Movie mode
It would be a brave manufacturer these days that produced even a budget model without a basic movie mode, and movie capability is becoming an ever more important part of the buying decision with this type of camera. The Pro815 offers the usual 640x480-pixel/25 fps option (though in this case limited to a maximum clip length of 30 seconds), as well as smaller and lower frame rate options. Unusually the Pro815 records stereo audio with movies.
The movies are recorded in M-JEPG (.avi) format, with fairly heavy compression (they work out at around 405 KB/sec, meaning you can fit nearly 40 minutes of the highest quality (640x480/ 25fps) footage onto a 1GB card), and though they do look slightly blocky (due to the strong compression), they're perfectly usable.
Overall quality is fine, and naturally you can zoom while shooting (though being a manual zoom it's nigh on impossible to do this smoothly). It's also worth noting that the continuous focus system struggles - and usually fails - to keep up when you do zoom whilst mid-movie, so it's usually best to switch to manual focus mode.
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As with stills recording you can choose to shoot with or without an information overlay (though you can't use the live histogram). During filming a progress bar shows elapsed time (though unusually, not remaining time). |
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In movie mode you get a slightly more basic set of menus offering options for metering pattern, white balance and picture effects (sepia, black and white). You can also choose from one of three movie settings; 640x480 pixels/15 or 25 fps and 180x120 pixels at 15 fps. |
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In playback mode you get some basic controls for playing movies, allowing you to play, pause and rewind. You can also extract a frame from the movie and save it as a JPEG. |
Sample movies
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640x480 pixels @ 25 fps Shot at mid-telephoto Click on the thumbnail to view the movie (caution: large file!)
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640x480 pixels @ 30 fps Shot at wide angle Click on the thumbnail to view the movie (caution: large file!) |
