Galaxy S II: The Missing Manual

Taking Video

TO TAKE VIDEO, ON the upper-right side of the screen, drag the button down toward the icon of the video camera. To switch from video to the camera, drag the button up toward the icon of the camera.

To start recording, tap the red button. You’ll see onscreen indications telling you that you’re recording, including one that displays the time elapsed. To stop recording, tap the red button again. To record without sound, press the Mute button, and to turn sound back on, tap it again.

You get a lot fewer controls with video that you do with the still camera. Tap the icon of the video camera on the upper right, and you’ll have those choices:

• Normal. Use this for most of your video shooting.

• Limit for MMS. If you’re going to send the video via text messaging, select this, and it will automatically use settings that keep the file size small, so it won’t bump up against size limits that text messaging may impose.

• Self recording. Select this to turn on the backward-facing video camera and use settings ideal for recording yourself.

You can also turn flash on or off by tapping the Flash button and making your choice, although strictly speaking, it’s not really flash. Instead, it uses a continual light, rather than a momentary flash.

For more control, tap the Settings button at the bottom ...