Canon Powershot Sx10 Camera Movie Mode - Is It Any Good?

By Peter Sneckint

There are quite a few of the Canon PowerShot cameras which possess some of the greatest video capture capabilities out there. The video option on these cameras is what Canon has dubbed the Movie Mode. It unfortunately has a one gigabyte file size limit, but before we get to that let's talk about the different movie mode options.

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.

QVGA stands for Quarter Video Graphics Array and is sometimes also called Quarter VGA, QVGA, or qVGA. The resolution of qVGA is 320 * 240 and these types of displays (computer monitors) are found on mobile phones, PDAs and other types of hand held devices. It's called QVGA because it offers 1/4 of the 640 480 resolution. The VGA standard was first developed by IBM.

When you decide to make use of the Canon PowerShot, you will be able to make the choice between 15, 30, or even 60 frames per second in movie mode, and this is dependent on the resolution you picked. The only problem is that eventually you are going to hit that one gigabyte limit which will annoy some people to no end. You will only be able to record until the card is full or until it reaches that one gig limit.

You will reach the limit in about nine minutes when you are recording in VGA 640 x 480 at 30 frames per second. You can store several one gigabyte movies in your card if you wish, but it will simply shut off after you reach the one gig limit.

Luckily, you're probably shooting web content for YouTube, which actually has a ten minute video limit. If you want to shoot longer movies, you could try film to 15 fps, though you are sure to affect the quality of the video. Note that there are other things you can try to make the video last longer.

Another thing that you could try is reducing to QVGA quality. Different resolutions will cause different quality, and you could even impact the quality of the audio. It will likely reduce the file a little bit but not as much as the resolution. If you desire you could make use of the fast frame rate mode, which will record at 320 x240 at 60 frames per second. It will give you a high quality video with a low 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. - 29888

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