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To all people who have digital SLR.
- Thread starter pbagaindoc
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Yep, but the light is hitting the film plane and the viewfinder at the same time, so you still get "frame and focus" which is the technical argument against full-motion that was raised. With a traditional mirror-based SLR design, you go blind while the mirror moves out of the way (though you can do focus off the sensor you lose the ability to frame unless you go to a video display and eat up a lot more battery.
The same reason everyone doesn't carry a dSLR with them. You can't take it everywhere, or at least, there are situations where you can't take both. I can't tell you how often I've gotten priceless videos with my digital P&S camera because something was happening and there was no time to get the video cam.
Dave
OK, guys, I stand corrected on the issue of why someone would want video capabilities in their digital still camera! 
I guess I've been shooting SLRs and DSLRs too long.... Even when I did use Coolpix or other P&S cameras I never bothered with the video function. Have at it and have fun!
I guess I've been shooting SLRs and DSLRs too long.... Even when I did use Coolpix or other P&S cameras I never bothered with the video function. Have at it and have fun!
OK, guys, I stand corrected on the issue of why someone would want video capabilities in their digital still camera!
FWIW, when we got a dP&S a few years ago, we were delighted to have the 'video' setting, but not necessarily to shoot videos - - it was because it also recorded sound.
Way back in 1999 (egads, its been that long already!), my wife & I went on a dayhiking tour in Switzerland, and one of the very memorable things that happened on that trip was the two of us quietly riding in a gondola up a mountainside in the early morning.
As we crested over a small ridge, we heard the sound of a small waterfall and the "clang-klangity-clang-bong" of swiss cowbells from a small group of bovines that we were passing over.
Afterwords, we talked about how it would be nice to have some sort of recording device that allowed us to capture "Sound Bites" like this, in addition to photo's.
This is what we use the Video mode for today. I found that between iMovie and iTunes, I can take the videoclip and then strip off the image to be left with just an MP3 soundtrack. Its not perfect, but it is convenient.
-hh
OK, guys, I stand corrected on the issue of why someone would want video capabilities in their digital still camera!
One thing is that it's only been in the last year or so that digicams have increasingly offered image quality suitable for viewing on TV. It's not digital camcorder quality, but at least comparable to say analog camcorders (some digicams will produce video almost indistinguishable in quality to a camcorder when shown on a analog TV set.)
Most digicams now all have 30FPS VGA video, and many use MPEG4 compression for efficient storage. So now you're talking 30 minutes or more on really cheap 1 GB memory cards. A year or 2 ago, memory cards were a lot more expensive, and most cameras used MJPEG which isn't as efficent for compressing video.
It's also very easy to work with digital camera video in iMovie, etc. Separate clips are separate files, which is in some ways easier for home video stuff- you can delete the unwanted footage easily before even importing into an iMovie project.
So the overall package of convenience AND quality is now a lot better than before. Quality still varies though, so if you do plan on shooting video or want to see what kind of results you can achieve, you want to check out the better performing cameras. Most review sites now not only post sample images straight out of the camera, but sample video clips too.
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