Cameras & Camcorders

[greencanary]

I bought this camera on Jan 1, finally opened it on the 3rd, was sooo excited to try it out. Took a snippet of video and a still pic to check it out. When I went  to turn it off, it gave me a message 'task in progress do not disconnect power'. Ok, so I left it on, and made sure all the lites and stuff were off before turning it off. Then just left it and it turned itself off after a few minutes. But I noticed that it gave the same message as it turned itself off.

I contacted Canon and finally got a response after 2 days, and then got TWO messages, from different techs... One said that the camera needs service, send it  in for service. The other said that the message was normal, it is just saying to not take the battery/power source off before it has turned off. So, now I await an answer on which one is correct info.

Does anybody out there know anything about these particular cameras and can you tell me what I need to know? I am afraid to use the camera for fear that I will mess up something internally if I try to turn it off with this message on the screen. Please help!!!

[Entropy]

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greencanary wrote:

I bought this camera on Jan 1, finally opened it on the 3rd, was sooo excited to try it out. Took a snippet of video and a still pic to check it out. When I went  to turn it off, it gave me a message 'task in progress do not disconnect power'. Ok, so I left it on, and made sure all the lites and stuff were off before turning it off. Then just left it and it turned itself off after a few minutes. But I noticed that it gave the same message as it turned itself off.

I contacted Canon and finally got a response after 2 days, and then got TWO messages, from different techs... One said that the camera needs service, send it  in for service. The other said that the message was normal, it is just saying to not take the battery/power source off before it has turned off. So, now I await an answer on which one is correct info.

Does anybody out there know anything about these particular cameras and can you tell me what I need to know? I am afraid to use the camera for fear that I will mess up something internally if I try to turn it off with this message on the screen. Please help!!!

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The canon syncs filesystems on shutdown - as long as the "task in progress" on shutdown doesn't take an unusually long time, you're fine.

The tech who said you need to send it in for service was either an idiot or you accidentally misled him into thinking the camera was sticking here and not shutting down.  (Note - if you've got it connected to a PC and the drive mounted, it might stick here, not sure.)

My HF100 does this on every shutdown, usually taking a few seconds.

[greencanary]

thank you. no, it doesn't stick, just takes a minute or less to shut down. i was just worried because it gave the message and i was afraid i might damage something by turning it off with that.

[xl]

Ok....

• record something...
• press the stop button....
• wait 10 seconds....
• now press the power button....
• get a stop watch and time EXACTLY how long it takes for the message to go away

A few other questions....

• are you saving to the internal flash drive?
• are you saving to the external flash drive?  If you are saving to the external flash drive.... what class is your memory card?  how big is your memory card?  Some cards will save faster than others.

[greencanary]

It takes nice video looking at it on the playback. And the photos don't look too back on the little screen, but hey, that is what my Nikon if for! It only takes a few seconds to turn off . I did finally hear back from Canon and they told me that the 'task in progress' message is a normal thing and not to worry. So far, I am only using the internal flash drive, but I did buy a card,  SanDisk Extreme HD Video, class 10, 8GB. I have not used the card yet, have not even opened it.

My computer is an HP Pavilion dv7-1135nr. I got it for xmas in 2007. The guy at BB said that I should be do ok with it. Altho, it would be nice to have a brand new one. But don't see that happing any time in the near future.

Now, I need to get busy and get the software that came with, downloaded to the computer to see what I can do with it. And worry about the editing software that I will need to buy. Any opinions?

[xl]

Some thoughts....

• yes HD video looks good on a camcorder LCD screen.... however I never trust the LCD screen for still images.  Camera screens can't reproduced the resolution and details, you need to load it onto the computer to see if there are problems.  Such as picture noise.  Yes, I use a Nikon DSLR for my still images.
• Yes if the progress warning message is on for a few seconds... this is normal.  Mine does the same.  From your post, it sounded like it was taking longer than a minute.  This is not normal.
• I recommend saving to the card.  If the card is full, then use the internal memory as backup when you don't have a second card.
• removing the card and using a card reader will have less wear on the camcorder (especially the battery).  Transfer will be faster, especially if you have a USB 3 port on newer machines.
• Class 10 may be overkill for your camera.  Check the camcorder manual for what it recommends.
• OK from your model number, I see you have dual-core laptop.... (2 GHz AMD Turion X2 RM-70 Dual-Core Mobile Processor)
• personally I don't bother using the built-in software.... I prefer to use more feature rich video editors.

For video editors, you have four choices

• Pinnacle Studio... get the version that handles HD.  They make an "ultimate" version with more special effects and a green screen.  They also have a "box" version that allows you to edit videos on tape.  This is my preferred tool.  It's a little harder to learn, but renders are fast
• Premiere Elements.... a little easier to learn and you can get it bundled with Photoshop.
• Avid Studio.... handy if you want to handle multiple streams... the current version is kinda "funny" since Pinnacle took ownership.... wait for the next version to see how the reviews work out.
• Corel VideoStudio X4..... just got this for 3D editing.... can't give it a fair comment yet.

[xl]

BTW...

• many of the video editors offer free trials for a period.  Check out the vendor websites for free downloads to try out before committing.
• Video editors are very "picky" to hardware.  I've had system crashes with all of them.

[greencanary]

Thank you so much. You have been very helpful. Some day I might become 'good' at this stuff. I guess it just takes a little (sometimes alot)  time and patience to learn what you need. And people who are willing to give advice and a little bit of help. Again, thank you.

[greencanary]

I forgot, you said that Class 10 might be overkill, but will it hurt to use it?

[xl]

• The only thing it hurt is your wallet.  Class 10 may be faster than you need.
• check the manual.... most camcorders are fine with Class 4 or Class 6
• Class 10 will mean downloads to your computer will be faster.  However, you don't have USB 3 at this time for peak performance.