Need camera with good video/mic

[Slinky]

Hello,

I'm looking for a digital camera with first and foremost great video quality and a good mic that wont get overwhelmed easily like most. My friend has a SD450 and it takes good video, ok sound, the only problem is uncompressed video takes A LOT of space quickly (are all canons this way?). Good battery life is a concern also.

I've looked into things like Sony DSC-M2, but havn't looked for current cameras and was hoping you guys could point me in the right direction.

The goal here is to make decent concert audio/video for good memories :)

Thanks!

[John_Reed]

Hello,

I'm looking for a digital camera with first and foremost great video quality and a good mic that wont get overwhelmed easily like most. My friend has a SD450 and it takes good video, ok sound, the only problem is uncompressed video takes A LOT of space quickly (are all canons this way?). Good battery life is a concern also.

I've looked into things like Sony DSC-M2, but havn't looked for current cameras and was hoping you guys could point me in the right direction.

The goal here is to make decent concert audio/video for good memories :)

Thanks!My little Panasonic TZ1 takes decent movies, but with a monaural mike. I think the Canon S3 uses stereo mikes, which would be better, but neither one of these cameras, nor any other digital cameras I can think of, will shoot compressed video. I know my TZ1 generates about 80MB/minute, giving you about 24 minutes max on a 2GB card; I imagine the S3 would use up about the same space, maybe more for stereo sound?

All your desires seem oriented around video; why not choose a good video camera and go with that? And I have no suggestions for which one to pick!

[Slinky]

Thanks for your reply! :)

I would prefer it to be mainly a camera because I don't really like the size of a video camera, maybe i'll do some more reasearch, thanks!

[bascom]

Here is a similar discussion:
http://dcresource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25730

[David Metsky]

The Canon compression algorithm isn't great, you get 8-9 minutes on a 1 Gig card, and the file size maxes at 1 Gig for the S3. The latest models will do 4 Gig file sizes (32-35 minutes of 640x480 30fps).

But the video quality and stereo sound, plus the ability to zoom while filming make the S3 about the best out there, but limited to 9 minutes at a pop.

If you really want to capture concert video/audio, a dedicated video camera will do a better job then any current still camera.

-dave-

[acidbaby]

what about the samsung nv3 for compressed video in mpeg format. stero sound and zoom while recording and does 640x480 @30 fps
also image stabalization

any other options out there for a digital camera that will do over 30 min of video in that resolution? and also zoom and has image stabilization???

been hunting for months still cant find anything besides that sammy