Canon FS100 Flash Memory Camcorder with 48x Advanced

Software is beyond bad
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
Like other, let me just say that the ImageMixer software is so completely unusable that it is reason alone to avoid this camera. Too bad, because the camera works well. But the movies it produces are in an odd format and can’t be read or edited by some other software packages.

I use Canon software almost every day for still photography, but the bundled software ruins this product. Don’t but it until Canon comes up with a better solution.

Perfect for family videos, 5- Star Item
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I am the type of person all the family and friends come to when it’s time to buy electronics – I don’t take making decisions lightly. After looking for a great camera to replace my 5 year old Sony Digital8, I found a real winner with this Canon.

Outdoor image quality is awesome. Almost looks HD. Indoor is not perfect but better than any other camcorder I have ever owned or used. I have stayed with burning DVDs from the camera using analog inputs into my DVD recorder, as I find it way less frustrating than using digital files, but I have loaded the Imagemixer software that comes with this camera and it works well for anyone who is looking to upload videos to youtube, etc.

I chose to buy a SanDisk 4GB SDHC card, which although my HP Pavilion PC card reader cannot read SDHC, the SanDisk card came with a usb adapter which was super.

I have found it important to keep my elbow braced against my body when filming to eliminate image shake, as this camera is so light (which is awesome – it fits in my small digital camera case for travel!)

Love this little camera (I got the blue one), Canon hit a home run in my book.

Great digital camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is my first digital camcorder. And I have to say I love it, it is great. The picture is good and the sound recorded is pretty clear. It satisfies all my needs and plus it is very cute to hold.

Great Camcorder, but Complicated Files
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This is a long review because I took a lot of time in researching the camcorder I wanted, so I think my knowledge and use of this thing should be beneficial to SOMEONE out there. I had my eye on this thing before it was out, and saw reviews from some lucky people who got their hands on it before its release. Once I was able to order, Amazon shipped it in a not very well packaged box, but everything worked. It comes with a little remote, by the way, which came in handy when I connected the camcorder to our TV.

Preface: I am an intermediate video editor. I use Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5, sadly not CS3, and I easily figure out menus of electronics without needing to read manuals. So with that said, this camcorder was perfect for me. For beginners, it is still easy to use, but the more advanced features take some button pushing to access. Still, the basics are out in the open.

(By the way, I purchased the sapphire blue and it’s more pretty in person than in the photos.)

I researched for a long while online, and after using the in-laws’ Panasonic DV, I knew what I really, really wanted right now in a camcorder.

These were my requirements that I wouldn’t budge on:

Small and Lightweight

Microphone input

Less than $500

Records to Flash Memory (Card)

As-close-to-great quality footage

These were optional:

High Definition

Cold/Hot Shoe Attachment

Ability to add other lenses

Digital Camera

So, the FS100 is compact. I knew it would be small, but I had no idea that the whole thing could sit in my hand. It also fits in my purse (and my purse isn’t a huge “hobo” bag that many girls carry around these days). Because there are no “moving parts” and everything is recorded to a little memory card (SD), the camcorder is also very light and quiet. If it’s still not quiet enough for you because you’re in an extremely quiet surrounding, use an external mic.

I required an input for a microphone because, in the future, I’ll want better sound for commercial purposes. Especially for when I want to upload my videos to the internet for promotional advertising (or perhaps Amazon reviews?). Or maybe for recording footage of my first child’s birth – curses and all. ;D This is one of the very few “consumer” camcorders that allows mic-in.

DV is said to still be of great quality, but SD memory cards are just too cheap and reusable to pass up nowadays. Unless you’re a pro editing video for professional purposes, your end-user isn’t going to notice the difference between DV and flash memory. Memory cards are also lighter, smaller, and quiet. They make it easier to actually get my footage onto a disc, or stored on a NAS (Network Attached Storage) so that I don’t have a stack of unlabeled DV tapes that haven’t been watched since they were recorded.

Because the FS100 uses flash memory, recordings are stored as separate digital clips. Do you know what this means? This means my footage WON’T GET RECORDED OVER. You don’t know how many times this has happened to me because someone picks up the camcorder and thinks the tape is blank.

