Need some recommendations...now need where to buy from!! see post # 16

[isyne4u]

I currently own a mini dv and a kodak digital with 4 mega pixels.

I'm looking for a small video camera that takes still pictures as well with at least 4 mega pixels if not more.

Is there such a creature? I'm looking at circuit city but I'm not sure what I'm looking for.

I'm an avid scrapbooker and go to WDW at least once a year. I enjoy taking video and at times I wish I could take pictures out of the video. I'm also tired of dragging two cameras with me every where I go...so i need to find something a little better for me.

Can you all point me in the right direction?

thanks,
tara

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I'm not sure this is what you're looking for but I'll tell you about it anyway - something to think about.

The Canon S3 IS (as well as the S2 IS and the newest, S5 IS) has a really nice video function. You can take stills while you're shooting video, all you have to do is push the shutter button. I have this camera and used this feature for the first time last night.

Here is how the camera's literature explains it:

Movie functions

Powerful video functions make the PowerShot S3 IS far more than just a high-performance digital still camera. A dedicated movie button means users do not need to switch modes to start recording, so spontaneous moments can be instantly captured in full motion. Users can record smooth 30-frame-per-second VGA quality movies of up to 1 GB with stereo sound, or create 60-frame-per-second QVGA clips for sharp slow-motion playback. The Movie mode also allows users to pre-select exposure and white balance, zoom throughout the camera's focal range, and manually adjust focus while shooting. A Photo In Movie feature enables the capture of full resolution digital stills during video recording.

The S5 just came out but is pretty expensive. Because of that, you can pick up an S3 now for under $300 and an S2 for even less. Most of the features are still pretty similar.

 

[isyne4u]

Please forgive me for sounding technologically stupid...does the Canon S3 IS video portion allow you to zoom in and out and record the sound very well?

I have a panasonic video camera and it is great but the pictures are only 1 mp. The digital camera I have is a Kodak Easyshare (which I love!!) with 4 mp but the video only allows me to shoot from one distance. If I want to zoom in or out i have to stop the recording and start again.

I'm looking at the canon's now!

Thanks for the input!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

does the Canon S3 IS video portion allow you to zoom in and out and record the sound very well?

Yes, it does. And you can take still shots of what you're video-ing. It's one of the better features of this camera.

I'm sure there are other options for you but this might work also.

 

[isyne4u]

awesome!! Thank you!! It looks really good!!

Thank you!

 

[ukcatfan]

I'm looking for a small video camera that takes still pictures as well with at least 4 mega pixels if not more.

Is there such a creature? I'm looking at circuit city but I'm not sure what I'm looking for.

You will not find a video camera that takes very good stills, but as has already been pointed out, there are still cameras that do decent video, but the lengths are usually very limited for anything more than casual use. The S5 will be an improvement though. Basically, put up a 4MP still from a video camera and a still from a 2MP still camera will likely look better. It is best to have both b/c you have to make shortcuts to have an all in one.

Kevin

 

[isyne4u]

You will not find a video camera that takes very good stills, but as has already been pointed out, there are still cameras that do decent video, but the lengths are usually very limited for anything more than casual use. The S5 will be an improvement though. Basically, put up a 4MP still from a video camera and a still from a 2MP still camera will likely look better. It is best to have both b/c you have to make shortcuts to have an all in one.

Kevin

hmmm...so if this is the case then I should just carry both camera's. I just hate having two pieces of equipment and trying to switch back and forth.

I might have to keep the canon in mind and see what happens as I get closer to my wdw trip!!

thank you!

 

[Groucho]

You really need both to get good quality... little digital cameras can do decent video quality but the sound is usually a little muddy (you're talking a tiny microphone hiding behind some plastic) and most don't let you do optical zoom, only digital - which looks terrible. A long-zoom camera is probably more likely to do optical zoom, but some olders ones didn't, because the zoom motor was too loud and the microphone would pick it up. The big issue is that they take up a bunch of space and just a few minutes of video can take up 500 megs of more of valuable memory card space.

