Hybrid Video/Still Camera: When?

[spblat]

When will we see a single camera that will let me replace my point-and-shoot digital still camera and my MiniDV camcorder? Here's what the perfect camera would look like:


Under $500
Compact, point-and-shoot
Stills: 4 megapixel or better, good image quality, reasonable blend of automatic and manual controls
Video: broadcast/DV quality, continuous autofocus, 8x zoom, stereo microphone
Video: continuous video recording time at least 60 seconds; very fast recovery time
Easy to aquire and edit recorded video on a PC/Mac using standard video editing tools
Capable of storing at least 20 minutes of broadcast quality video on a single medium

Have I described a camera that exists today, or one that we might see over the next year or two? Am I the only one that wants this device, or are the manufacturers motivated to produce a nice hybrid?

[JPW2020]

Closest you can get is probably the Canon Powershot S3 IS.It covers many though not all of your requirements.I suspect the perfect Digicam/Camcorder hybrid is some way off.Most camera manufacturers seem to be concentrating more on SLR nowadays and though there are many good compact and superzoom digicams out there I get the impression that maximising the movie capability of such cameras is not a top priority.

[JTL]

Agreed...get a Canon S3, start shooting, don't look back...I actually think it has all of the features you're looking for...except it can only capture 8-minutes of high res video per 1GB...but all you do is press the button again and you get another 8-minutes/1GB if you have a 2GB SD card...

And, it has a fully articulated swivel LCD which makes video shooting easy.

Plus, it has a hybrid feature you won't find anywhere else...the ability to shoot full resolution stills while shooting video...simultaneously...

[spblat]

Holy cow, thanks guys. Eight minutes is plenty given the other advantages. If I need to shoot for an hour straight I can dust off the ol' video cam.

My brother in law just picked up one of these. I'll need to corner him and look it over when I see him later this summer.

[spblat]

Although my system had no trouble playing the sample video on the dcresource S3 IS review page (http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/canon/powershot_s3-review/index.shtml), Adobe Premiere didn't like it. A quick Google search turned up this codec, which made Premiere happy:

http://www.morgan-multimedia.com/ubb/forum1/clicks_db/download.asp?file=m3jpegv3.exe

I'm not sure I can wait to see Greg's S3 IS. NEED ONE NOW!