The following are a couple of excerpts from the 280SX review at CameraLabs (Canon Powershot SX280😞
"I should however note the SX280 HS often displays two very different remaining battery lives depending on whether you're in stills or movie mode. You could quite happily be taking stills with the battery meter showing all three bars, but then switch to movie mode and see the battery icon suddenly turn red and start flashing. Should you start recording video, you may only capture a few seconds before the battery gives up and the camera shuts down, demanding a recharge. But if you turn the mode dial out of movies, you can normally switch the camera back on again and continue to shoot stills with the battery meter now showing a reasonably healthy charge again.
There's two morals to learn from this: the first is to keep the battery fully charged if you intend to shoot video, as you may find yourself in a position where there's enough charge for stills, but hardly any remaining for movies. The second moral is if the battery does give up while filming videos, all is not lost. Just turn the dial to stills and you should still be able to take more photos, just not any more video until you recharge.
But while I confirmed the SX280 HS can record 25 minutes of HD video with a single charge, there's no denying the battery meter is very misleading. Unless the battery is fully charged, you'll frequently be greeted by a red flashing symbol when switching from stills to video, even if it previously showed two or even the full three bars."
"The battery is a serious issue too for the SX280 HS. Not only does the Panasonic squeeze around 50% more still photos per charge, but the Canon SX280 HS suffers from an annoying dual personality where the battery meter may show two or even the full three bars when shooting stills, but suddenly starts flashing red when you switch it to video. Indeed if your battery isn't close to fully charged, you could find it unable to record more than a few minutes or even seconds of video. Now to be fair, I did confirm Canon's claim that a fully charged battery can record 25 minutes of HD video, but the battery meter remains a worry, especially if you find yourself at an event snapping stills thinking you have plenty of charge left, only to find there isn't enough to film much video. Now this wouldn’t be so much of an issue if you could **bleep** over to a laptop or your car for a quick topup over USB, but you can't."
The camera the reviewer is referring to in the last quote is the Panasonic Lumix ZS30, a camera he favors over the SX280, but it comes at a premium price. I know this, to those who have posted here, is a rehash of what we already know, but at least it is now being noted in reviews.