The clips can also be placed into a playlist; you can choose where you want the clip to start, and voila – some basic playback editing without ever leaving the camcorder interface. You won’t have to waste an entire DVD (or bore a viewer with vacation footage of your spouse snoring).

I used the FS100 *all day* in Hollywood, CA during an outing with two little girls and my friend. We were indoors, outdoors, in overcast, sunny, and shady areas. I also tested out the camera around our house and home office. I set the camcorder to its highest setting (using a 16GB card) and widescreen format. I fiddled with the lighting options depending on where I was so that I got the most natural color. It handled like a champ and I will go into quality details in a bit.

Zoom works amazingly well, obviously still has a bit of a shake in the end, but the stabilization seems better than other camcorders.

I worried about the battery life because it seemed short on paper, but using it all day without its Quick Start option (letting it hibernate so you can just open the screen and instantly record something), was dandy. The battery used up about 25% of its power! (By the way, you can view how the battery is doing without turning the camcorder on by a press of a button.)

Okay, CONS:

The programs it comes with are…crap. Sorry, but don’t plan on using them for much unless you need very, very basic editing capabilities. Don’t even consider using the still-photo camera. I don’t know why Canon even bothered with it at all. Some cell phones take better pictures.

Since I have Premiere, I just wanted to use my reader, but a 16GB SD card requires me to purchase a newer reader because it’s so large. I tried USB direct to my computer: WAY. TOO. SLOW. So I thought I would install the program for now just to transfer my footage, but that also was too slow. I ended up purchasing the Transcend reader on Amazon for ~$9 and it worked great.

The footage comes in .MOD files, which you can supposedly rename to .MPEG, but I downloaded SDCopy and it does this for me, as well as marks the footage as widescreen so that they play in Windows Media Player *in widescreen*. Without SDCopy, WMP plays the files in 4:3 format, which means everything looks squashed.

BUT, my Premiere doesn’t see the files as widescreen at all. Windows Movie Maker does, but I really don’t want to use that for editing. I tried Avidemux, and it didn’t pull in the audio. So, I still have a problem to figure out.

My Premiere also didn’t recognize the audio – in the MOD or MPEG files. I searched online and my version (Pro 1.5) picked up the audio once I uninstalled PowerDVD. (I know if you have Premiere CS3, then you can add a .DLL file that recognizes the audio.)

The camcorder doesn’t like low light. Quality goes a bit downhill. It does have a light you can turn on, but it doesn’t make that much of a difference.

I haven’t played with the settings to see if I can fix this, but the camcorder also meters for the brightest thing it’s looking at – which means a person in front of a window, or even if the window is off to the side, will be very dark. The light through the window just gets blown out, so I had to angle the camcorder away from such “direct” light to catch my subject-in-shadow nicely.

SUMMARY:

Great camcorder with lovely features, but complicating issues with retrieving files, so I couldn’t give it 5 stars. Still love it.

Bit disappointed with Canon
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I bought a JVC Everio GZ-MG155 about one year ago, and was never completely satisfied with the image quality, it was not as sharp as I expected. I decided to give a try with the Canon FS100 since all my digital still cameras had been Canon and I loved the images and colors they produce.

Well, thanks to the Canon FS100 I realized my JVC Everio was not in fact that bad at all…

I recorded some scenes with both cameras and edited them back to back in a DVD, so I could see the footage in my 50” high definition TV and could compare results.

Outdoors, in sunshine, both camcorders performed more or less the same, same image sharpness, colors, etc. No big difference at all.

Indoors the difference was simply amazing; the Canon FS100 produced grainy images full of noise (annoying red particles around everywhere) in most lighting situations. Just to clarify this point, I’m not talking about recording in low light, I’m talking about regular indoor lighting (in low light the results were even worse). When I saw the recorded footage in my 50” TV, the amount of image noise and pixelized artifacts was unbearable.

On the contrary, my JVC, does not produce any noise, not even in low light (yes, the image is much darker in low light, however, no noise or red particles floating at all).

I tried the manual controls of the Canon over the weekend (since the camera is so tiny and portable that I really wanted to like it), however I couldn’t get any good results indoors compared to the JVC. And another issue also quite annoying; while the JVC stores all the manual settings when you turn the camera off, the Canon erases all the manual settings. This means every time you turn on the camera in manual mode, you need to reset the settings.

