Why is my memory card only letting me record 3 minute videos?

I have a Nikon coolplex L120 and I have a 128mg memory card, and its only letting me record 3 minute videos? I deleted all the pictures and videos on the camera and it still isn't doing anything.could you please help?

First, you should know that a 128Megabyte memory card is very small, by today's standards. (The internal memory on the L120 is only 102Megabytes.)

It can still take a lot of regular photos, but HD video takes up a lot of space. You were lucky to even get 3 minutes of video on that card! (Your camera might be set for "640x480" VGA video files.)

Keep in mind that your Coolpix L120 can only record a maximum of 29 minutes at one time, or a maximum file size of 4Gigabytes, no matter how big an SD card you put in.

You can buy as large a card as you can afford (SD, SDHC, or SDXC types), just make sure it's at least a Class 6 speed for taking 720p HD video (Nikon's recommendation).

hope this helps,
--Dennis C.

Yes, that memory card usage sounds about right. You could try to see about setting the FPS for the video recording to a lower level, but in general, based on the standard specs for Nikon L120, it should be using about that much memory to record a video.

If that does not help, then it is time to buy a new memory card.