Embodiments provide a video camera that can be configured to compress video data in a manner that achieves a targeted output size in a computationally efficient manner The video compression systems and methods can be used with DCT-based compression standards to include a rate control aspect. The rate controlled video compression methods can be configured to compress video data in, real time and/or using a single pass. During compression of video data, the video compression systems and methods can modify compression parameters to achieve a targeted file size while maintaining relatively high visual quality of the compressed images.