Finally, I just decided to stick to my JVC and returned the Canon FS100 to Amazon (which by the way, is great; they gave me a full refund on the camcorder).

Some things no one else mentioned
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I’m a beginner with video, so I’m not one to judge the quality of the image. After reading other reviews, I thought it would be better than it is though. You have only the small LCD screen to use to make adjustments such as exposure or white balance or manual focus, and LCD screens are notorious for looking different at different angles. The screen swivels for ease of use, but where do you set it to know you are seeing what the camera is seeing? Once I put some video onto my computer, it was easier to view, but several shots taken of a marina on a cloudy day had vague purple stripes in the sky. The still images are awful, with lots of purple fringing. The stabilization is electronic and only applies to the video mode, so the camera portion is almost worthless.

I took some video of some real estate to show my family, and the microphone picked up my footsteps in the grass much better than my voice. The windscreen hardly works at all. I shot some video at the beach and didn’t even notice the breeze until I heard it on the video. (and despite what another review said, there is no audio gain control — there is an audio level indicator but you can’t control it)

A big surprise for me was the noise of the buttons. The microphone is up front, but the buttons on the LCD are right there too. There are only a few things you can change while recording (exposure, manual focus, mini-light, backlight compensation, zoom), but all the buttons make noise that is recorded and make it difficult to hold the camera steady. Other features such as white balance, scene type, digital effects, and a few other settings must be chosen before recording starts.

I haven’t tried the included software. I can easily copy the files to my computer by plugging the camera in with the USB cable. I tried putting the SD card into my built-in card reader, but half the time it worked and half the time it locked up my computer. I think that’s probably a hardware issue and has nothing to do with the camera. But the first few videos I took were strange because sometimes playing them (in Windows Media Player) sometimes hung the program and sometimes they played fine.

If you shoot video at eye level, the standard grip that the camera is built for is OK. I have fairly average sized hands, but I have to put my hand at a tiring angle to keep the camera level. My boyfriend’s larger hands have no problem with this (it fits better), but he has a hard time hitting the record button with his thumb – he has to use the middle of the thumb since it’s so close. Trying to hold the camera any other way, it’s difficult to keep it level and steady.

Canon FS100 a review from 1st time video cam owner.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Hello and welcome to my little review of the FS100. So far I have had for less than a week and I couldn’t be happier. The size, weight, quality of the item is top notch. The vid quality is really good. In low light it could be better but for this price point I can’t complain. I really wanted to comment about the software that it came with because everyone complains that it’s useless and doesn’t work. They are incorrect. I loaded the ImageMixer3 software the day I got the camera just to see if it worked. I knew I would find better software eventually but wanted to test it out anyway. I did not load the other “Canon” software disk, just Image Mixer. I set my cam on XP (high quality) and proceeded to shoot a few mins of test footage. I then uploaded the footage to the pc using a flash card reader and I told Windows XP to recognize mod files by using the ImageMixer software. The software very quickly loaded the couple vids I’d taken. I then used the edit video feature of the software to save the file as an mp2 at high quality. I was then able to upload the vid to youtube in a matter of minutes. Granted the software does not have a bunch of editing tools but it does work and it worked well. GREAT camera and I can’t wait to really put this puppy to the test.

FS 100 is a bang for the buck camcorder
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this from amazon recently. It’s simply as good as the other folks have said it is.

Battery life :awesome, above 2 hours of charge (have not charged it again in a week). Taken 1 hr or so of XP, SP quality videos. Windows vista simply rocks….plug the SD card in my HP entertainment PC and it takes care of everything. No file modification/renaming etc required.

Size/Ergonomics: Perfect, just like holding a 200ml can of red bull. sideways,that’s all

Very easy1 handed operation, I am not worried about arthritis since the thing is soooo light even with the batery included. just handhold one of them sony dvd camcorders and you shall appreciate the small footprint of this thing.

NOW, the ONLY reason I am giving a review here is cos of reading the other folks consistently talk about the “night” “indoor” quality of the camcorder. Ok, I do agree to a certain extent that the indoors/lowlight videos are grainy. But I ask you folks, in what MODE ? P, Night,Sunset ? I am prettysure that that would be your answer.

