git and binary files

Hi,

I'm using git to keep track of directories full of jpegs and movies
(19 GB .git directory, 5825 files, 18+ GB).

I now that this is also possible with rsync and friends, but I like
to have full version control and history, so please no discussion
about that.

The problem I'm facing is, that 'git status' is very
very slow. They seem to read through every file in the directory
tree. Is it possible to tell git to just use mtime/size information for
an initial guess? I already tried to turn of rename detection with
diff.renames=false, but still the problem remains.

Any hint? git version is 1.7.1.

Thanks,

Jan

-- 
Jan Dittmer [off-list ref]