I'm seriously considering the GS70, primarily for its MPEG-4 capability, probably will seldom put a tape in the unit.

Reading through the PV-DV953 and PV-GS70 manuals, its hard to tell if they have a hard time limit on the 320x240 MPEG4 capture mode to the SD card. The times listed in the manual seem to be max time for the 8 MB SD card provided with the camera, not maximum times for any size media, but the wording is very vague.

So, the question for those of you with a GS70 or a PV-DV953, is there a hard limit to how long you can record a single clip in MPEG4, other than the available SD media size?

For what I plan to use the camera for, I'd like to be able to shoot for at least 5-10 minutes using the highest quality 320x240 MPEG4 capture mode if possible, using large SD cards.

Thanks,

Michael Eskin
San Diego, CA

On a GS100, the camcorder says 34 minutes of MPEG-4 at best quality for a 128mb SD card. I have never tried to record that much.

The GS100 MPEG-4 capabilities look similar to that of the GS70.

If you buy a 256mb SD card, you should be able to squeeze in a hour.

On the GS100, have you been able to record longer than 2 minutes continuously in best quality MPEG-4?

I guess I could always just buy the camera and if it doesn't work out, return it...

Thanks,

Michael

Honestly, I have never really tried to record MPEG-4 for any significant length, I prefer DV.

The MPEG-4 record function works like the normal camcorder record function. You just switch the camcorder so it records to the SD card rather than to a DV tape. So I imagine you should be able to record continuously like you would to tape.

I beleive the GS100 and GS70 behaves the same way, unless you really wanted the latest technology and are willing to accept reading Japanese kanji the GS70 is your best bet.