Re: Wanted: Small video camera with 'continuous loop' mode

On 6/24/2007, Gary Edstrom posted this:
I am looking for a small video camera with 'continuous loop' mode. In
other words, when the memory is full, it continues recording over the
oldest data. So at any point, you could press a button and it would
create a file containing the last few minutes of video.

Do such cameras exist? And is there another name for this type of
recording?

Thanks, Gary

Some still cameras with video capability, as well as some video cameras that record to solid-state media (flash memory), have this capability, but IIRC, they can buffer only a few seconds of video.

At the moment, the name for this escapes me.

OK, I just looked into a manual I downloaded for a Casio still camera, Exilim S770. It has two modes, called "Short Movie" and "Past Movie".

In "Short Movie" you can set the size of the memory buffer up to 8 seconds, but the total clip length is limited to 8 seconds - it stops automatically a few seconds after you press the button, thereby accumulating a total of 8 seconds of video.

In "Past Movie", the camera continuously buffers 5 seconds worth of video. When you press the button, the camera keeps the last 5 seconds of video, but it keeps on recording until you press the button once more.

I'm not very impressed by this :-)

--
Gene E. Bloch (Gino)
letters617blochg3251
(replace the numbers by "at" and "dotcom")


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