And, camcorders have smaller sensors than digital cameras (since they only need to record around 720x480 resolution, much smaller than a digital camera), so they have a difficult time getting a half-way decent photo out of them, no matter what the megapixel count is. (More megapixels is just as likely to mean worse quality as better...)

 

[Pea-n-Me]

there are still cameras that do decent video, the lengths are usually very limited for anything more than casual use.

On the S3 the video will run until the memory card is full, so it can be fairly lengthy if you have a large card. At that point, our videos get boring, anyway.

 

[S. C.]

From everything i have read the videos on our Canon S3's will take 1GB of video or 8 minutes whichever comes first. I have taken several short videos with my S3 and am very pleased with the quality & the sound is very clear. I love the zoom feature during the video and that i can snap a pic during the video.

We don't normaly take more than 8 minutes of video at any given time. If you do all you have to do is hit the movie feature again for another 8 minutes/1GB of video. Just make sure that you have the bigger SD cards for the space.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

From everything i have read the videos on our Canon S3's will take 1GB of video or 8 minutes whichever comes first. I have taken several short videos with my S3 and am very pleased with the quality & the sound is very clear. I love the zoom feature during the video and that i can snap a pic during the video.

We don't normaly take more than 8 minutes of video at any given time. If you do all you have to do is hit the movie feature again for another 8 minutes/1GB of video. Just make sure that you have the bigger SD cards for the space.

It's actually up to one hour or 1GB, whichever comes first.

From the Canon website (under features, then movie snap and movie button, scroll to movie):

Movie
Shoot in VGA (30 fps/15 fps) and QVGA (60 fps/30 fps/15 fps) for up to 1 hour or 1GB.

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=813&modelid=13077

 

[S. C.]

It's actually up to one hour or 1GB, whichever comes first.

From the Canon website (under features, then movie snap and movie button, scroll to movie):

Movie
Shoot in VGA (30 fps/15 fps) and QVGA (60 fps/30 fps/15 fps) for up to 1 hour or 1GB.

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=813&modelid=13077

it does say that. I was quoting what alot of the S3 owners have said. That it is actualy (sp) about 8 minutes of video for 1GB.

When i have more time i'm going to run the video till it's full & see if that is what i get too.

It seems i read there are different settings for the video, I'll bet the 1hr would be on the least quality setting. I'm still new to my S3 and haven't ventured outside of the video settings that the camera was already set on.

 

[ukcatfan]

The video on the S3 is exactly the same as my S2 and at the highest quality it is about 8-9mins. for 1GB. I have tested it while trying to record present opening at my DD's B-day. If you lower it one step in quality, that seems to give you another minute or so without noticable problems. I would not suggest going down to a smaller size shot to get more time out of it. I am pretty sure the S5 has a better video mode with up to 5GB if my memory serves me correctly. I am pretty sure the G7 also has a better video mode. They might even have a larger video size and/or widescreen aspect ratio available. I do not have the time to look it up right now.

Kevin

 

[isyne4u]

Thank you guys for the information.

I've been looking at the S3 thread and all the cool pictures folks have taken! I like what I see.

I've been weighing the pros and cons of what you all have said.

So here's what I'm thinking...I want something that I can take on vacation with me to record the kids interacting with each other, characters, etc. So my shots would be short bursts...two or three minutes on average. But if I can zoom in or out that will meet most of my needs.

I have a mini dv at home for lengthy shoots like holidays or times when the kids are doing their pony tricks ("say mommy", stand on one foot, dance...you know all those things we parents do to our children and then show people 20 years later!!). But I could leave that at home on vacations.

I like what I've seen on the S3...definately better than any other camera I've looked at recently. I checked Consumer Reports and they rate the Canon S2 IS the highest of all compact cameras and the S3 at number 8. (the s5 wasn't rated yet).

So if I decide to get the S3 (which I probably will ) I just need to invest in a couple of extra memory cards. If they are the SD I know I can get two 1 GB cards for under $30...so I would just buy extra cards if I'm not planning on taking my laptop on vacation iwth me!

