Can i use my laptop as an external recorder Can i record 4k video from a canon mirrorless (r6) directly to my laptop hard drive just like one would do with an Atomos Ninja? I record a lot of singing events where the camera is standing in one spot, recording, most often, choir singing.
using a laptop would give me several terabytes of recording space, and the option, hopefully, to simultaneously broadcast to youtube, without spending another $1k, which i'd rather spend on a gimbal.
I've dug around high and low, and there is very limited information on this topic. Figured I'd be able to acquire the 5 cents worth of some seasoned vets here. Thanks in advance.
Jared
Not really. Not unless your laptop happens to contain a 4K capture card.  Most laptops don’t have video signal inputs.  You can do HD with a Blackmagic Ultrastudio Mini Recorder for a little over a hundred dollars, as long as you can find capture+encode software, but putting the encoding onus on your laptop isn’t very reliable.
If recording space is your major concern, many cameras are now capable of writing directly to externally attached SSDs, presuming the data rate generated by the codec you’re recording is lower than the write speed of the SSD.  I’m not sure about the R6, but if it doesn’t, you might consider trading it for one that does, depending on your priorities.