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Still camera + Video camera


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I want a still camera and video camera, it would be nice to have it

all rolled into one. I'm not looking for anything fancy in a video

camera... just that it takes videos. I've used online guides and

looked around but could not find a camera that meets these

specification requirements. Does anyone know of a camera that meets

theses requirements (or knows where to look)?

 

- Compact

 

- 3MP or more

 

- 3X zoom (or more)

 

- performs well in low light

 

- Takes good quality (low compression) 640x480 videos

 

- videos are, at the very least, 15fps, but preferably closer to 20fps

 

- no limit on video clip length. (only limited by the amount of

memory)

 

 

I know, I'm a picky person. If there is no such camera, I will

probably just buy a cheap still cam and a cheap video cam.

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You'd be better off looking for a video camera that also takes stills (badly) than a still camera that also takes videos (badly). They do exist but I don't follow that technology.

 

Video simply eats up too much memory to do well on any camera designed for still use. OTOH, video cameras don't use high resolution sensors since they couldn't handle the bandwidth.

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Yes, I've seen the video cameras that take (bad) pictures. They are not quite what I am looking for though. I'd rather have good pictures and poor video than the other way around. Plus, still cameras are smaller and more portable.

 

I realize I would need a major huge memory card if I plan on taking a decent length video. I suppose it would probably cost just as much to buy a smaller mem card and a seperate cheap video camera + tapes... but it's just the convenience of having a video camera right there all the time (I take my camera pretty much everywhere). Most video cameras aren't small enough to take everywhere... and I'm already carrying a camera everywhere, so it would be nice to just be able to take decent quality video clips as well.

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Paul:

Wow, the Fuji S602 is quite the camera. A little thicker/deeper than what I had in mind, but other than that it is quite amazing. However, I guess I underestimated the size that the video clips would be. For 30 minutes of video, I would need 2GB of space! and that doesn't include space for pictures!

 

Now I'm thinking, maybe it is better to go with two seperate cameras. Or maybe find (or wait for) a camera that makes better use of space with videos. After all, a DVD can fit 120 mins of high quality video and sound in ~4.7 GB. Therefore I would hope they could get 30 mins of video and sound down to ~1 GB, and even less with higher compression.

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Yea, Fuji made an S603 (saw it at Photokina in October 2002), but never released it (as far as I know) in the US. It was a derivative of the S602 that was a lot more "video" focused (larger LCD, different form factor, etc).

 

Sony's new DSC-V1 I *think* will also do VGA at 30fps; Phil Askey at www.dpreview.com has a recent review of it, and that will have the details.

 

Not until we get MPEG-4 will we see much better compression and smaller files. Not sure if all of the licensing/patent issues have been worked out.. maybe it's just a matter of time before we get the chips/ASICs that are cost effective .

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I think you would probably find that two cameras, even relatively inexpensive ones, would do better than one that tries to do both. I agree that the Fuji S602 seems to do better, it's certainly a competent still camera. But while it's video capabilities are noteworthy, that's only be comparison to other still cameras. Likewise, few of the digital video cams are knocking the still world dead either.

 

My guesstimation is that the twain won't meet until HDTV really takes off. Television just doesn't require a high resolution picture yet.

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