Anything else I should know about this camera?

 

[Groucho]

If you look a couple pages into this board, you'll find a recent thread about Consumer Reports... I think we're pretty much all in agreement that they're about completely useless for camera reviews (or nearly anything else that's more complex than a toaster)... not that you should automatically avoid anything they recommend, but it's common for them to trash a good thing and prop up a bad one.

Movie modes are pretty ubiquitous nowadays, most any point-n-shoot is capable of taking good-quality video at 640x480 30fps.

For SD cards, you definitely want plenty, especially if you're going to take video. We took some video of my son dancing to Off Kilter, and about 4.5 minutes of video took up more than a quarter of the SD card. It doesn't take many short videos to fill 'er up. I'd go for two-gig cards, also; you can often find them cheaper per meg than one gig cards - usually $20 or not much more.

Good luck!

 

[isyne4u]

okay, so I've read online reviews (amazon, froogle)

I've asked people at work. All I am hearing are the good things about the S3.

So now that you have me sold...I would like to buy it. (I swore I was going to wait!! hehe)

So i've been looking online. I can get it at amazon for $286 with free shipping and no extras.

I can get it from broadway photo for $274+$15 for shipping but it also comes with a tripod, lens cleaner, and LCD screen protector for free.

I've looked at Ebay but they are all over $300.

Access2Digital has it for $268. This is the cheapest (i haven't seen the shipping yet) but I know nothing about this company so it makes me a little nervous about buying from them.

So any thoughts on which place would be the best place to purchase it from?

thanks!

 

[S. C.]

to the canon S3 family.

I bought mine from amazon in april & paid $305 total. I haven't heard of the other places. Make sure you get a usa waranty and that it is brand new and not refurbished or used. A few weeks ago best buy or circuit city had the S3 for around 278 if i remember correctly.

You might want to ask on the S3 thread if anyone has dealt with the other two online dealers that you listed.

 

[AndrewWG]

I would not probably go with Broadway or Access2Digital as their ratings on resellerratings.com aren't that great.

I, personally would buy the camera from beachcamera.com and pay $287 with free shipping. I'm not even sure I trust Amazon anymore unless it says shipped from Amazon.com in the description.

Beach camera will not mess with you whatsoever. They get your order and ship your product. No phone calls, tricks, nothing. VERY reputable. You don't want to have to jump through hoops to get your order.

Always check a company's reputation on resellerratings.com before buying. If the deal seems too good to be true AND resellerratings has a bad rating, then the deal is too good to be true. Most of the time, I have found this to be true.

Andy

 

[mikamah]

I bought my xti from Beach camera.com and it arrived in 3 days without a problem. I have also read that Best Buy will match the price of any online company once they verify it on the web site, but I haven't done that myself.
Congratulations.
And thank you for this discussion. I have a sony cybershot that does the videos with quite a few memory sticks, and you gave me the idea to use that camera for some video clips on vacation. When it was my only camera, I didn't do many videos because I was afraid I run out of memory for my pictures.
I don't know if I did this link right, but I had asked the same question, and got some good advice.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1471639

 

[isyne4u]

Thank you for all the advise. I ended up ordering the S5!!

I was going through all the different sellers and I had two people tell me that broadway was good. They had used them and were happy. So I tried. They called me to "verify" my order but then told me that if I wanted a camera that was in English I had to order the one that was $55 more So I cancelled that order and the SOB hung up on me. But I did get a confirmation of my cancellation. But I'll keep an eye on it and make sure they don't charge me anyway!

So then I spent two hours online trying to figure out who was reputable.

I ended up ordering and doing the instore pickup at Best Buy. I don't like them but they had the best price on the S5 that I could get now.

After hearing that the camera I might get won't even be in English I got nervous and decided to go with someone who had a B&M store!

So I'm hoping to have it in time for our trip to Colonial Williamsburg and Busch Gardens tomorrow!! woohoo!!!

thanks for all your help!!

tara