Canon PowerShot S95

I bought the S95 to take stills but the video from it looks good to me. I'm not a technical expert and would like to know what other people think. Would it be good enough to sell here?

HD video at 720 is only 24fps. SD can be captured at 30 fps. I would consider it much better than a cell phone camera but for stock at a USA based video agency the HD limited to 24 fps is a handicap. If the subject is what is needed almost any camera can be used for stock. CNN and most news broadcasters regularly use cell camera video.

I thought people liked 24fps? As I am in Europe, I have the 25fps PAL version. I hope 25fps is OK, as that is what I have been using for everything since someone told me it was better than 30fps:)
I'm a stills photographer, so I still find the frame rate discussions a bit confusing. Is the slower rate better for slow moving subjects like landscapes but not as good for faster action?

Why do you want to shoot with the S95 when you have access to 550D?

To answer your question about frame rates:

an excerpt from an article at http://magazine.creativecow.net/article/the-truth-about-2k-4k-the-future-of-pixels

John Galt: I don't like the frame rate. I saw Gorillas in the Mist and the gorilla were flying across the forest floor. Every frame they seemed to travel like 3 feet. [laughs]. It's really annoying. I mean I loved Showscan: 70mm running at 60 fps. In terms of a sense of reality, I think it was far superior to IMAX.

That's why I subscribe to Jim Cameron's argument, which is we would get much better image quality by doubling the frame rate than by adding more pixel resolution.

To many cinematographers, this is sacrilege. You often hear cinematographers saying, there's something special about movies at 24 frames per second. This may be true, but I'll tell you one of the problems of 24 fps, it’s the reason we watch such a dim picture on a movie screen, because if you pump up the screen brightness, you would notice the flicker from the 24 fps motion capture.

So when you are watching in a dark surround and a dark movie theater, the eye and brain gets into this state called mesopic, that is neither photopic, which is full color vision in bright light, or scotopic which is night vision and no color. It's the in-between state between full color and no color vision. What happens there, the brain takes longer to integrate an image, so it fuses the motion better and we are less sensitive to flicker, but we also lose color acuity.

But we have to remember that 24 frames was never designed from an imaging standpoint. It was designed for sound.

wideweb, the 550D wont fit in my pocket, I can take the S95 with me everywhere.

vadervideo, thanks for that. Are there any stats about what frame rates buyers here prefer? If not, I wish pond5 would let us know.

If you capture in 30fps is is easier with better quality to go down to 29.97, 24 or 25 fps. The "I thought people like 24 fps" argument that some give are not fully substantiated as Vader explained. Some like a more "jerky" look, others (and I believe most) like a good smooth video appearance. If you see something that you want a video of use it and submit it. Here at P5 I believe most sold clips are 29.97 or 30 fps, a big part is that is what a majority of the footage is captured as. I have several cameras that can capture in 24/25 as well as 29.97/30 fps, I feel no need to use anything other than the higher frame rate. If I want to slow a video down for slow motion then I can also capture at 60 fps also which is the better choice.

Sharp... I would NOT use the S95 for stock, "except" for editorial footage. If you run across something newsworthy then it's more than perfectly acceptable. Otherwise, posting footage from it would say to buyers that you're not using professional equipment and they may not take you (and your portfolio) seriously. That may not be true, but in this industry perception is HUGE.

So definitely keep the S95 in your pocket at all times and shoot whatever you come across, but before you submit it take a really good look at it and ask yourself if you could see it in a TV commercial or in a movie.

For a 24 hour carry in your shirt pocket consider the Xacti HF1 - 1080 Full HD 60p mp4 at 24mbs. But a much better choice for P5 was a 550D with a pancake lens and carry it in a belt pouch.

That Xacti looks cool.
I like the old powershot cameras, dont know much about the new ones.
I agree with the advice from vaders mentioned article.

TV wants 29.97, 24p stuff is something that is perpetuated by the indie film people. I would use 24p on a project, but not because I think it looks better, but as a way to "cut corners" on render time ;)

I would say most of the information regarding cameras on dvxuser, the 5d forum, or the Reduser forums is largely inaccurate. Most people on those forums are repeating stuff they heard from someone else. Its not like Quentin Tarantino goes to those sites to talk about cameras. So just be aware of where you get info ... I try to get my info from magazines where the authors have significant IMDB credits before I take their advice seriously. The guys here on pond5 are real pros because they are actually making money so I think their advice is mostly good :)