues, I might just get a solid state CF card...

Thanks

I have a 4gig card, and can get about 32 minutes of movies at best quality. Haven't filled it on a dive yet . . . but then, I've just been diving anywhere particularly amazing since I got the card.

 

[Taxgeek]

Sure thing. I've done it before outside the housing (to test my new rechargables). I'll put it in the housing tonight during LOST (Yaaaayyyy), and see what happens.

P.S. The Transcend 4gig card ($210 at newegg.com) has worked great so far. And way cheaper than Sandisks.

Taxgeek

Pm me if I forget to post in the morning! ;-)

 

[Taxgeek]

Put the camera in housing, 4g card in, hit record. It stopped a couple times when it hit 1g of continuous recording, and I restarted it. Unfortunately, my batteries died before I hit a full card, so it didn't go the full time. The camera felt quite hot but kept recording.

What are the symptoms of overheating? Does it give you a message?

 

[Bob01]

Thanks for performing the test!

What happens when the Camera over heats:
1) It starts flashing a red thermometer in (I think) the upper left hand corner.
2) The Camera shuts down. while doing so it displays something on the screen saying "Overheating shutting down" (this is after the red thermometer comes up)

When I see the red thermometer, this is when you first know the camera is beginning to overheat. When I see this, it pretty much means my movie recording time is going to come to an end soon. If I were to stop recording right then, and wait for a while, more likely than not it still wont let me record movies...what usually happens now, when I see the red thermometer I just keep on recording until it shuts down. Afterwards I switch to photo mode and just take pictures. I can leave the camera in photo mode and it wont display the overheating warning or shut down on me.

I pop up the flash when putting the camera in the housing, I wonder if what little power consumption of the flash on constant standby is contributing to the overheating issue.

 

[Taxgeek]

Just want to confirm this -- the flashing red thermometer - this is different than the flashing red "low battery" indicator, right? The low battery indicator is near the top left corner, and it is in a horizontal orientation. It comes on when there's about 5 minutes of recording left in the battery.

 

[Bob01]

Yep, its different than the red low light battery indicator. If the camera is too hot for Video recording, it will always do an auto shutdown when the dial passes by the video mode...