Video question.

Hello,

I just bought a digital camera. (Sony P120). And it has a 'video' function aswell. I know I shouldn't expect too much of it. but these are the specs.

640*480 30 fps.

The lenght is only limited by the size of the memory stick.
Now the question is.

How long will I beable to record with a 256mb Card?


Thank you

L

 

Nobody can answer this without knowing more about the format, bitrate etc.
Most likely your camera will have a timer somewhere on the display when it's in video mode that tells how much time of recording is left. If it doesn't have this, just try how long you can record on a 256 stick. Or use a 128 stick and multiply by two..

 

usually its only a short time (<1min.)

 

I can get about 10 minutes with my Powershot G2 (canon), but that's with sound on a 256mb card... does the sony do sound?

 

Hi, thanks for the answers so far.

It does have sound.
I don't know other details.

and its not limited (<1min..) its only limited by the size of the memory stick.


well. I guess I have to wait untill I get a bigger card to find out.


thanks everybody.

10min would be nice though!

L

 

I've used the same camera and on a 32mb card you can get about 30 secs from what i remember, not too sure, but you'd need a GB card to get a decent amount from it... about 12 mins

 

cant you just take make a vid using the card you have for it and scale the amount of time up ?

ya know, 32meg card, 30 secs,

256/32 = 8

8*30= 240 secs

 

Thanks everybody for the input.

Using the 32mb for reference
No, because the stock card isn't 'pro' , its slower, so its not good enough to record at 30fps. Only at 16fps.

Pictures
I can fit about 100Pictures at 5MP on a 256mb card. That dosn't seem THAT much (if I go on a trip or something). But I could also get myself this 'extra' thing for my iPod wich will let me copy my pictures to the harddrive of the iPod. So thats not a real problem either. So 256mb should be more then enough for pictures.

Movie's
I read that the movie quality is pretty decent (for what you can expect from a photo-camera, ofcours). So I would like to make good use from this option.

Since the length of the movie is only limited by the size of the card. I thought about getting a bigger card from the start ( 512mb).

Then I can make longer movies in one shot. (without having to copy the card to the iPod, and formatting it again).

Price's?
In belgium I got these prices.
Sandisk Memory Stick PRO 256mb : 80€
Sandisk Memory Stick PRO 512mb : 165€

Conclusions
For Pictures, I don't need the bigger one. I can just buy the 256mb card, and later if I want another one, I can just buy another card. It dosn't mather for pictures. I can just switch the cards.

For Movies, the 512mb is alot more intresting, because it will allow longer movies. twice as long actually. And the price is olmost equal to two 256mb cards. So its not more expensive then getting 2 smaller cards.

So I think the 512mb, is a bit more expensive at the beginning, but I would probably end up getting two 256mb cards anyway. So I might aswell get the bigger one from the start on.

what are your thoughts?

thanks
L