I know each individual clip has a time limit. What I am trying to find out is if, once a clip reaches its limit, the camera continues to shoot automatically on a new clip. I read in one review about having to restart the camera but this does not sound right. I looked at the user manual but could find no information about this issue. Thanks, Brian
Welcome to the forum.
No, it does not automatically start a new clip. You can restart it as you please, but it does not. And camcorders typically do automatically restart it, but DSLR do not.
This may be hard to believe, but it is due to an European tax on video cameras, a video camera being defined as those that can record 30 minutes or more, believed to be a concern about recording broadcast media....
Why Digital Cameras Have a 30 Minute Video Recording Limit - Tested.
So, cameras like the D5500 at normal bit rate can record to 29 minutes 59 seconds, maximum. This avoids the tax.
D5500 Reference Manual page 177 shows recording durations.
The manuals are at
Nikon | Download center | D5500
There are two versions for the D5500 and a few others, a short User Manual, and a much bigger Reference manual. You will likely want to download the Reference manual. The PDF file has advantages anyway, since it is searchable. For example, I found this info to verify it by simply searching it for min. ( min. is minutes abbreviated)
And of course, most movie work is composed of many short clips anyway, perhaps 10 seconds each, like Hollywood movies. I understand your interviews, but generally, a 30 minute clip would likely be quite boring.
But if you really require more than 30 minutes, then consider a camcorder that can start a new clip for you (and maybe verify that the one selected will do it). I have a little Canon R300 that does it. I only did it one time as a test to verify it, long clips are just not suitable for an actual movie.
