Over the past 5 years I have had many stills digital compact cameras - Canon Ixus, Sony Cybershots, Kyocera Finecam to name a few. In parallel to this I have had 1 single video camera JVC GR-DVP9.

Each time I buy a new stills camera I consider if 'THE HYBRID' has arrived yet and I think this year it may have - what do you think?

I want fairly good stills quality ... 5MP+ is good enough and fairly good video quality but the thing is I can't work out how to grade video. 'Stills' is easy, count up to a certain amount of Megapixels, check out the optics and if a good make then chances are it will be OK.

So, I have narrowed down my stills compact choice to 3 'Editors Choices' of - The Ixus 860 IS (640x480 @30fps) , The Pansonic Lumix TZ3 (640x480 @30fps - VGA or QVGA but no sound) or the Sanyo Xacti VPC-CA65 or VPC-HD2 (again 640x480 @30fps).

If going just for stills then the Sanyo would not feature on the list but it gets rave reviews as a hybrid.

So, back to the question - how do I tell the quality of the video as they are all listed as 640x480 @30fps. Ok, the optics and processor make a difference but how do I tell.

and how will the video compare to my old JVC GR-DVP9?

Should I get the hybrid ?

Thanks in advance

I would never use a still camara for video, none do video justice.

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Wil Chapman Jr.
Oly, Washington
DP, Producer, Editor

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None. Really.

I'd have a look at this CASIO

Movie samples from it are here CASIO - IN TOUCH WITH THE FUTURE

Yeah thanks for the comments but they are not really what I was looking for . . . .of course there is no comparrison between a dedicated Video cam and using the video aspect of a stills camera but my need is to have a single product that captures the moment, I will be neither printing the stills out or doing much with the video.

I used to have loads of time and was keen to edit footage and be creative with stills but now I pretty much want to take snaps of the happy bride and groom and switch to video for the throwing of the bouquet or take photos of my son in his smart new school uniform and then shoot some movement as he waves goodbye on his first day. Stuff that is 'good enough' in low quality resolution as keepsakes.

At the moment, as I have 2 products (StillCam and Video) but I end up taking my crummy stills camera and switching to the equally crummy video.

The above camera's get rave reviews but which is best for video?

ChristopherB, I have the same problem, just posted a new link 'Panasonic or Sony'. I am wondering if either of these would meet your requirements, (which I think we both share). Either unit may be somewhat future proof ... for a while at least! Just wondering if anyone will be able to answer my posting.