Digital video camera that takes stills

suppafly

So as the title says i'm looking for a dgital video camera that u can also take stills with. Like maybe in a different mode of something, cuz i had a VC before that just paused the image on the screen for a bit, so not that . Like one mode for video and one for stills just like on normal digital still camera's, cuz i wanna video alot of things but then i also want to use of photos from the same unit. Is there any at like 4/5 mega pixels and nice and compact?

rymus

Now I don't know a whole lot about digital videocamera's but I'm going to assume that any dv cam with a 4/5mp sensor is going to cost the earth. If its any reference, my sony mini dv does dvd quality video, but the stills from it aren't up to scratch. It has video & camera modes like youre after.

suppafly

well i was looking at the Sony Cyber-shot® DSC-M1 Digital Camera its 5.1 mega pixels and takes hi8 quality video. this is the type of camera that i'm looking for. Has anybody heard anything about it?

BrianD3

There are a few digital still cameras out there which have very good movie modes eg the new Canon S2 IS, a 5 m.p still camera with a 640x480 30 fps stereo movie mode. Unlike many still cameras, you can operate the optical zoom (12x on this camera) during filming. There are other cameras out there with good movie modes eg the Konica Minolta Z series cameras. However all of these are primarily still cameras with movie modes rather than movie cameras with still modes.
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0504/05042201canons2is.asp

Some digital cameras can take unlimited length videos. The video length is only limited by the size of the memory card. On the Canon S2 IS, movies are limited to 1 GB size. At the highest movie quality (which is the one you'd want to use) this would work out at around 10 mins.

BrianD3

cecilwinthorpe

suppafly wrote:

well i was looking at the Sony Cyber-shot® DSC-M1 Digital Camera its 5.1 mega pixels and takes hi8 quality video. this is the type of camera that i'm looking for. Has anybody heard anything about it?

I have a sony dscp73 and the video on it is fine. if you're gonna be taking alot of video you'll need a big memory card though cos the video eats up memory

cgf

I have a Sony DCR-PC120E which I bought in the Far East in Sept.'03. It is a digital camcorder which will also take stills (1.5megapix) & movies to a memory stick.

Used it last year when in Aus & NZ. Movie quality to tape was good, movie quality to memory stick was good but short - 30seconds, photo quality to memory stick was decent given the 1.5 megapix.

I was hiking in Scotland last October and the alledged "waterproof" case turned out not to be so "waterproof" so some of the electronics got damaged. Dropped it in to a repair shop in Fairview but alas nought could be done. The video recorder still works but it won't take photos to the memory stick - I can take them to the tape & then transfer them to the memory stick but the quality ain't good.

The scariest thing about the camera is that it has a night vision feature that works quite well. The imaging is a-la Desert Storm but it works too well.

suppafly

yeah on second thought i reckon just a digital stills camera that has good video capacity would be good too. I have a queston now, what is the difference between effective pixels and sensor photo detectors?