david_elliott1 Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 I am looking for an inexpensive digicam for my son that will zoom while in moviemode. I can't seem to find much definitive info on which cameras can do thisand which just have the zoom fixed. He likes to make movies while on hisskateboard, and wants to be able to zoom in and out while videoing. That's alsowhy a cheaper camera would be better. I'd prefer Canon, since we already havetwo Canons and the button/menu familiarity helps w/ useability. I would also beOK w/ digital zoom if the optical zoom is either not available or out of myprice range. Thanks in advance... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdsalyer Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Canon PowerShot S3 IS. Dedicated "movie record" button, 12x optical zoom (while recording) and records pretty good quality video. The downside is you're limited to 1GB clips, which is like 10 minutes at the highest video settings. I bought one new for $300 back in March. If that's too pricey, look for a used one, or see if the S2 can do the same thing (I'm not 100% sure). If that's not pricey enough, look at the S5. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
berg_na Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 Shooting video while riding on a skateboard sounds pretty wild to me, but I think that most of the Canon Powershots support digital zoom in video mode, my SD800 does, but the image quality is so poor that I've disabled this function (also <a href="http://www.digitalcamera-hq.com/digital-cameras/canon-powershot-sd800is_question.html?qid=968">see this thread</a>). The optical zoom in the S-series is a much better option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmanthree Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 Just note that even though you can zoom while recording on some cams, the focusing won't be able to follow fast action. If you really want good movies, get a video cam, or a hybrid cam, like the Canon TX1. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_tx1.asp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jay_hopkins Posted October 24, 2007 Share Posted October 24, 2007 The reason most digital cameras do not support zooming while in movie mode is that the noise of the zoom is picked up by the camera microphone obliterating any sound you might be recording. My old Olympus C4000 allows for zooming but doesn't have a microphone. Like anything in life, it's just one big trade-off. Jay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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