Canon Powershot S3 Is Digital Movie Mode Explained

November 27, 2009

Many of the Canon PowerShot models have one of the best video making capabilities on the market in this cameras price and performance bracket, and Canon calls this Movie Mode. The only slight downside is a 1GB file size limit for an individual recording. I’ll explain more about that in a moment. First I want to tell you about the movie mode options and what they mean. This may sound a little techy, so bear with me…

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.

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 go to QVGA quality which will reduce the resolution. If you want, you can try lowering the quality of the audio as this will guarantee a smaller file size. A faster frame rate will also do well, as it will give you a high quality video even at the lowest resolutions.

By doing this you could indeed record for a bit longer than the normal nine minutes, and you would even retain decent video quality. Make sure that you check the results of this before you actually use it however. One thing that you need to know however, is that the Canon Powershot will definitely outdo any other handheld video camcorder on the market. This is a combination of both the lens and the technology integrated into the PowerShot.

You can find more information including additional review data, picture and video samples and much more about the Canon Powershot S3 and get canon powershot s3 is digital camera low price