SX280 - battery life shooting video

[factoryguy]

UPDATED May 5:

I apologize to the forum for mixing two different problems.  They are unrelated.

Problem #1:  User error.  I thought I was using a class 6 SD card but I was wrong. The yellow "!" indicates a pathologically slow card.  Upgrading to a class 10 resolved this problem.

Problem #2: UNRESOLVED.  Red battery indicator comes on prematurely.  On a fresh charge, it'll turn red after recording for a couple of minutes.  On a partially drained battery, it turns red immediately upon entering movie mode or pressing the record button.  Turn the camera off and then right back on in "still" mode and it shows full charge and works fine ... until trying to shoot video.  I have not precisely measured recording times but it'll record for at least 20 (maybe 30?) minutes while flashing red.

[yoron]

Maybe.

But what I'm thinking of is the new processor firstly. Doubt they want to abandon that one.

==

as for it being a relic 🙂

Wow, you make a fast run, don't you?

==

The point being that I can't stop playing with this zoom

It astounds me that you can make a camera 20x optical, that then also will allow you to magnify 60x digital in 'real time'. The processor handling this has my admiration. I keep taking 80x pics of things in my room, freehand, and they come out really good in the camera. I keep zooming in on the stills after I've taken them, and they look acceptable (as zooms naturally) even after that.

I have such a hard time accepting that this little camera can present me this quality constantly, and also in low natural light. And as I'm doing 80 x it has to be the software, and processor, doing its magic, combined with this amazing stabilization. For me it's very close to what I've been waiting for, for you apparently already a 'relic'

🙂 different worlds.

[loveAZ]

We all wanted to like this camera since we bought it,  but we had to return it (at least the ones that were able to).  Canon has not provided a fix.  There is a way around this but you won't know how much time you have left and might be risky (Canon got very hot).

It should had been recalled.  

I have since then bought a pocket size SONY with incredible zoom, long lasting video recording on a single battery, very nice outdoor pictures, zero issues.

Friendly advice, return it if u can - I know in Europe returning lemons can be difficult....good luck

[yoron]

Hmm, made a new 30 minutes video now, testing my cheap Sandisc 32 GB class 4 video cappabilities. It stopped the video, in aproximately the same time as that last one I made, had it on the same settings 1280x720 at 30 bps too. Directly after the video died I turned the camera off, and then on again, to start a new recording. That one I closed manually after aproximately twelve minutes, after reading the last comments.

Sorry, no lemon here.

[yoron]

The point is that the time it really got hot was the time when I had it on its highest settings (at 60 bps) and that was at the end of the movie. I didn't like that at all, but I also believe that the camera should be able to stand it. When I have it on the standard above (1280x720 at 30 bps) it gets hot too, in the end, but nowhere the same temperature as when on the highest. I don't like batteries getting that hot, especially not with the SD card so close, but that is my preference. Doesn't mean the camera can't stand it from a manufacturer point of view.

What I would want is a faster focus, zooming in video mode, though.You can always help it out by going back a little and then zoom in again, but that's about it.. Its ability to produce good video in all light conditions I have no doubt about after testing it both nighttime and day at home and out. And I'm actually, almost embarrassingly, impressed with the software that controlls the processor. You can take it up to 80 x zooming, and it still looks good on my computer screen. Only 20 of them are optical, the rest is all software.

So far I haven't noticed any difference between my class 10 and my cheap card, except that I have this nasty suspiccion that I will find the cheap one the best in the end. Those are all practical tests to me, to find out what will work the best for what I like. And no, unless it breaks down on me it's a keeper. That the battery meter f**s up I will live with, partly that is what those tests are for, for me to know what I can expect. I doubt I will keep staring at the battery meter, in a concert for example, but I, well hopefully so, will be able to stay sober enough to remember the time 🙂

==

Btw: For those wondering why I keep referring to 'bps' instead of 'fps'. http://camcorders.about.com/od/camcorders101/a/guide_to_bit_rates.htm Had to read up on it myself, although I worked, quite some time, with networks, etc.