Being an avid photographer, I never use any of the preset “Scene” modes ever even on my slr or this camcorder. So,my solution to *reduce* the grainy quality for you would be to try the “Shutter priority mode” , Tv, turn the shutter down to 1/30, 1/15(indoors), or even 1/8(handholding will be tough at the slowest shutter speed). BUT, if you use this mode and increase the exposure to say +2 or 3 , I am very certain that your low light videos will turn out pretty pretty usable and less grainy. Please try it out guys and let me know.

Anyway, I just wanted to rescue the camcorder from the night video quality complaints.

What else….it’s a bang for the buck camcorder. Amazon is awesome. They have refunded me all the price differences within 30 days of shipping. I have saved $15 already. Buy it folks, this should be a great camcorder. I am a hardcore canon user (cameras, camcorder). Battery life of canons is one big draw for me. Let me know how the “Tv” mode works out for you guys.

Great, but packaged without important bundled software
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This is a great little camcorder. The zoom can be difficult in a small room. With all the rage pursuing magnification like processor MHz, the wide angles suffer with almost all the camcorders, so I guess that’s an indictment of the industry. It’s very light and convenient, and the battery charge lasts long enough it’s not a constant worry.

My one big gripe is that it didn’t come shipped with the ImageMizer 3 SE software. The manual for the software made it into the package, but not the installation disk. As expected, all you can download is the “updater” software. Not sure what kind of hassle I am in for trying to get an installation disk now. It’s been a few months, I didn’t think I would have a problem getting access to the video files on the SD card…

Great camera though, just check your package for the video software.

Expectations and results
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
My old MiniDV camcorder just went dead (samsung 6 years old), and now we need a new one. I hate to spend the money, but I love to shop around for high tech gadgets. Anyway – I have evaluated and read reviews on HDD, MiniDV, MiniDVD, and Flash camcorders. The Flash camcorders are apparently the direction the industry is headed and they just make sense. I mean digital cameras (even those with Video capability) have been using flash memory for years. At the time of my review you can get a 16GB flash card and I bet that will double soon. Basically once your flash drive capacity outlasts your battery life then the game is over for Hard Drive models. Besides I can always insert another SD card if I need to capture more video. Next comes quality. You only have one chance to capture the moment so why not do it with some quality. Setting aside the pricey and bulky professional camcorders, there are several home enthusiast camcorders to pick from. Most are 640×480 less than 1 megapixel capture, non Flash based, or have poor low light capability. The Canon FS100 has one megapixel capture which is better than most but not quite professional, Flash based, and good low light capability. All other features seem very comparable to other brands. In fact I almost bough the JVC Everio 330 until I found out the video quality was rather low. Note to JVC, increase the video quality and you have a winner which may be better than the Canon FS100. Bottom line I chose the Cannon FS100 (blue) with a bundled 8GB SD card. Now waiting for it to arrive and then I will update this review based on the results of the camcorder.

*[Tuesday 5/27/08] Received camcorder today. Charged battery 3 hours, put in SD card, and reviewed the manual. Really simple to use. Shot video in both ST and XP quality. Honestly I could not tell the difference but I am leaving it in XP mode. The outdoor picture quality is excellent. The indoor picture quality is little above average but far from professional. Sound, zoom, image stabilization work fine as a home camcorder should. The snap shot picture taking quality and capability is poor like a cell phone camera, so don’t throw away your digital camera yet. Now for the best part…I got the videos transferred to my PC and burned a DVD without installing any canon software. Several other reviews state that the canon software stinks so I found a way to bypass it. Windows Vista SP1 multimedia capability rocks and is far better than previous Windows XP or MAC junk. I just connected the camera to my PC, opened Windows Vista Movie Maker, imported the MOD files from the removable disk, and burned a DVD. I also love the new Windows DVD creator with auto live action menus – very cool and flawless. When I was done I erased the vids from the SD card using the camcorder delete all menu and presto I am ready to capture more vids. I hope this camcorder lasts because I really like it.

