I'm heading to Georgia to teach English soon and I want a good digital camera for documenting the year. I would like one that will take quality snapshots and at least 720p video. I would like the video to last a good bit for trips and diaries and such... something like 20-30 minutes before offloading to the PC? Something like that.

I'm shopping on my own, but if anyone has some knowledge or suggestions I would love to hear them. Thanks!

I don't think you can go wrong with a Canon. In my opinion they are easy and intuitive to use; all of them have similar basic controls so I can't really recommend any particular model. If I'm correct, Ixus models are small and light, whereas PowerShots have better zoom and such, which is probably what you'd want.

And the video length largely depends on how big your memory card is. 4GB is ridiculously cheap these days, although I would go for at least 8GB.

The digital camera I have now (ancient) has on-board memory that fit about 3 minutes of video. Is a camera with enough on-board memory to fit 30 minutes rather unheard of?

If you are talking about a "real" camera... a DSLR, then the Canon 7D or 60D is what I'd suggest you look at.

http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras/slr_cameras/eos_7d
http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras/slr_cameras/eos_60d#Overview

I don't know what "real" means but judging by those prices no, I don't want a "real" camera.

I want one to take some pics and record video while I am in Europe so I can document my time there. They don't have to be professional quality, just good.

Teach and Learn Georgia I presume? In Tbilisi?

Ah, the memories...

First off, Canon and Nikon are considered by most (okay, maybe just me.. ;p) to be pretty much the twin towers in digital photography.

I'm personally a fan of the Canon Powershot series and have been using them for the last 10ish years. The greatest thing about them is that they often use AA batteries, so you're never out of power as long as there's a convenience store or any sort of hole-in-the-wall shop nearby. Some of them also have rotating LCDs so you can shoot accurately like over peoples' heads in a concert, for example, or the bottom part of a flower or something without lying on the ground. Powershots also allow you to adjust a lot of manual settings that simpler cameras often do not, if you want to take the time to learn some of those for better shots.

The Powershot A-series is more of the traditional point-and-shoot kind that can fit (albeit maybe not comfortably) in your pocket -- I think slightly larger than the Ixus series? And the S-series vary a bit but I've used the ones that are bigger, have some heavy zoom and cost slightly more than the A-series. The G-series are like A-series size but are more expensive and take nicer looking pictures than either the A- or S- series.

I currently use the SX20is (the "is" stands for image stabilization, which you definitely want whatever brand you end up buying), which has had some great zoom, nice features, and was one of the first decent-focusing 720p shooters on release. Still may or may not be your type, though.

I think that pretty much sums up what I can get off the top of my head. I haven't kept up-to-date with all the camera brands and releases for a few years, so it's probably best if you spend some time reading up on reviews. My camera was really popular for its 720p video when I bought it, but there definitely could be better options by now.

Oh, and a couple of last bits, if you do go for a camera that takes AA-batteries, you MUST get Sanyo Eneloop batteries. They cost about as much as other NiMh batteries except that they can really and truly retain good amounts of charge months after you take them out of the charger. For storage, 8GB is probably the absolute minimum if you want to take decent amounts of 720p video without constantly worrying about running out of space. 16 or 32GB isn't very expensive, either.

After doing some research (this was a few years ago) I decided on the Canon Powershot SD780IS. I'm not recommending you get this particular camera but possibly the model that replaced it as the SD780IS is now obsolete. I believe it was replaced with the PowerShot SD960IS but I would have to go over the specs for a comparison.

It took excellent photos with the main negative being some "barrel" on the wide angle images. I thought it would be about the size of my nieces P&S Canon but it was tiny in comparison . . . about the size of a credit card and around 3/8 inch thick. I was put off by the small size at first but it quickly became a positive as I could easily take it anywhere. Someone with large hands might find it difficult to use. You might also complain about the tiny "on" button but I found that to be a positive as well. My niece destroyed her P&S Canon by accidently hitting the on button when she put it into the carrying case. The lens extended and it striped the focusing rails. You will never turn this camera on or off by accident.

I had not even considered the video capabilities of the camera. I was amazed at the quality of the video, sharp, clear and full of color. I soon stopped taking pics finding that I took videos of everything. With the size being so small ppl didn't realize that I was taking videos. The negative concerning video is it did not do well in low light situations. In normal light and especially outdoors it was awesome. I suggest a 16GB mem card. Battery life was also good as I could take three 30 minute videos on a single battery with power to spare. I bought a second battery with the camera but rarely needed it.

The skinny . . . I recommend the mid-range Canon P&S digital cameras (Nikon for a DSLR). . . =)

BTW, I narrowed it down to buying a Canon or Sony. I decided against a Sony because they required proprietary mem cards (and also batteries ?? IIRC) with the Canons using the standard SD mem cards and batteries.

Edit: 23 minutes of 720 video creates a file size of around 4.1 GB so . . . 16 GB mem card.

Pentax are nice too especially since they take normal AA batteries in most cases meaning you don't have to worry about charging them everynight...

I'd say there is no on-board memory these days: pretty much everything uses SDHC memory cards which are available in electronics and camera stores. The cards are divided by Class, which basically means how fast data is transferred. Since a camera only needs to record video (and not, say, access games on the card or something), I think Class 4 should be adequate. Class 10 is expensive and overkill. 16GB cards can be had for less than €20 here, whereas 32GB are about twice that, so a large memory card probably won't drive you to bankruptcy.

E: Typo fix.

I agree with the Canon recommendations - I've used many of their point & shoots and DSLRs (even their SLRs...) and have been very happy with them.

If you want something really inexpensive and compact (will fit in a pocket), but still pretty decent, look at the ELPH 100 HS. It will also shoot 1080p video.

If you want to spend a bit more, you might want to check out the SX230 HS, which has pretty massive zoom for a small camera (14x optical). It shoots 1080p video too. It also has GPS so you can get location tagging on your photos, if you want (though I imagine the GPS will drain the battery quickly; still, nice feature to have).

My Canon compact camera from 2 years ago takes 720p video. The size of the video can be large: it's about 30mb for 10s. I rarely take large videos, but if I really need to, I can lower the resolution a bit to fit on my 4gb card. These days a lot of cameras offer 1080p videos, so 720p is the minimum I guess.

Lots of great suggestions here guys, and thanks for the links. Someone will get the rep eventually, but you all helped. My program is through CCI, I will be teaching English in an urban area, but I don't know the exact location until orientation. Seems like a pretty popular program judging by the facebook group, lots of people leaving in January with me.

Congrats.

I'm in a similar situation to you, except I'll be teaching in China for a year. And hopefully touring around SE Asia in general.

The relevant question is where you're going to be going. If you're just going to be doing most of your time in urban areas, then a low end DSLR is probably going to be just the thing. For $700 or so these days you can get a really good camera. The results will still be quite good even if you leave it on full auto.

Personally, I ordered the Canon Powershot sx40 HS, I'm hoping to be doing more travel and won't have room for my DSLR. It has a long zoom with IS, a reasonably compact body and the ability to record HD video.

I'll let you know how that turns out, with any luck it will be here on Monday.

All I mean by "real' is an SLR camera with interchangeable lenses, manual controls for things like aperture, shutter speed and ISO settings, etc... You know, what a pro or semi-pro would use.

Cannon (and Nikon too) have a great collection of interchangeable lenses and every bell and whistle you can ever really need.

At a lower price point, The Cannon Rebel series will deliver exceptional results too. You sacrifice a bell here and a whistle there, but you won't be giving up anything in terms of the quality of your results.