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When I use a digital camera to shoot video rather than using my huge "compact" Camcorder, I like to shoot in the largest size and highest quality like I do with still shots - then compress later on Windows Movie Maker. My Canon A540 6 mp is a very nice camera, and does offer choices of shooting in 320 wide or 640 wide, but I hate it for video as it shoots in AVI and on 640 setting uses up a 2 Gb card in 17 minutes. :11: That sucks.
My Sealife shoots video in ASF so at 640 wide it will shoot over 2 hours on the same 2 Gb card that my Canon uses up in about 1/8 the time.
I like that a lot better - at least for pre-editing.
The story changes when I process on WMM tho...
> That 2 GB 17 min video shot at 640 wide with AVI on my Canon will load onto WMM of course, then when I save it at "Best quality for playback on my computer," it compresses to around 168 Mb. I don't think anyone wants to tie up 2 Gb of hard drive to store a 17 min video, but the 168 Mb compression looks about as good on computer playback.
> But while my Sealife DC500 5 mp will shoot that same 17 min in comparison with only 286 Mb of the card used, if I then use WMM to compress it with Save at "Best quality for playback on my computer," it stores at around 252 Mb. Excuse me? That's a hard drive hog and more cumbersome to work with IMO. My solution here is to click "Show More Choices," then opt for the next selection of "Best fit to file size" and reset that to around the same 168 Mb.
Indeed, if I want to load either of these clips on a host site like Myspace, or email for free as a guest on Yousendit.com I really want to compress either of those to under 100 mb - and I have done this with reasonable quality I think. See example below....
I did run some trails with another approach, using a free converter program from WinFF Free Video Converter to simply change the AVI and ASF clips to Windows Media Player. Both compressed that way too, but the ASF original file compressed on conversion to about 2-1/2 times as large at ethe AVI original after conversion.
So while I prefer shooting video from my Sealife rather than my Canon, for the end results - judgment calls seem very indicated. Hey once you get the ASF file loaded onto WMM, added your signs and maybe music, ready to "Save to my computer," saving to different sized files for comparisons are rather easy: Once a Save finishes, just Save again but change the settings.
BTW I know that some people will carry their Sealife as a land shooting camera, but I will not. It'd be a lot more costly to replace than the Canon would be if I damaged or lost it, and caca does happen.
Well, I have never seen a discussion like this, couldn't find one on the net - at least not at my fumbling amateur level, so I ran these trials and wanted to share it here. Any questions, discussions, disagreement, insults, etc...?
My Sealife shoots video in ASF so at 640 wide it will shoot over 2 hours on the same 2 Gb card that my Canon uses up in about 1/8 the time.
I like that a lot better - at least for pre-editing.The story changes when I process on WMM tho...
> That 2 GB 17 min video shot at 640 wide with AVI on my Canon will load onto WMM of course, then when I save it at "Best quality for playback on my computer," it compresses to around 168 Mb. I don't think anyone wants to tie up 2 Gb of hard drive to store a 17 min video, but the 168 Mb compression looks about as good on computer playback.
> But while my Sealife DC500 5 mp will shoot that same 17 min in comparison with only 286 Mb of the card used, if I then use WMM to compress it with Save at "Best quality for playback on my computer," it stores at around 252 Mb. Excuse me? That's a hard drive hog and more cumbersome to work with IMO. My solution here is to click "Show More Choices," then opt for the next selection of "Best fit to file size" and reset that to around the same 168 Mb.
Indeed, if I want to load either of these clips on a host site like Myspace, or email for free as a guest on Yousendit.com I really want to compress either of those to under 100 mb - and I have done this with reasonable quality I think. See example below....
I did run some trails with another approach, using a free converter program from WinFF Free Video Converter to simply change the AVI and ASF clips to Windows Media Player. Both compressed that way too, but the ASF original file compressed on conversion to about 2-1/2 times as large at ethe AVI original after conversion.
So while I prefer shooting video from my Sealife rather than my Canon, for the end results - judgment calls seem very indicated. Hey once you get the ASF file loaded onto WMM, added your signs and maybe music, ready to "Save to my computer," saving to different sized files for comparisons are rather easy: Once a Save finishes, just Save again but change the settings.
BTW I know that some people will carry their Sealife as a land shooting camera, but I will not. It'd be a lot more costly to replace than the Canon would be if I damaged or lost it, and caca does happen.
Well, I have never seen a discussion like this, couldn't find one on the net - at least not at my fumbling amateur level, so I ran these trials and wanted to share it here. Any questions, discussions, disagreement, insults, etc...?
You know, I have a couple of dive vids, one from my previous Sealife 3 mp - which shoots vid the same way as the DC500 and DC600 does now, and another one I shot from my Canon. Let me get those loaded and I'll post later..
