video question

[cassidyfan]

As I debate which camera to buy, I've let the video capabilities greatly influence my decision. I'd picked Canon S1 because it takes the 8 gigabyte cards until I realized they cost $4,000. Yikes. I want to be able to take great quality, quick 2 or 3 minute videos. Example: At Disney World, a character picked DD out of the crowd to do a short dance in the parade. I always have my camera around my neck, but there was no time to fumble in the bag for the video camera. Am I right in thinking a 30 fps 640 x 480 video would've worked? Or will it take such expensive memory that I should forget it?

[hst]

The Fuji S7000 takes some very decent movies. Of course as with any digicams, they will not be as good as a video camera. You can use a 1 GIG microdrive which will get you about 15 minutes of video. I find most of my videos are 2-3 minutes so I still have plenty of room for stills at 12MP. The camera is not too expensive and they have a $100 rebate.

Some of he new 8MP digicams have very good movie quality for a digicam but your going to pay a premium for the camera and you have to look closely to see what the actual limits are.

Generally a 640x480 at 30FPS is fairly good.

Just don't expect a Digital Camera to take the same quality as a camcorder and visa versa, camcorders don't generally take good stills.