digital camera recommendations with short video functionality

I plan to buy a digital camera with short video functionality. I am
thinking about canon PowerShot SD600, but the product description
didn't mention the maximum length of short video. It will be cool to
buy a camera with short video functionality (~ 1 hour max.). Please
advice any good models.


Reference:
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerSho...&s=electronics

Thanks!!

"Ken" writes:
I plan to buy a digital camera with short video functionality. I am
thinking about canon PowerShot SD600, but the product description
didn't mention the maximum length of short video. It will be cool to
buy a camera with short video functionality (~ 1 hour max.). Please
advice any good models.

1 hour is not a short video by the standards of those cameras. Try 15
minutes or so. I have an A530 which is a relative of the SD600. The
video clips are fun and convenient but most of the ones I've shot are
a half minute or so long at most, and I think that's what they're
intended for. They are in motion jpeg format, the audio is terrible,
and there's no external microphone input. If you're trying to shoot
hour-long videos, I think you want a camcorder, for good quality sound
if for nothing else.

If it helps, I think the A530's maximum video clip length is 1GB.

"Paul Rubin" wrote in message
...
"Ken" writes:
I plan to buy a digital camera with short video functionality. I am
thinking about canon PowerShot SD600, but the product description
didn't mention the maximum length of short video. It will be cool to
buy a camera with short video functionality (~ 1 hour max.). Please
advice any good models.

1 hour is not a short video by the standards of those cameras. Try 15
minutes or so. I have an A530 which is a relative of the SD600. The
video clips are fun and convenient but most of the ones I've shot are
a half minute or so long at most, and I think that's what they're
intended for. They are in motion jpeg format, the audio is terrible,
and there's no external microphone input. If you're trying to shoot
hour-long videos, I think you want a camcorder, for good quality sound
if for nothing else.

If it helps, I think the A530's maximum video clip length is 1GB.

You are right: 1 hour is not short when it comes to video. There are several
different movie modes on my A620 and for the best quality one, you'll get 8
minutes or so onto a 1 GB card. 1 GB is also the maximum clip length. You
are correct that the audio is not very good. It is handy for short video
clips but is not a real substitute for a camcorder. Just like a camcorder
that takes still shots is not a substitute for a digicam.

thanks for all your advice. I get the idea that 1GB is the maximum
size and only can shoot 8 minutes. But actually we can install MicroSD
too, that provides additional memory?

I maybe expect too much on the video length. I think the short video
feature is quite cool. In terms of camera with short video, do you
think Canon is pretty good brand?

thanks...


On Feb 24, 4:42 pm, "iws" wrote:
"Paul Rubin" wrote in message

...





"Ken" writes:
I plan to buy a digital camera with short video functionality. I am
thinking about canon PowerShot SD600, but the product description
didn't mention the maximum length of short video. It will be cool to
buy a camera with short video functionality (~ 1 hour max.). Please
advice any good models.

1 hour is not a short video by the standards of those cameras. Try 15
minutes or so. I have an A530 which is a relative of the SD600. The
video clips are fun and convenient but most of the ones I've shot are
a half minute or so long at most, and I think that's what they're
intended for. They are in motion jpeg format, the audio is terrible,
and there's no external microphone input. If you're trying to shoot
hour-long videos, I think you want a camcorder, for good quality sound
if for nothing else.

If it helps, I think the A530's maximum video clip length is 1GB.

You are right: 1 hour is not short when it comes to video. There are several
different movie modes on my A620 and for the best quality one, you'll get 8
minutes or so onto a 1 GB card. 1 GB is also the maximum clip length. You
are correct that the audio is not very good. It is handy for short video
clips but is not a real substitute for a camcorder. Just like a camcorder
that takes still shots is not a substitute for a digicam.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

"Ken" wrote in message
oups.com...
I plan to buy a digital camera with short video functionality. I am
thinking about canon PowerShot SD600, but the product description
didn't mention the maximum length of short video. It will be cool to
buy a camera with short video functionality (~ 1 hour max.). Please
advice any good models.


