How can I get pictures off a memory card if it is not recognized by the computer?

If you used the card in your video camera, but it was formatted to work on the stills camera you may well have corrupted the card. Your best bet is to try to use recovery software which may get some of the files back for you. It's important that you format the card in the device it's going to be used in, as formating puts files onto the card the device needs to correctly assign memeory space for your pictures or videos. All cameras, even from the same manufacturer, use different files. Chris

Usually, cameras only display pictures or videos itself took. The files may be there but won't show up in preview mode. If you connect the camera or the card (through a USB card reader) to the computer and use My Computer (Windows) or Finder (Mac) to view the contents, you should see everything. There is one slight problem though. You mentioned the camera went dead at the same time the card went full. There is a chance the video wasn't saved so don't be surprised if it isn't there.