[yugyug]

sorry I posted this in the peripherals forum too, but I thought maybe you fellow designers might have a perspective on this...

..... I'm looking for a camera/video camera hybrid that can take great still pictures, reasonable video and works well with my macbook pro. Although I am a graphic designer, I am really looking for something at the consumer not pro level (or between the 2 anyway) - just something that I can chuck in my bag when i go out walking around and checking stuff out, but that I can use to create content or at least reference material for my design projects too.

advance thanks

[Thorzdad]

I'll preface this by saying that I haven't actively shopped for cameras in awhile...

I've found that still cameras generally take mediocre video and video cameras generally take merely-okay still shots, but I never found anything affordable that claimed to do both very well. Some better models may have come along, though. What price range were you thinking of? "Consumer" can encompass a wide range.

I will say that the video cameras I've had (Canon mini-DV cams) don't take kindly to being "chucked into a bag". Not unless that bag was well-padded and didn't have anything else in them to bang around. Personally, I never found my vidcams lent themselves to carrying around just to have handy. They were more of a "plan-ahead" sort of thing to carry.

[art_director]

Here's what I use:

Nikon D70 -- Prosumer, great shots, $$$, takes CF cards, too big for what you've described.

Canon SD630 -- Consumer, ok-ish shots in low light, decent video for the size, takes SD cards, cheap, very small -- easy to carry everywhere you go.

Sanyo Xacti Video Camera -- Smallest HD video camera on the market, very small for vid camera, good stills, $$$, takes SD cards. If you go this route buy BIG SD cards -- HD fills 'em quickly.

[himself]

For something in the consumer range that can do stills and decent video, I'd recommend something in the Canon Powershot A line, and maybe something from the SD line. From my experience, the A line cameras do much better with both stills and video. I personally use a Canon Powershot A610 for taking quick snaps when I'm out, and it does really well. It is a little on the large size, but it isn't nearly as big as the professional cameras (I can fit it in my pocket, but not with anything else in there), but i can just toss it in my bag with no problem. It has a full manual mode, a continuous shooting mode, and captures great quality video (with sound) in either 640x480 or 320x240, at either 30fps or 15fps.

Digital Camera Resource is a great place to start to compare various camera models on features and price. They have really informative and comprehensive camera reviews.

[yugyug]

thanks for your help everybody, I just bought the new model Xacti, which as well as shooting HD has a 10MP still camera. Pretty nifty. And really small. Actually those canon A and SD series were very attractive but the thing that swayed the balance was that I have a project right now that requires video higher than 640x480pix. I'm pretty sure the shooting quality of the Xacti may not be that amazing, but then I not really a nut for that kind of stuff anyway....and its so small!

cheers

[art_director]

Can't go wrong w that.