File type mess is inexcusable
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
So the camera performs pretty well overall, but the MOD and MOI file types create such a mess in using the video, this issue can’t be overlooked. I am editing in Final Cut Express, though it sounds like this issue is universal to any of the more advanced editing programs. I have spent many hours trying to solve this mess, looking for an easy and seamless way to work with the video, without success. It can be done, but you will be cursing throughout the process. If you plan on editing your video in Final Cut Express, DO NOT BUY THIS CAMERA.

Good Unit but has a devastating single point failure
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
The camera itself is really quite good, with proper lighting the unit is capable of recording high quality stills and moving footage. The microphone is also above average. Essentially this is a really good unit, but it is susceptible to an extremely devastating single point failure. If the ac adapter breaks the unit essentially becomes an expensive paper weight. This is due to the fact that one cannot find replacement parts for this camera, so I would recommend a different unit.

Quit Reading & BUY.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
First, my review of the Samsung SC-MX20 Flash Memory Camcorder:

**** I bought this and was thrilled at how far a cheap camera could go. That was while hooked up to my TV. Then I came to understand ANY software that comes with any product just sucks. The software company blames Samsung and Samsung blames the software company. We on the other hand, are stuck here screaming and kicking….

Long story short, I kept this 3 1/2 weeks before I returned it. Some picture quality was nice, a LOT had that cheap looking blurry look. Have to use a lot of “technique” to trick this camera into consistent quality video. Then there is that great zoom. Great but very “jerky”. No thanks. Image stabilazation? Not much of a help. Oh, and then I run into a few people who have had the battery LEAK and ruin this camera? NO THANKS! And you are supposed to remove the battery every single time you are not going to be using it? No thanks again. And to remove it, you have to just go to too much crap for me.

**** (Now The Canon FS 100)- What did I replace it with? The Canon FS 100. I read about all the nightmares of dealing with MOD files. Well I’m sorry….people having problems must be using computers older than me? I simply pop out my memory card, pop it into my computers (running both Vista AND one running Windows 7) and the movies all play PERFECT! Wide-screen is already wide-screen. My Pinnacle Editing Software has NO problem with it. The zoom is WAY better than Samsung and give me 3 built in setting to “control” that zoom so it is smooth & professional looking. Plus, it is simply so much clearer & stronger. Then the BEST feature. It has a remote control. Use it for not just play back, but for recording. Can zoom in on yourself etc from across the room. Picture quality? I would say 70%+ BETTER on the Canon. Why? No idea. It just is.

There’s more but my YouTube site lets you see all the quality differences plain as day. Indoor picture quality problems do NOT exist as I have read for me either. Check mikentrishcartwright out on YouTube if in doubt. For $50.00 more, I have a camera that will work every time, looks professional and I have yet to even master it! And the remote control, ease of getting to that memory card, just so many things make this new Canon a joy. Every single quirk of the Samsung is replaced with ease of use on the Canon.

UPDATE 4/11/2009: After noticing so many little details that just work better, FEEL better when using this camera, I stumbled upon a probable cause? I noticed this camera is MADE IN JAPAN… The Samsung is made in CHINA. Had I known this in the first place, I never would have even tried the Samsung. The details & differences just show up everywhere, in every button you push, every switch you touch, in every operation you perform. The weight, the solid feel, it is a very different camera.

Great product!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Decided to upgrade my video camera to take to Disney World. Had an old Sony that worked great but just wasn’t practical any longer. Wanted a camera that was smaller, lighter and recorded in a digital format. The HD camcorders are little expensive for me right now and are still fairly new to the consumer scene. After reading may reviews around the web I decided to go with the Canon FS100 and I would have to say I am very pleased with the performance. The camera has everything I was looking for and the quality of the video is very good. Daytime video is better than nightime but that is to be expected. Overall I am very happy with the my purchase and would recommend this camera.

I don’t know about the camcorder, but Amazon is incredible
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I haven’t even used the camera yet, but I need to share something extraordinary. I ordered an FS100 yesterday morning at 7:30am before leaving for work. Somehow, the package from Amazon was sitting on my doorstep when I came home from work in the evening. I have no idea how on Earth they managed to get me my order on the SAME DAY but I was blown away. I do have Amazon Prime, which made 2-day shipping free, but this was so far above and beyond…

I’m due to have a baby any day now, so maybe someone at Amazon knows something I don’t, and thought I should have the camera sooner than later???