Reference:
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerSho...&s=electronics

Thanks!!

Canon just announced the TX1. It shoots up to 4GB of video. That is not a
lot of time in HD format that it supports, but should offer longer times in
standard format.
John

Ken wrote:
thanks for all your advice. I get the idea that 1GB is the maximum
size and only can shoot 8 minutes. But actually we can install MicroSD
too, that provides additional memory?

I maybe expect too much on the video length. I think the short video
feature is quite cool. In terms of camera with short video, do you
think Canon is pretty good brand?

thanks...

I don't think you expect too much. Within a year or two we'll have
hours of video instead of "clips." (Not that I've ever seen a home
movie segment over 30 seconds in length that was worth watching!)
I expect the number of people who use separate video and still cameras
to shrink drastically in the next few years.

Anyways, I think the 1GB limit is per clip, not total. I just put a
half-full 4GB SD card in my Canon S80 and it showed 19 minutes of
recording time available.

There are also non-Canon cameras that use better compression and record
much longer, but I forget which. I think the Canon codec is extremely
wasteful; I've downloaded 40 minute TV programs compressed down to 350
megabytes that looked very good.

If you really want long clips and must have a Canon, you can also kick
the movie resolution down to 320x240 and go for quite a long while.
I've heard people who download shows from iTunes say 320x240 is OK, but
maybe they're just Apple fanboys.

timeOday writes:
If you really want long clips and must have a Canon, you can also kick
the movie resolution down to 320x240 and go for quite a long
while. I've heard people who download shows from iTunes say 320x240 is
OK, but maybe they're just Apple fanboys.

320x240 is comparable to VHS in the slower play modes. People used to
record shows off the air in those modes and watch them all the time.
Yeah they looked like crap, but that just doesn't matter for a lot of
things.

JohnR66 wrote:
"Ken" wrote in message
oups.com...
I plan to buy a digital camera with short video functionality. I am
thinking about canon PowerShot SD600, but the product description
didn't mention the maximum length of short video. It will be cool to
buy a camera with short video functionality (~ 1 hour max.). Please
advice any good models.


Reference:
http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerSho...&s=electronics

Thanks!!

Canon just announced the TX1. It shoots up to 4GB of video. That is not a
lot of time in HD format that it supports, but should offer longer times in
standard format.
John

I hope the camera review sites will evaluate the TX1 as a camera, I'd be
interested to see how its stills stack up.

On 24 Feb 2007 21:21:38 -0800, Paul Rubin
wrote:

320x240 is comparable to VHS in the slower play modes. People used to
record shows off the air in those modes and watch them all the time.
Yeah they looked like crap, but that just doesn't matter for a lot of
things.

Maybe because they needed to record more than a couple of hours,
and even then, for timeshifting TV the tape would probably be
recycled. People shooting home or event videos probably want to
save them, and then the lower quality 320x240 becomes an issue.
Anyway, from the home videos I've seen, being limited to short clips
is a *good* thing.

timeOday wrote:

There are also non-Canon cameras that use better compression and
record much longer, but I forget which. I think the Canon codec
is extremely wasteful; I've downloaded 40 minute TV programs
compressed down to 350 megabytes that looked very good.

We will never reach the sizes for transcoded video with real-time
compression. The shows you've watched has most probably been encoded by
a two-pass encoder, which analyzes the clip in the first pass and uses
that information for more efficient packing in the second pass.

But yes, it can get much better than the aging MPEG-1 that's used by so
many cameras: MPEG 4 is being advertised for a number of newer cameras.


While the 1GB limit is Canon-specific, there is always the 4GB limit
for the FAT32 file system. I don't know is other manufacturers bypasses
this by splitting the clips in more than one file, or they just max out
at 4GB.
--
Toke Eskildsen - http://ekot.dk/