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.

[videophan]

Leaving with myasg. Good luck to you guys and Happy Trails always!

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@myasg wrote:
Hey guys. Gotta sign off for good now. Enough is enough. Loved the 280 until I returned it. Great pics great features sad issues. Will consider Canon again in the future. However I switched to the Sony WX300 and am quite content. Hope everything works out for u guys and I will catch you GOWIN' DOWN THE ROAD. See ya. PEACE

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[dswansonil]

I'm still looking for a replacement and was just on Bestbuy.com.   I bought my SX280, now returned, from them and the SX280 is no longer listed on their site, only the SX260.  Maybe the negative reviews? 

[dswansonil]

Confused. Couldn't find it with a direct search but the 280 did show up as a link from the 260 although it took a long time to load the page.

[tprevett]

you gotta search for "sx280hs"

obviously somebody has not put the proper metadata search data in for the camera.

[pawl]

Holy smokes, did you read the reviews on the Bestbuy product page? I think we've found the 12 people who got lucky with their 280, and they all wrote glowing reviews (great zoom, etc), all.

[dswansonil]

I don't think the reviewers were lucky, just casual, uncritical users. If they didn't shoot video or low light with the flash, they didn't find the too biggest flaws of the 280.

[pawl]

I was being sarcastic. (What are the odds that all of them would have missed the battery problem...pretty long.)

[UnionStation]

If you want to see some fishy reviews, go to Amazon.com. Lots of completely uncritical reviews, and those with negative aspects get voted down as not helpful so they're harder to find. I'm NOT saying this is the case with the sx280, but I know people who work in an area of public relations known as reputation and brand management. These people get paid good money to use fake user accounts to give glowing reviews of products, and they can actually manipulate Google searches to make sure that desired web pages appear sooner than undesirable ones. Another interesting trend is brand lovers/haters. For instance Apple fanboys, or Moon Truthers who vote down any book about the Apollo program because they believe the moon landing was a hoax.

[dswansonil]

True.  That's why I focus on the negative or less complimentary reviews on Amazon, Best Buy, etc. first.  Many of the reviews at the camera review websites even tend to minimize any flaws they find in their favored brands.

[rft_canon]

Ignore the 5's -- too glowing and gushy.
Ignore the 1's - too critical and written by people that are anti-product or had bad experiences with any part of the product, from purchase to use.

Always look at the 2's first. That's where the serious reviewers have good critiques.

Still, you need to read between the lines and guess if the reviewer has the same critereia as you.