What is the difference between these digital camera formats?

tough mp4 video camera

• Howdy Mefi peeps,I'm looking for a tough video + camera that is mp4 native. I have a Canon IS1200, a good point and shoot. It outputs in .avi, a high volume format that takes quite awhile to download via USB. I need something more robust for my purposes. I do a lot of video journaling. I like to stop and take pics of events and items I find interesting, and record things on video that I see and want to blog about. Like today I did a snap interview with a couple who had a really cool hand-built two person bike they were riding at a local cycle event. I need a tough camera that will withstand difficult environments and handling, not an ironclad unit, just tough and hardened. Waterproof is not really necessary. Everything else is optional features. It would be great to have a mike jack and a headphone jack. It would be great to have a LED screen to review what you've just shot. It would be great to be able to shoot in high or low resolution formats. I've checked out action cams to some extent. I don't think any of them have a mike jack for example. When you are in a windy scenario, having a mike really makes a vast difference in sound. So, let's say a mike jack is pretty important to this scenario. Likewise, a dedicated camera does a better job of photography than a dedicated video camera. Where's the middle ground in that? In terms of the way I use my camera now, I tend to be journaling on it for my own use, and today doing a snap interview of people and recording events I see on the street, or taking pictures of things I find interesting and want to see later, or post them on a blog potentially. High end photographic features aren't my focus though getting a good clean picture is an important feature that I wouldn't want to ignore for shooting at night. Those dedicated vidcams, the point and shoot vidcams don't look like quality to me, so not really going there with this. Any ideas or links to products would be useful. Thanks in advance for any information or ideas. My Canon is working admirably but I'm hoping to find something more robust that if it gets dropped or has to record in a dust storm is up to the job. Thanks a bunch.

• Answer:

  Try a VU Point point and shoot. I've had mine for years and it is built like a tank. It shoots three formats of video, including D1 which used to be the format for 1" tape in TV stations before digital. They're like Toyotas, meaning if you go on ebay or Amazon, they're still close to what they cost when I bought mine. They have a big screen, lots of settings, external jacks for usb, mic and headphones, records audio.