Can a digital camera capture high-quality video?

Can a digital camera capture high-quality video?

Mark Comon (Vice President, Paul's Photo, Torrance, CA) gives expert video advice on: What kind of digital camera do I need if I'm a novice shooter?; What kind of digital camera do I need for shooting sports?; What kind of digital camera do I need for shooting portraits? and more...

Most of your compact digital cameras today, still cameras, have a movie mode. It's really cool for taking the occasional movie. Once again, just like the movie cameras don't do as well for still, the still cameras do great still pictures and they do ok movies. Not your general purpose movie camera, but for an occasional, the first steps or something happening that you weren't expecting, it's great to have the movies with the compact still camera.