In any case, thank you Amazon!!

Compact, light and affordable
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is my first video camera…but not my first Canon product. My Canon cameras have been user friendly, very affordable and trouble free. So far, I see the same with this camcorder. I also shopped around for the best deal on SD flash memory and found a 16GB online for a good price. The SD is great…all I have to do is remove it from the camera and plug in the side of my laptop to transfer movie for editing. I purchased Vegas Movie Studio from Sony…seems to be relatively user friendly (I can’t wait to see what it can do after I read the instructions…have already done some editing…very fun).

Unusual features make it a usefull camcorder
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The unusual features are:

1) very small – can be carried around all the time – no missed opportunities for a nice video recording.

2) grid lines – the display can overlay optional grid lines – easy alignment with horizon – so the video looks precise.

3) remote control included – add a bean bag as a tripod replacement – align camcorder using grid lines – use remote to start/stop without messing up the alignment.

4) large zoom and focus range – from directly in front of the lens macro to getting a big moon in the frame.

Image quality: My personal judgement – almost noise-free in bright Florida light – very enjoyable widescreen recordings.

Video quality is very very poor…
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I bought this to replace my aging MiniDV ZR200, and thought that stepping up to the newest format would be a good step since I copy the videos to my computer and then burn them to DVD. I loved the MiniDV format, but thought that this would be a good move since I could hear the tape motor in the background on my old camera, and with flash there are no moving parts. Bad idea… I got it in hand, charged the battery for 12 hours and then fired it up and the image quality was terrible. I have a cheap Canon SD1000 digital camera (Which I absolutely love) that can take short movies, and it blows away the videos I got from the FS100. Also the five year old ZR200 can record short videos to it’s flash card, and that video is again far far better than anything I got with this FS100. At first everything was good, I could see the wall, floor, etc. But then my son walked in and asked me what it was, and as he talked and moved around the image ghosted so bad you could not recognize him at all until he stopped moving. I had bought a brand new class 6 SanDisk SD card for it, so it is the best flash card money can buy right now so that’s not the issue. Bright light, dim light, different flash cards from other cameras etc. etc. and still no change. After playing with it for two hours and reading the entire English section of the manual I boxed it back up and shipped it back to Amazon and bought the ZR950 MiniDV camcorder instead. It’s image quality is incomparable to the trash I got from the FS100, and it is $100 less to boot. The one thing that amazed me the most was walking into my kitchen and simply panning side to side about once a second for a bit. As the image moved the camera dropped to maybe 5 frames a second at best, and then came back up to a more acceptable frame rate once it stopped, while blurring out everything in the frame as it moved. Maybe in a few more years they will have the flash format to the point where it can be useful, but it is not there yet. If you want video quality that is on par with a cell phone or cheap web cam, this is your camera. If you want a camera to record birthdays and vacations to watch on TV later you will be disappointed.

The best camcorder purchase to date
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’ve been looking to update my old Sony Digital8 camcorder and have been looking primarily at Mini-DV. But, this flash camcorder caught my eye since the price of SD cards has become amazingly inexpensive. To transfer video from a DV recorder takes a lot of patience, gigabytes of storage, and hours of work. By contrast, a 4gig SDHC card in this camera can store an hour and 20 minutes at 6 mb/s. The camera will do 9 mb/s, but I don’t recommend it if your final format is DVD since some players will have problems keeping up.

My suggestion is to ignore most of the instructions which Canon provides and keep the software CD’s in the box. There’s a cute warning attached to the USB cable which warns NOT to connect it without first installing the drivers. I connected it to my MAC running OS-X 10.4 and a warning came on the screen to plug in the AC adapter. Once I did that the camera came right up as a disk drive. The manual warns not to access the folders directly. I did that, too and simply copied them to the local hard drive (more on that in a minute). Then, the camera warned NOT to change modes, or disconnect the USB cable, or disconnect the power. Ok… then, after I dismount the USB drive, how do I unplug the camera The manual gives a clue to disconnect the USB first, then power off.

