The problem I’m finding is that I really don’t want a full blown Camcorder. I own a Canon Elura 65, and we never use it. Primarily because the process of getting video off of it, takes a long as the video you shot, and if I have an hour of recording time, I’ll likely use it all up before I start importing.

When we record video with our little PowerShot point-and-shoot, I usually download it within a week or two of shooting, because the memory card gets full… so I usually edit it quickly and make a movie out of it for web use, or to put on our AppleTV (which I love by the way, just haven’t gotten a chance to post a review about it).

So, I’m looking for a good consumer quality, small sized, easy to use HD Camcorder that we’ll actually use a lot and carry with us all the time.

I’m partial to the new Canon TX1. It’s got the same form factor that we’re used to (we owned the first Canon Digital Eplh or Powershot S100 back when Canon first started making little digital cameras and have stuck with the brand since).

I’ve read this PowerShot TX1 Review by Digital Trends and also read the User Reviews and I’m almost sold.

My only problem is the amount of video that fits on one memory card. I’ve put together this little table to show the real amounts of HD video that’ll fit on the currently available SD cards on the market:

The problem I see with the TX1 is that even with a 4GB or 8GB SD card, the most HD video you can get on a TX1 is a 13 1/2 minute clip. Is that a problem? I’m not sure.

I’m looking through my source video library, and the longest shots we’ve taken lately seems to be around 3-4 minutes… we just take a lot of them.

So, I’m tempted to buy the Canon Powershot TX1 from Amazon with 4x4GB SD cards (they’re cheaper than the 8GB models for sure). Good idea or not?

Would you recommend something else?

note: I’ve considered the current line of Sony HDD based HD Camcorders, but they don’t work with a Mac (the video doesn’t have sound on a Mac) so those are out. And I really don’t want another DV Tape based camera… .AVI files are much easier to work with for me, I’ve found…

Thanks in advance.

I personally use three bags, depending on my needs for the day:

Case Logic SLR and Computer Backpack – I use this as my daily camera and laptop bag. It holds my Camera Body, three lenses, my flash, and laptop with chargers and iPod.

Tamrac 5612 Pro 12 Camera Bag – This is my all-purpose, carry everything with me bag that I use when I’m taking a long trip and want all of my stuff with me. Ample room for two camera bodies, assorted lenses, flashes, batteries, etc. All around great bag for a semi-pro or pro photographer.

Tamrac 5574 Expedition 4 SLR Photo Backpack – This is the first backpack I bought for my camera setup. Long story short, I don’t use it much since I got the Case Logic bag, but, it will do a good job for you, if you don’t need the laptop piece (which is what I wanted originally).

I have.

So, when I read this article: Modern HDR photography, a how-to or Saturday morning relaxation I was really excited, and wanted to start taking all sorts of HDR shots. Doesn’t look easy by any means, but does look like a lot of fun, and a challenge.

Look for some HDR shots from me by the end of September.

Any camera has a shutter, and that shutter is the “curtain” that covers your film, and either a) keeps light from hitting the film, or b) opens to let light hit your film.

In the digital world, your film isn’t really film, but it acts the same, and your shutter operates just like it would on a non-digital film camera. What’s important about the shutter is it’s speed.

Shutter Speeds are usually denoted on your camera as fractions or real numbers: 1/800, 1/600, 1/400, 1/250, 1/200, 1/125, 1/60, 1/15, 1/10, 1, 2, 4, 8, 15, 20, 30.

A faster shutter speed lets less light hit your film than a slower shutter speed. For example, if your shutter speed is “1/125″ that means the shutter will be open for one one-hundred and twenty fifth of a second. A shutter speed of “1/60″ is one sixtieth of a second, and “1″ is one full second, and “30″ is 30 seconds.

Shutter speed, combined with film speed and aperture, will give you an exposure.

To get a perfect exposure, your aperture and shutter speed must be aligned.

That means the bigger your aperture, the faster your shutter speed, and the smaller your aperture, the slower your shutter speed. (Remember: smaller aperture = less light hitting the film, thus a slower shutter = more light hitting the film.)

Aperture and shutter speed must balance to get a well exposed photo.

Also, a faster shutter speed typically means a “frozen” scene or photograph, whereas a slower shutter speed will allow the photo or subjects in the photo to blur. For example, this photo of my son, is a little blurry, but well lit, because I had a relatively slow shutter speed programmed (1/10th of a second). And this photo of a bug on a flower is very sharp, because I had a fast shutter speed (1/1000th of a second). And lastly, the photo below is sharp, only because I mounted the camera on a tripod, but the shutter speed is very long (30 seconds) due to the low light levels outside at night:

With most DSLR cameras these days, you can shoot in “Shutter Priority” mode, meaning that you want the camera to always shoot at 1/60th of a second, and let the camera’s AI figure out if the aperture should be big or small, so you get the proper exposure. I find if I’m shooting inside with or without a flash and ISO 400 or ISO 800 film, and shooting in Shutter Priority mode, 1/60 is the right setting for sharp photos that are exposed enough to fix later with Photoshop, as long as I’m shooting RAW.

Just remember: shutter speed control gives you two things: sharp or blurry images, and lots of light, or less light, depending on the settings.

And combined with the aperture setting, shutter speed is the second piece to getting a good exposure. We’ll go over exposure in the next article.

Here are a few links to some other articles you might want to read on shutter speeds:

• What is shutter speed?
• Shutter Speed from the Wikipedia
• Camera Shutter Speed Techniques

Other articles in this series:

• Aperture
• Film Speed
• What’s an SLR Anyways?

And you can browse the rest of the Photography + Video category on this site for more links to relevant content.