make video smaller? S2 IS

[Joe S.]

i have an S2 IS digi cam. i really want to take some video with it, but after 4 minutes on my 1 gig card, the card is half full. is there a way to make it record smaller so i can get more footage?

or should i buy the 2 gig card? :eek:

[PaulG]

I know the S3 IS has a setting to reduce the resolution to 320x240 which will give you more time. I'm guessing the S2 IS has similar settings. But if you want VGA resolution, you probably need to either reduce FPS (to 15 I think) or get a bigger SD. Even then, I believe your videos are limited to 1GB in size no matter what. Some newer Canon models can record up to 4GB video files, so maybe the next Sx IS model will have that ability as well.

Please note - I don't own either camera. I just read a lot of spec sheets and reviews lately. :D But I think the Sx IS series is very nice.

[TenD]

You are limited to 8min at a time no matter what size card you have at the highest resolution and frame rate(640x480 30fps). If you have a larger than 1 gig card, say a 4 gig, then you can shoot 4 8min long videos, but not one 32 minute video. The S2 does allow you to reduce resolution to 320x240 and frame rate to 15fps, this will make for more room on the card. See pages 63-65 in your manual.

[Joe S.]

thanks! that manual is like chinese to me...

i would like to make some videos, and they probably wont be more than 3 or 4 minutes at a time, but i dont want to only be able to record 2 4 minute videos and be done. we offroad, and it is good to get some action footage every now and then.

thanks
joe

[Joe S.]

it worked. 4 minute video down from 450MB to 112MB by switching from 640x480 to 320 x 240. thanks yall

[David Metsky]

You can buy 2G SD cards for about $30. I'd much rather spring for one (or a few) of those than reduce the video to 320x240.

-dave-

[Joe S.]

oh that makes me sick! my 1 gig was 35! :(

where can i find a 2 gig for that? i will buy one of those too. :D

thanks
joe

[steveLe]

http://dealnews.com/memory/prices/Secure-Digital-SD/30/2GB.html

35$ on there... try bargain sites such as slickdeals.net or fatwallet.com

[Joe S.]

are they "high performance" cards? do i need that for my camera? i will check em out. thanks!
joe

[PhoenixFx]

I recently bought an Adata 150x 4GB card for around $75 (shipped), especially for high quality videos. It works great with my S3 IS. However it didn't work with my notebook's built in card reader. I read that most of the card readers are having trouble reading 4GB cards, but that is not a problem for me as I can access it through the camera.

With that card I can get around
32 mins of 640x480 30FPS amazing quality!
1hr of 640x480 15FPS
1hr 30 mins of 320x240 30FPS
2hr 30mins of 320x240 15FPS

For high quality videos (640x480 30FPS) you will need a high speed card. As far as I know cards rated at 66x or above are called Hi-speed.Most of the 4GB and 2Gb I have come across are Hi-speed. So far I haven't seen any 4GB card rated below 100x.