By the way, it’s just much, much less hassle to purchase an SDHC/MMC card reader and copy the folders off.

If you wish to mess with iMovie and other specialized software, then I suppose you’ll have to keep your file structure proper and follow the manual more closely. I use Final Cut on the Mac, not iMovie, so my first concern was, What is a MOD file and an MOI file? That is what you’re left with after you copy your card. The short answer is, toss the MOI files – assuming you are not using the on-camera editing features. I just record and dump to the hard drive and edit with Final Cut.

A MOD file (not to be confused with the music format file) is just an mpeg2 file with audio included. This will confuse some Windows programs which expect the audio in a separate file, so use Media Player Classic. Quicktime on the Mac had no problem playing the file, although you may need to download the MPEG-2 Playback Component. Finally, the aspect ratio setting in a MOD file may not be correct for WideScreen format. You may need Mpeg tools to correct the header if you shoot WideScreen.

Next, Mpeg2 is not an “editable” format like DV. It’s about 1/5 the size on my system and a single 4gig card backs up nicely onto a single layer DVD-R. You’ll need to do something with the MOD files. My program of choice on the Mac is Visual Hub which is quite reasonably priced shareware. I simply dragged my Canon MOD files to it, selected “DV” and “Ready for Final Cut” and “Start.” I was left with DV files ready to edit, although 5x larger. There’s even a setting to force 16:9 aspect ratio. The catch is that you’ll need to re-encode back to Mpeg2 if you’re burning for DVD.

The nice thing is there aren’t any tapes to get dirty and wear out. Flash cards may be used hundreds or thousands of times, unlike DV tapes which are used once or twice. The size of files are very small and easily archived, over an hour of video on a single DVD-R of raw footage. But, re-encoding to DV and back to Mpeg2 will sacrifice some quality. I think it’s a good trade-off to using a DV recorder since you can do in minutes what it would usually take hours or days.

As for the features of the camcorder, it has an external mic jack. Thank-you Canon. Finally, someone is listening. If you’ve ever had to record a conversation in a noisy room you will appreciate the ability to use a directional mic. No headphones, but it has an audio meter level display. White balance! Numerous white balance settings as well as manual. Auto and manual shutter speed, exposure, focus, and audio gain at your finger tips. And, an “Easy Mode” for full automatic for those who hate buttons or just need to grab a quick action shot – press “on”, press “easy”, press “record” and you’re recording in seconds. No moving parts except for the lens cap, which is automatic and built-in. No more lost lens cap or one which is smacking into the microphone in the wind while you’re recording. And, size – I can hide the camera in the palm of my hand. It’s tiny, lightweight, and easy to shoot without getting tired.

As for the not so hot stuff, the recording light is an LED. My old Sony Digital 8 camcorder used a tiny light bulb which appeared as natural light. The LED light is certainly better on the battery but makes everything blue-ish. Battery is internal, nice design but you’re stuck with whatever capacity will fit into that size battery bay. Batteries and charging accessories cost a fortune, although SDHC cards are cheap. The built-in microphone will need some acoustic foam glued over it or check around for a strap-on wind sock. No viewfinder, not that I use one very much – you will need to shoot with the LCD open.

Almost perfect one of the better products available now…..
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
My friend wanted a digital camera, he was looking at still units but after he starting talking more about movies than stills I talked him into a video camera over a still camera. This “type” of product has been out for awhile but most of them have been primitive, needed tons of light and the videos were of generally low quality.

I have Canon SLR units, their digital sensors are some of the best in my opinion so I started checking out this camera. Most consumer sites have glowing review after glowing review on the FS100. We’ve had this unit about three months, we’ve used it quite a lot under mostly daylight conditions. Where these units most often fall down is in the amount of light they need to get good pictures. My old tape camcorder can easily get good video in candle light, this one is not quite that good but it’s dang close. Most often with these units low light means unacceptably grainy images…this unit does pretty well with that from what I’ve seen (at least in middle quality mode). The book states minimum light something like 100 lux which is around dim room light. After I got this I took it to the Target parking lot at night and shot some video under just the parking lot mercury lamps…I was looking for two things…grainy images and color shifts caused by the non-daylight colored lamps in the parking area lighting. I happened to catch a guy riding across the parking lot on his bike at a pretty good clip and tested the camera by tracking him across the lot and zooming in and out all the while….the image was a bit grainy, but it was acceptable and surprisingly good for a camera of this variety at night and under non daylight colored light…i.e. Canon’s sensor is pretty darn good.

