Canon Powershot Sx10 Is Digital Movie Mode How It Works
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009With the Canon PowerShot cameras, you can be assured that you hold in your hands what is among the greatest video capturing tools available to man. When you want to record, you have to use what is called Movie Mode. The only flaw it seems to have is that it stops recording after you have reached one gigabyte, but we’ll talk about that in a second.
You have the ability to select among two different resolutions when you are in movie mode. Many people will understand the first one, as it is called VGA, recording at a size of 640 x 480. Then there is QVG. First we’ll talk about VGA. This stands for Video Graphics Array and is actually a well known computer term, though the resolution it applies to has passed into the shadows.
Then there is QVGA which stands for Quarter Video Graphics Array. This runs at 320 x 240, which is the screen size of a VGA resolution. Often this type of resolution is located on mobile phones and Personal Data Assistants. VGA was created by IBM during the days of the first personal computers, long before Microsoft Windows was a mere background application.
The Canon PowerShot allows you to chose between 15, 30 and 60 frames/second when recording in movie mode, depending on the resolution you have selected. However, you will always come up against the 1GB limit, no matter which mode and frame rate you chose. This 1GB file size limit is for the size of any one individual recording. You will be able to continue recording until the memory card is full or the file reaches 1GB in size, whichever happens first.
At maximum quality setting, which is VGA 640 * 480 at 30 frames per second, the 1GB limit is reached in approximately nine minutes. So, the maximum resolution will give you approximately 9 minutes of movie time before you hit the 1GB size limit. This doesn’t mean that you can only store 1GB of movies on the card. You can store as many 1GB movies as your card will allow. If you have an 8GB card, you could store eight 1GB movies at the maximum resolution.
If you’re using a Canon PowerShot for video, you will probably be uploading your content to the web. YouTube still has a 10 minute limit on video length. And frankly the attention span of most people will wane considerably sooner than 9 minutes! If you want longer movies, you have a couple options. Reduce the frame rate to 15 fps. That may work for you but remember that the slower frame rate will give you a lower quality image.
You could also lower the resolution from VGA 640 * 480 to QVGA 320 * 240. You should try recording at the different resolutions so that you know how quality is affected. Another thing you could do is to reduce the audio quality. This may reduce the file a bit, but not as much as changing the frame rate or resolution. Many PowerShots also have a “fast frame rate” mode, which records at 320 x 240, 60 frames/second. This means that you can get a better quality video at the lower resolution.
It is possible to get pas the nine minutes by using these features. Chances are you will even maintain a good video quality as well. Just make sure that you test out all of the modes before you actually begin to use them. No matter what though, you can be assured that you’re outfitting yourself with some of the best video capture technology on the market today.
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