looking for a digicam w/ good movie abilities.

[flyingmachine]

My folks are looking to getting more out of their digicam for their travels. Right now they are using a S410, but the movie mode is really lacking. I've played w/ a S1 a while back, and enjoyed using it very much. I know there's a loyal following for the S2 here, how does it compare to some of its competitors? My buddy, who uses the Panasonic equivalent, favors his over the S2. Just looking for some additional opinions. thanks!



BTW, w/ all the dell coupons (including a $35 off available on ebay) and discounts you can get the s2 for around $275 shipped.

[Tom_D]

My wife just used our S80 this weekend at a wedding and was able to take some long movies as well as many photos on one 2gb SD card. I was very impressed.

I downloaded the files today and she got some great shots as well as movies of folks dancing and partying at the reception in poor lighting and they came out pretty well.

[avdlaan]

I know there's a loyal following for the S2 here, how does it compare to some of its competitors? My buddy, who uses the Panasonic equivalent, favors his over the S2. Just looking for some additional opinions. thanks!

You haven't mentioned what model your friend uses from Panasonic. Without that it's hard to compare against the S2.

Between the S1 and S2, the main difference is the sound. The S1 records mono sound where the S2 records stereo sound.

dpreview.com (http://www.dpreview.com) has a review on the movie mode of the S2 available here:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons2is/page6.asp
There's also a sample video for you to look at.

Their conclusion remarks also state "Stunning movie mode" which can be found here:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons2is/page15.asp

One thing you may want to consider is that the S2 shoots videos in Motion JPEG (AVI) format which is large. For example an 8 minute video in highest quality will take 1GB. 1GB is also the maximum video length for the S2.

If they're planning on taking small video clips of 15 - 30 seconds, then this may be their ideal camera as it has a nice zoom and it's a really flexible camera.

If they're planning on taking lots of video, then possibly this is not the camera for them.

[john a]

One thing you may want to consider is that the S2 shoots videos in Motion JPEG (AVI) format which is large. For example an 8 minute video in highest quality will take 1GB. 1GB is also the maximum video length for the S2.

A little additional info, "highest quality" as stated here is 640x480 at 30 frames per second. That is important to know if you are going to compare to other cameras. With the S2 you also have the choice of 640x480 at 15 fps, 320x240 at 30 fps and 320x240 at 15 fps, each of these yielding longer recording times.

[flyingmachine]

Thanks for the replies, I'll ask my buddy which panasonic he has. I remember it was pretty close in spec. w/ the S2, he had a tough time deciding btn the 2. Thanks for the info about the vid compression format, I think 8 min max per shot may be enough for them.

[crn3371]

While the newer Canons do take nice movies, they are limited by the video compression mode that they use. If you want video longer than about 8-10 minutes, look elsewhere. If longer video is a priority, look for a camera that uses mpeg4 for video, I believe you can get almost 1 hour on a 1 gig card.