Making movies on Sony Cybershot DSC-W200

I have been trying out the new Sony Cybershot DSC-W200, and I like this
little camera and its sharp 12 mp stills. The movies, when taken at the
highest resolution (VX Fine 640 x 480 at 30 frames per second) are also
pretty good, given the tiny size of the camera.

I was told by the sales person that you can use the zoom feature when making
movies with this camera. However, I have found that I can't actually zoom in
and out while the camera is recording movies. I can select, BEFORE
recording, either a wide angle, standard, or telephoto view, and take movies
at these different scales. But it won't zoom in and out while recording. Can
anyone tell me please whether this is a common limitation of movies taken on
digital "still" cameras, or do some models allow you to zoom in and out
while recording?

Another unexpected movie limitation is that the Sony W200 limits the size of
movie files to 2GB, after which the camera stops recording automatically. At
the highest resolution, a 2GB movie file would take about 25 minutes to
record. Is this a common movie limitation with small digital cameras of this
type? I was told that movies are only limited in size to the capacity of the
memory stick, but this isn't the case with the W200.

Regards, MM

Moviemaker wrote:
> I have been trying out the new Sony Cybershot DSC-W200, and I like
> this little camera and its sharp 12 mp stills. The movies, when taken
> at the highest resolution (VX Fine 640 x 480 at 30 frames per second)
> are also pretty good, given the tiny size of the camera.
>
> I was told by the sales person that you can use the zoom feature when
> making movies with this camera. However, I have found that I can't
> actually zoom in and out while the camera is recording movies. I can
> select, BEFORE recording, either a wide angle, standard, or telephoto
> view, and take movies at these different scales. But it won't zoom in
> and out while recording. Can anyone tell me please whether this is a
> common limitation of movies taken on digital "still" cameras, or do
> some models allow you to zoom in and out while recording?
>
> Another unexpected movie limitation is that the Sony W200 limits the
> size of movie files to 2GB, after which the camera stops recording
> automatically. At the highest resolution, a 2GB movie file would take
> about 25 minutes to record. Is this a common movie limitation with
> small digital cameras of this type? I was told that movies are only
> limited in size to the capacity of the memory stick, but this isn't
> the case with the W200.
> Regards, MM

I will follow this thread as I am curious also. I can say that I have a
Sony Camcorder with a mem stick and the quality sucks compared to a Nikon
Coolpix 7600. You can record a movie onto the stick the same way you do to
tape but it is limited to 15 seconds. Zoom and everything works fine while
recording. I also have a cheap $99 AIRTEK that has better quality than the
Sony DCR730. The AIPTEK records to SD card and will be as large as the card
will hold. IMO the same old recommendations stick. For movies get a
camcorder or plan on only using the movies in small size for web publishing
maybe.