So what’s the largest SD card size people have had success with in the Cam Pan V3?
I’ve been using SanDisk Extreme 256G cards in the V3, but have a couple of SanDisk Extreme 512G cards as well as a SanDisk Extreme 1TB card on hand.
Looking for some input before I climb up to where my cam is mounted and mess with it.
I’ve seen people confirm they’ve gotten 512 working in various cams, but I’m not sure if anyone has posted specifically on the Panv3.
In theory 1TB should work also but don’t think anyone has tried to go that high. Bear in mind the larger the card, probably the slower it will be to search through it as there is a lot more for the camera to have to index. But if the card has fast read speeds, should work ok.
I’d say format them both to exFAT and bring both up with you. Try the 1TB first (have your phone with you to make sure it is working), if not, go for the 512.
Of course you’ll need to wait several weeks to see if it is filling the card fully and overwriting properly, but one would think if it recognizes the card and reports around 1000GB/500GB that it should be good.
Of course 1TB will give you around 2 1/2 months of continuous recording, is that really needed?
Thanks for that insight.
As far as formatting, Sandisk cards I’ve purchased in the past come pre-formatted, and I’ve just popped them in a camera and they’ve worked. I’m assuming they’ve been pre-formatted FAT32.
Would you recommend I pre-format them exFAT, or format them in the camera after installing?
I format all my SD cards regardless of purpose using the SD card formatter from sdcard.org. Both when I take new ones out of the box, and also when I repurpose them (or even just from time to time for good measure). It will format 32GB and lower using FAT32, and above that using exFAT, same as Windows.
FAT32 on a 512 or 1TB card is going to make the card extremely slow and probably give you problems.
I’ve seen issues with using the “out of the box” formatting on many SD cards. The Panv3 handles exFAT fine and it is the most efficient, especially on larger cards. I’ve never tried NTFS but I don’t see any reason to since the cams support exFAT.
After that initial formatting with the utility, I have used the formatter in the app/camera a few times here and there without issues, but haven’t found it to be necessary very often, and actually I don’t think it has ever actually fixed the bug or issue I was troubleshooting anyway. But if you have unreliable power, frequent blips, etc, it might be needed more frequently.
@dave27 gave you a really good advice. Personally I’ve never used sd card formatter from sdcard.org
All my cards have been formatted in camera and haven’t had any issues since 2022 mind you my largest card is 256GB and that is more than enough for me on continuous recording.
It is no secret that I’m a bit OCD about certain things. I’m guessing most cards nowadays come formatted exFAT and probably have a proper file structure and don’t include their utilities preinstalled on the card etc. But in the past that wasn’t the case, and the utility ensures the card has the correct offset, structure, etc, which future formats will keep, so I figure it is good measure.
I will say my dash cams like once a year will start rebooting which is a sign of write issues to the card. Normal windows format would fix this for a few months but the SD card utility fixes it for at least a year, so that alone sold me on it.
Most likely tossing it in the cam and hitting the format in the app is probably fine, but the quick format in the utility only takes a few seconds. If I have any reason to be not 100% sure about the authenticity of the card I’ll do a full overwrite format which can take 30-90 mins depending on the card, but then I know it is the capacity it claims to be.