Which digital camera has best movie mode?

[kevinma]

I have a friend who is looking to replace his old film camera before setting out on an overseas trip. He doesn't want to take along his video camera so is looking for a digital camera that, in addition to being a good digital camera, does the best job at recording movies. Any suggestions?
Kevin.

[Ogrt48]

Canon S1 IS easily..

[flugelboy]

Canon S1 IS easily..

I agree. I took some 640x480 video of Hurricane Frances and it came out awesome. It's also one of only a few cams where the zoom works in movie mode.

[willy77nilly]

S1 IS or SD 200/SD300 for compact user.

Three movie modes available on SD 200/300.

[Jethro790]

Yup, SD200 takes 60fps video in 640x 480. Really good video capacity, just make sure to get a big SD card (512 or bigger).

[HKdom]

I've also been looking to find a P&S that shoots continuous film (up to card capacity).

From this thread I gather the S1 was the king. Is it true to say that now that the S2 is out it reins supreme, at least so far as Canon is concerned?

Quoted from Dpreview: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons2is/

'Movie options include size (640 x 480 or 320 x 240 pixels), quality (30 or 15 fps) - though you can also use many of the parameters available in stills mode, including (if you really want to), the 'special effects' in the MyColors menu.

You can record clips until your card is full, though there is a 1GB limit to a single clip (about 6 minutes at the best setting)".

To me 6 mins is not a whole lot of record time for a 1GB card... I guess part of the problem is the AVI video compression format versus Mpeg4.

Is the highest setting overkill for basic TV viewing? –I’m not looking to do any serious video editing, just record some moments in time.

What resolution would be satisfactory for basic home video (TV playback) and how much more record time can I expect from that quality setting? –Or should I perhaps look for a camera that offers Mpeg4 video compression?

Thanks for any advice
dom