Suggestions for a particular type of shoot

Hey guys!

I have a quick question I'm sure at least one of you could help me out with. I've been working with a 5D DSLR for the past 4 or 5 years and have become comfortable shooting with it. A recent shoot I've been hired for requests that I capture footage of multiple public speakers that'll go on for about 45 minutes or so each. With my current camera, that is clearly not ideal.

Do any of you suggest a camera or two that I could rent that would be a great option for the job? I'd like to stay away from DV tapes as my last camcorder was an XH-A1 and do not look forward to going back to that. I really don't know what the market is like for such hardware and I'd like to work with something I could connect to my computer to capture footage directly to a drive as I have several conscutatve speakers to record, if it's possible at all.

Any suggestions guys?

I really love the Panasonic GH4. 4K offers great options in post and it's quite cheap for both buy and rent. Easy to operate as well. Big cropping factor, though, about 2.2 when shooting 4K so a 12mm lens suddenly works like a 26mm. Makes it tough on the wide shots sometimes. Anyway, fantastic camera, big bang for the buck.

Thanks, I'll see what options my local video rental shop has. Do you recommend recording the footage directly into FCPX or is there a better method?

Sorry, I missed something. The GH4 will only record up to 30min. You can immediately start a new recording, but it stops after 30. Don't know if there's a solution to that.

I mostly record to SD card because I do most of my shooting on location with limited time. I recorded straight to the mac a couple of times but have no real expertise here.

Good luck!

Don't worry about tapes, though. That's pretty much yesterday, cards or drives have replaced tape while you were shooting

It's all good, I ended up getting a Canon XF305 because the selection was very limited for such short notice. It can continuously shoot on one of two CF cards to I can swap on the go. The only capture solution it has appears to be HD/SDI but I was looking for something along the lines of of a USB direct method.