Digital Compact with HD Movie Mode

[98elise]

I need to replace my old Ixus V

I see that a lot of the current digital compacts say they do HD movie's. Are they actually any good, are there any limitations, and what should I be watching out for? Also what format do they record in?

I've going to be buying a decent HD camcorder as well, but it will be handy to have HD video capture on my stills camera if we are aout and about!

[GetCarter]

Canon S95 is very good (wins most of the best small point and shoot awards for still and HD widescreen vid). Panasonic equiv bigger but as good results.

[98elise]

GetCarter said:

Canon S95 is very good (wins most of the best small point and shoot awards for still and HD widescreen vid). Panasonic equiv bigger but as good results.

Thanks, I'll take a look. I'm a big fan of cannon as the Ixus has taken some fantastic shots in its time, and its 10+ years old.

[Road2Ruin]

Make sure you check out whats sort of format is records the movies in. My Panasonic records in .mov format, which is a bstrd to re-encode and on top of that it will only record up to 15 minutes of HD video due to the format of the SD card.

[GetCarter]

S95 is indeed .mov - fine until you want to edit in Movie Maker.

Breeze ona Mac mind.

[98elise]

Road2Ruin said:

Make sure you check out whats sort of format is records the movies in. My Panasonic records in .mov format, which is a bstrd to re-encode and on top of that it will only record up to 15 minutes of HD video due to the format of the SD card.

Whats the best format to go for then, or are there limited options? Are all HD video camera's using the same format? (I guess I know the answer to thet all ready )

[Road2Ruin]

I think you do.

[wedgeinald]

IXUS 100 IS superb compact camera 12Mpixels and 720p video.

I have one and it stays on my belt all the time, great bit of kit.

Only minor drawback (but it is a compact) only 3x optical zoom, but the 12Mpixel res helps make up for that TBH

I was looking for a cam-corder that would be good enough to take a still off of the video, and went for the Canon Ixus instead, less compression artifacts or motion blur than any of the cam-corders I looked at, and I spent 2 weeks trying to find a decent one!

Take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ain97XLqLnE and put it in 720p mode will give you an idea...

Norman

Edited by wedgeinald on Thursday 5th May 15:46