I am looking for a small video camera with 'continuous loop' mode.  In
other words, when the memory is full, it continues recording over the
oldest data.  So at any point, you could press a button and it would
create a file containing the last few minutes of video.

Do such cameras exist?  And is there another name for this type of
recording?

Thanks, Gary

On 6/24/2007, Gary Edstrom posted this:
Some still cameras with video capability, as well as some video cameras
that record to solid-state media (flash memory), have this capability,
but IIRC, they can buffer only a few seconds of video.

At the moment, the name for this escapes me.

OK, I just looked into a manual I downloaded for a Casio still camera,
Exilim S770. It has two modes, called "Short Movie" and "Past Movie".

In "Short Movie" you can set the size of the memory buffer up to 8
seconds, but the total clip length is limited to 8 seconds - it stops
automatically a few seconds after you press the button, thereby
accumulating a total of 8 seconds of video.

In "Past Movie", the camera continuously buffers 5 seconds worth of
video. When you press the button, the camera keeps the last 5 seconds
of video, but it keeps on recording until you press the button once
more.

I'm not very impressed by this :-)

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