iPhone video .mov files are huge, any way to change that?

Hi there .... My iPhone 5 records video in .mov format. Can't I tell it to use .mp4, which I thought Apple was usually .mp4 format (iPod is, and I might be wrong but I think my old 3GS was too) .. Yesterday I recorded only 16 minutes of video it took 2.2 GB ... that's crazy! I didn't get to record some stuff I had wanted to.. and then I had to convert them after, because they were too big to post to my Facebook or to share in any way.. and once converted I lost a lot of quality.

(I totally don't understand bitrates and frames and ratios so if that stuff is involved in the answer then please tell me like as if I was 6.)

Isn't this something I should be able to choose in some settings somewhere? ..(I don't see anything)

Over 2 GB for 16 minutes?? Seriously?

thanks in advance... Tracy