Best video mode Point and Shoot digital camera?

Hello,

I started out my digital photo career about a year ago when I got a Canon digital rebel XT (350D) for my graduation from high school. And as much as ive enjoyed the rebel, it’s rather cumbersome to carry around in a college party type situation for fast shooting, and it defiantly can’t be pocketed.

So what I’m looking for now is a point and shoot for under $350 that can take good pictures, and also, most importantly, can take nice video footage with sound. I would like the camera to shoot at least 640x480 resolution movie files at 30fps or better, and would also really like a model that can shoot up to 60FPS or more at a lower resolution, or a higher resolution, although ive never seen that be the case. The type of storage card doesn’t matter to me, but I would shy away from any camera that automatically limits the amount of time that I can record in any one movie mode.

It would also be preferred that the camera can take somewhat of a beating, since im going to take it snowboarding. Although I can stick it in a case and plastic bag so it doesn’t have to be specifically made shock resistant and waterproof, just something that can take a jostle or two every now and then and not break. The tougher the better essentially.

Please fell free to recommend any cameras you think would fit what im looking for. I have done a little research on my own, but I figure getting the opinions of some knowledgeable community members from various forums would help me become more informed on my choice. Thanks a bunch!

PS. When I say “under $350 please”, I mean from ANYWHERE I can buy it. Like if I can get the model you would recommend for under $350 used on ebay, that’s fine with me.


EDIT: After a bit more research i think in order to get the the movie recording i described, and a small pocket like shape, the more recent Canon powershot models (SD600,SD630,SD700) look the best to me. Anyone see any alternatives?

PPS: I also just heard that those models (SD600,SD630,SD700) have a limit of 60 seconds continous video record time, can anyone confirm or deny that? so ill need a canon SD700+ to record video for as long as i want?

Thanks again, Shawn.

Apart from the small pocket size the Powershot S3 is a very good match for what you want.
At 640x480 30fps it is limited to under 9 minutes in an individual clip but you're able to start a new clip almost immediately. It is very rare to have a single shot last 9 minutes un-interrupted. Video quality is superb and you get stereo sound and a x12 optical zoom lens. There are dedicated trigger buttons for taking video and stills so you can be shooting video and take one or more stills at 6MP so you may not need to bring your XT350d to lots of places youy did before. (There is 0.7s black video recorded while the still is recorded.)
The S3 can record 320x240 at 60fps. No video clip can exceed 60minutes or 1GB in size. Although not officially stated you can use 4GB SD cards in this camera (see other threads on this forum).
You can buy an S3 for around $350.
Hope this helps.

Thanks for all the great info on the S3, but i think in the end it would be too bulkey to be consitered to be taken snowboarding in one of my pockets, or just around my campus in my jeans pocket. Anyone have any models they would like to recomend please?

A630 or A640. Most of Canon's current lineup can do 640x480x30 fps for at least 9 min. at a stretch, and lower res. at higher frame rates for shorter times. The SD600 certainly does. I'd suggest that rather than hte SD630 since the 600 has a real optical viewfinder in addition to the back LCD for shooting.

love my a630 for this - 640 by 480 30fps