Phil calls the movie mode "stunning " and has a clip that looks pretty nice. What do you think ?

Do you mean the movie on this page?

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canons2is/page6.asp

Even though its only 640 x 480 and it was taken with a stills camera I have got to say WOW. That has got to be the best video I have seen taken by a still camera yet, definetly a nice camera to look at for home use.

15 Mbps - now thats still camera video for you

almost 1/2" sensor, wonder if it is windowing or binning to make the video file - any ideas?

yea, that's it Rob. what do think ? I think it's sampling the whole sensor - obviously to have same field of view as the still function. What if canon was able to employ this function on a 20d like sensor w/720 or 1080 video out ? Now that might shake up things. It's got to be around one of these corners.Compact flash cards are alot cheaper than the p2 solution and are here now. Kurth

This looks exactly the same as the movie mode on my Canon SD400, which I can fit into my pocket. (Although you can't zoom while filming on the SD400, but that's not my style in any event.)

The video is great outdoors, but a bit noisy indoors. The noise kind of looks like grain, so I don't mind it, but it's definitely not up to par with my old GL1.

But because it's so small, I take my SD400 literally everywhere I go, so I always have a camcorder tucked away somewhere. I've owned dozens of still cameras, including many classic photochemical cameras (my Minox spy cam was my favorite for a while), but this is by far my favorite of them all.

- ben

Wowwww, the progressive video clip is fantastic. Could you imagine what a freak show this camera would be if they created a 24P mode? People would totally go nuts.

Kurth,

I hope you are right & it is right around the corner.

As the camera is capable of 15 or 30 fps, a simple firmware update or hack could deliver the 24/25 fps nirvana for less than $500.

Wonder what the XL3 will look like. Unlike Sony, JVC, Panasonic, they (Canon) have no investments in tape stock production, decks, so... no baby to kill. If this camera can deliver 30fps on a single SD card, I am very tempted to bet that their new digicam will be D2D and at a much lower price than the tape based models.

This looks exactly the same as the movie mode on my Canon SD400, which I can fit into my pocket.It is exactly the same because both the S2 IS and the SD400 as well as other current PowerShot digicams are using Canon's DIGIC II processor. Any other current PowerShot equipped with DIGIC II will deliver video quality identical to the S2 IS at VGA size and 30fps up to six minutes per shot. The advantage of the S2 IS is the long lens, image stabilization, ability to zoom during the shot, and stereo sound recording.

Would these camera's be able to do 25fps? What happens to poor Pal land people that want to take video with their still camera's, are they stuck with 15 or 30 fps only?

All PowerShot digicams are NTSC / PAL switchable for the purpose of playing back images and movies on NTSC or PAL televisions and monitors.

http://www.canon.co.uk/for_home/product_finder/cameras/digital/powershot_s2_is/index.asp?specs=1

Sorry, but even there uk website says its 30fps.

Movies
(L)640 x 480, 30/15fps (M)320 x 240, 30/15fps
Movie Length
Up to 1GB or 60 min.

However, this is a cool note ->

Firmware Update Update possible by the user

Canon should make a 1080p sensor using the CMOS technology they've developed for the digital rebel. The digital rebel xt is amazing, and the sensor can't be too expensive--they sell these things for 800 dollars with lens (on sale at dell's site from time to time at this price.)

They could even make a 2/3'' sensor with CMOS...the only reason they don't use it in point and shoots is because it requires larger photosites, but in a 2/3'' hd chip it would work great.

It would work great unless there's no way to clear the gates fast enough to allow 24fps at full res... those sensors are optimized for photo, not video.

I liked what I saw in the clip, so I took a look at the manual to see how limited the movie mode is.

The "My Colors" photo effect menu is available in movie mode. I assume you can only use one preset at a time, but there are settings for less sharpening, less contrast, and many other color effects.

(the regular contrast, sharpening, and saturation controls are not available).

You can lock the exposure and then adjust it up or down.

"Super Macro" mode is available but regular macro is not. (?)

Of course, manual, focus, zoom and image stabilization are all available.

Someone go ahead and do that "simple firmware hack" mentioned above to give it 24p! I mean, if it's simple...

At 640x480 30fps, are there any dropouts? Also, is there potential to use higher capacity storage medium rather than SD card?

higher capacity storage medium rather than SD card?I'm not sure what you mean by this. SD cards aren't limited in capacity any more than other types of flash memory. It wouldn't matter if the storage medium was Compact Flash, Secure Digital or Memory Stick or whatever... they all top out at around four gigabytes these days, with higher capacities becoming more common all the time. A couple two or three commonly available 1GB SD cards will give you a lot of recording time in movie mode. The camera itself is limited to to a maximum of six minutes per clip at 30fps at VGA size. When you eventually fill a card with a bunch of these six-minute clips, just change cards. SD card capacity really isn't an issue since there's already a limit on the individual clip recording time.

There are no "dropouts" in a PowerShot's movie mode. Hope this helps,

I found and downloaded another clip from the camera. Tigers walking around in a zoo for 30 secs. Looks like about 2 megs per second of footage.

For some reason, the clips I've fooled around with seem to respond much better to post manipulation than the DV footage I've tried. I had no problem getting a decent film look out of it.

It is a tad strobey (stroby?). Not sure if this is because of the handheld/telephoto nature of the shots, or shutter speed.

There are some jaggies evident when viewing on a computer monitor, but they're not really visible on a tv monitor.

Doesn't appear to be any way to tell (from the manual, I don't have the camera) when adjusting the exposure from locked position while in movie mode whether it's changing the iris or the shutter (or maybe gain?) or a combination.

Pretty nice overall.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. SD cards aren't limited in capacity any more than other types of flash memory. It wouldn't matter if the storage medium was Compact Flash, Secure Digital or Memory Stick or whatever... they all top out at around four gigabytes these days, with higher capacities becoming more common all the time. A couple two or three commonly available 1GB SD cards will give you a lot of recording time in movie mode. The camera itself is limited to to a maximum of six minutes per clip at 30fps at VGA size. When you eventually fill a card with a bunch of these six-minute clips, just change cards. SD card capacity really isn't an issue since there's already a limit on the individual clip recording time.

There are no "dropouts" in a PowerShot's movie mode. Hope this helps,

Thanks for your answer. I didn't know SD cards are up to 4GB now. I was doing some wishful thinking when I made the post. 720x480@24fps instead of 640x480@30fps and 10+GB of storage somehow ;-]


P.S - I am also impressed by the clip on this page:
http://web.canon.jp/Imaging/pss2is/sample-e.html