Originally posted by: thorin
Perhaps this question would be better directed to support/development/design at Canon?
If you really wanna record movies get a MiniDV camera. Recording movies isn't what Digial Stills are really made for it's just a fluffy extra they add to amuse people.
Thorin
I highly disagree.
It's certainly not "fluffy" at all. What's everyone smoking? Can I have some?
Keep in mind that the VGA mode is 640x480. That's the same resolution as a Canon zr60/70 et al.
I was interested in both a miniDV and a digicam and I knew that the A70 could do VGA for 30 secs, 320x240 for up to 3 mins and so forth. I was deciding whether I wanted to go digicam first or miniDV and i'm very glad I went for the A70.
The A70 overlaps the Canon zr60/70 to a certain degree. 30 secs isn't long but it's long enough for "moments" which is really what I want. I don't need to shell out 500 bucks US to find that out. I knew that already. I don't think anyone would think that way.
Furthermore, digicam size allows mobility and flexibilty benefits that a miniDV does not allow. Tell me - how many people take their miniDV around wherever they go as opposed to their digicam? I take my A70 in it's case with a an extra set of 4xAA NiMh batteries and a gig of CF memory and i'm all ready to rock. I don't see people carrying around their camcorder case on a whim. What's the point of being able to capture moments and being in the right place at the right time when you're hamstrung by size and portability?
I had a long discussion with a friend who was in the same boat and he ended up getting both miniDV and digicam and regretted it. He ended up not using much of the miniDV in lieu of the digicam which had a great movie mode (the Fuji f700 with unlimited VGA movie mode). Now, that's a waste of money for the miniDV sitting around collecting dust.
If I wanted to do real double duty erring to the side of video then i'd go for a Canon Optura Xi with it's 2.0mp CCD and digital still. But that's ~ 1200-1300 bucks and it's still the size of a camcorder.
I also don't know about all these deep pocket people around here but people have budgets you know. Like mortages, family, car payments and computer crap!
So, a digital camera with movie mode is
not fluff. It's a very valuable thing to have. It's people who've discovered how useful it is that understand this.
Now, i'm just waiting for Canon to release a decent cam with unlimited VGA mode like the Fujis or the Sonys. I went A70 because it was pretty much the price point/performance leader in it's class.
However, the CF arguments of limitations may restrict Canon unless they explore further with the SD memory like they now use in a few of their models. Note that the Fujis and Sonys use xD and MemoryStick respectively. Now, the latest Kyoceras use mpeg4 compression for even better file management which is a real step up - however only at 320x240 currently.