A modern digital camera is somewhat like owning part a computer, part a conventional camera (optics). For us 'analogue old-timers' it can become quite confusing knowing what the he* all those abbreviations refer to.. A little like that scene in Startrek where the guy lifts the mouse to try to speak into it 'Hallo Computer', but slightly reversed, sort of.

[dswansonil]

There are plenty of cameras that can shoot HD video in 30fps 1080p.  One of the SX280 selling points was 60fps 1080p HD video in a good still picture camera. 

And I'll bet if you drop the video mode to LD, 640x480, you'll probably have a cooler battery and even longer battery life than shooting 1080p 30fps.  But, you may still not know when the battery is actually going to expire and shut the camera down.

[yoron]

Got to admit to not being sure here, but to know the FPS I don't really think you need to involve bps, all as I get it? Frames are the amount of squares (frames) passing my eye in a given time (frames per second).

bps on the other hand is the amount of bits (information) each frame, theoretically, can consist of.  The more possible bits you allow to exist for/in each 'dot' of a given frame, the better the quality to us viewing it. More possibilities for different colors to appear.

 "1280x720 at 30 bps" for example.

If I would use my computer screen as a example of a bit rate, then it is set on 1280x 800 screen resolution, each 'dot'  in that rectangle owing a possible color depth, consisting of  32 bits differnt colordefinitions. It's not perfectly, technically, true when it come to my screen depth, or anyones else, but as I gather it the idea is though.

And I know I get a headache from it.

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/bit-depth.htm

And if that one didn't give you one too, you might try this one.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/how-tos/camcorder-operation/understanding-camcorder-...

 =

Now to what I don't understand.

So what you have with bps are 'bits pes second'?

If I then presume that each second press in 30 differnt bits of color information, does it also mean that each 'bit' there in its turn represent a preferred colordepth too (like on my 'static' screen)? And how does it fit 'frames'? Practically you have for example rgb in where there are three colors, each colors 'tones' represented through 256 values, as the first link refered too.

Anyway, each time you add a bit, from 1 to 2, and from 2 to 3 bits for example, (aka .2, 4, 8, decimally ...)  you also double its possible values. So, which ever way it works, the jump from 30 bps to 60 is a really big one as I see it, information wise. That as you have 29 bits in between, each one doubling the information content of the previous bit. And all processed inside a second.

That's also why my 4 GB movie only took 12 minutes to make, the info each minute contained here was ridicolusly large. Assume you want an hour at those settings (60 bps), what will your file size be? Somewhere around 20 GB, for a one hour movie? Compare that to 30 minutes creating one 1.7 GB file size (at 30 bps). That's what I think I will use if I want a normal video.

(Kept writing BPS instad of bps I noticed, think they mean two different things, so I better keep to the one I mean)

[GON22]

I ordered a 4 GK card, you didn't say what capacity card you had used. I saw a not from San Disc that the "Extreme Plus" is the same card as "Extreme". I will try to report on my experience but it's worth as shot.

[Mylze]

Hi GON22 - I really apologize...I wrote so much in my original note but neglected to say that I purchased the 16 GB memory card. Also, I saw a SanDisk "Extreme" memory card advertised on sale in today's Best Buy supplement, but it was not the same as the one I purchased earlier at Best Buy, which was the "SanDisk Extreme Plus SDHC UHS-I Card" with (as it said on the packaging) "Speed Up To 80 MB/s* 533X" . ...Mylze

[GON22]

I have not had time to fully evaluate the Card you recommend 4G. I also purchased a 1700 battery suggest by another reader, it does appear to last longer?

Thanks for your info..

[UnionStation]

GON22, could you and some of the other experimenters please do us all a great service and buy one of each type of battery out there and one of each brand and capacity of SD card and figure out which combinations yield the best results? Make sure to try each battery with and without the tape modification. If you don't mind, please run these tests once during the day and once at, say 3 or 4 a.m., to make sure that AM radio interference might not be to blame for the problem. Please get back to us ASAP with your findings.