Why dont olympus do MP4?

Question

I was just looking at camera specs and the Olympus SZ 16 caught my eye.

But then I noticed that the video format is MOV/H264 (if I rememered the numbers right).

A proprietary Apple Qicktime format, I think.

Why no support for MP4???

Are all Olympus cameras unable to produce MP4?

And the only frame rate offered is 30fps.
no support for the uk/european standard of 25fps.

If the Olympus had offered MP4 support it would have been tempting, although somewhat above my budget. to pay that much for a camera without MP4 support, i'll continue perusing the specs.

or have i misunderstood the specs?

Answer 1

Not something that I have studied in great detail but most digital cameras I have used have produced movies as .MOV or .AVI. The only time I have seen .MP4 is from mobile phones.

Answer 2

There are two things you are talking about. .H264 is a compression type for videos. MOV and MP4 are containers which both contain .H264 video formats.



If your video editor can't handle MOV, then use ffmpeg to convert MOV to AVI using a copy stream switch. This will change the container but will copy the video and audio content without having to reencode the formats. The ffmpeg command line is:

ffmpeg -i in.mov -acodec copy -vcodec copy output.avi

The process goes very quickly since the .H264 content is copied.



As for frame rates, not so much an issue these days since computers couldn't care less about frame rates (they play all frame rates equally well) and modern TVs can handle a multitude of frame rates.

Answer 3

Then don't buy Olympus. It is that simple.