suminblacky Loc: Mercer Pa.

I purchased a used Pentax K-7 almost a year ago. I've checked out most of it's features and seems to work just fine. Well, until it's in the movie mode. My problem is when I set up to record it says on the display that I have 59' 39" to record, but as soon as I press the shutter to start the movie, that number disappears and is replaced with a countdown timer that starts at 7 mins & 31 secs. At the end of that time the camera shuts down. The SD card is far from full, so I can start the movie again once the microprocesser permits. All my longest movies are 7 mins & 31secs long. I can't find anything in the manual referring to this timer or in the camera menu itself. What am I missing or doing wrong?

krmitchell55 Loc: Springdale, Arkansas

Have you tried using a faster card? Maybe the buffer is getting too full.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

I use Pentax, but I don't do video.

Some people here do video, but they don't use Pentax.

The best way to get an answer from people who actually know - who aren't just guessing - is to ask at the Pentax Forum.
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Probably a Pentax Forum would be best to ask. But, I own a Pentax K-20 (14MP) and K-5 (16MP), the K-7 (14MP) fell in between. I also own a K-3 and K-100 but that is not pertinent. I don't really shoot video. And the couple times I did I used a PnS or SmartPhone. I'll take a stab at it though. 59' 39" is how much time of video your SD card can hold (have you tried a larger capacity card?). There may be menu settings for how long a video you can make and its quality. You probably have your K-7 set to only take video files that are 7 min 31 secs long at a time. Older cameras took much more restricted length video. I found by web searching it can shoot 12 minutes of HD video. You do have the owners' manual, right? The K-7 is good for general photography. Pentax is not known for fantastic video. That seems the domain of Canon, Sony, Panasonic, and Fuji.

Check these web pages.

https://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/K7/K7VIDEO.HTM

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/pentaxk7/21

Good luck.

suminblacky Loc: Mercer Pa.

Thanks for your input guys I appreciate it. I was never big on video myself until a couple of months ago, I was playing with my camera out in the garage when a baby fawn appeared across the road out front playing around in the soybean. I filmed a couple of minutes of him which came out pretty nice. The video isn't top of the line but it is good. Turns out video isn't a big thing, but it's nice to have when needed. As for the SD card, I have a 32G/4 in the camera because this is the highest capcity card the guy at camera shop, from whom I bought the camera from, said it can handle. I'm going to look around some more, get a bigger and faster SD card, see how that works. I, again thank you all, you've put some ideas in my head and I appreciate it.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

I know that my Pentax cameras do choke on 64gb memory; it didn't happen right away, but it did happen eventually.

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

Looking on the Pentax forum I surmise that the K-7 has a limit of 4GB file size, and at the highest quality you will reach this limit in 8 or 9 minutes, because the Pentax records AVI files rather than .mov or .mp4 which take up less space. It seems the memory card doesn't come into the equation. The initial time limit is most likely for the lowest quality video. The person who posted the comments in 2013 is using firmware 1.12, so it's possible a firmware update, if available, may have changed things.
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/75-video-pentax-hdslrs/217760-pentax-k7-video-time-reduced.html

suminblacky Loc: Mercer Pa.

Thanks for sticking with this. I'm still trying to learn how navigate the Pentax Forum. I think your on to something. When I lower the quality of the video, the camera tells me I have 1:58' 45". But when I start the movie the countdown timer tells me I have 14 mins & 57 secs. The manual says that the camera can run for 25 mins with the video on high quality. I can't find anything in the menu to adjust it. Oh well, I guess I have to learn to live with it. Appreciate your help though.