My first canon SLR is pretty brain dead when it comes to mixed lighting situations but they seem to have straightened up their act in later products in that regard (white balance logic). There is a competing product of this type made by Samsung, the price is generally a bit lower than the canon, I’ve looked at that unit but not had a chance to use one; on that unit folks are saying the buttons are too flimsy (another reason I went with this one).

We use this camera to shoot a lot of fast action (SCA heavy fighting) I find that the default (AUTO) setting does not result in a fast enough shutter speed to catch very fast action, this unit has a mode that allows you to choose the shutter speed while the camera chooses the aperature…I fixed the blurred action by setting the camera shutter speed to 1/250 or faster and that has cured that issue completely. I have not shot in full quality mode…really don’t need it…middle quality mode is pretty darn good even displayed on a large flat panel although I’m sure a true HD video snob would sniff indignantly at it. This camera supports SDHD so you are not limited to 2 gig memory cards. The 16 gig cards are currently out (like 3+ hours in middle quality mode) and 32 gig cards are also available but still too expensive.

If you get this camera I suggest you buy an image bank (handheld self-powered device with notebook hard drive in it) so you can clean off your cards and reuse them. This camera doesn’t have touch screen, I really don’t miss that at all, the joystick is very serviceable, I find the menus easy to navigate and the camera has a good variety of settings. If I didn’t mention it before the camera can also take still images that are very acceptable.

Overall what I think about it:

I like the camera, I think if it was up to me I’d redesign the zoom lever, yes it’s under your fingers as you hold the camera….but I find it a little bit awkward, especially when zooming in (higher magnifications). I’d prefer to have the zoom on the back where I can hit it with my thumb. Canon does their usual thing of monopolizing batteries and accessories for this camera by not releasing tech specs so other companies can make products that work with it. Batteries are outrageous at 80 bucks plus each, you can find them on amazon for around 60 but that is still outrageous in my book. You can find knock off batteries on ebay that power the camera but they do not have the internal electronics and thus the camera cannot detect the charge and they will not charge on the camera. One of your first purchases should be two 16 gig sdhc cards, they’re not too high if you shop around, 4 gig cards will suffice to start but get the biggest ones you can get and stick with a quality manufacturer as well, I didn’t pick “high speed” cards for this camera I have not noticed “lag” caused because the camera buffers were full and could not write to the card fast enough…at least not in mid quality mode…high quality may be another issue (what I’m saying is I don’t know if investing in the high speed memory cards is worth it for this item like it is for my professional slrs). This is a great unit especially around the price that amazon has it for, it’s great to not have to digitize your movie you just pop out the card and play it with windows media player. This unit also doesn’t use any kind of custom format like some of the other cameras do, it’s stock mpeg2 right off the camera so you don’t have to translate it before windows can play it or roxio can burn it onto a cd/dvd. Yes, I’d buy this again.

Outstanding Camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This camera is amazing. You can simply move the card to your computer and voila, instant movies. The light weight is awesome. It can be held in one hand and operated te same. The controls are well placed at your fingertips. It has a quick on time and an easy mode. With the two 16 gig cards I bought, I can film all day. The battery gives you a long record time as well. I love my new camera. Now I’m planning a vacation.

Good camcorder
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Overall, this is a great value camcorder. Focus could be faster under low light condition. Hard to focus when you try to follow the subject. Very shaky compare to the older DV model. You must have a steady hand to capture good video. Video file has “mod” file format which may not be recognizable by some player.

Excelent Product
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This item is an excelent camera for the money !!!! The shipping was fast and right on time !! Thank You !!!

A great investment
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is a wonderful product. It one of the most user friendly products Ive used in this modern day of technology. That was important to me. I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in getting camcorder. The added bonus is it is so light weight you arm doesnt tire out trying to record. If you’re interested in getting a camcorder pls consider getting this one.

very pleased
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I would recommend this camcorder to anyone, but especially someone that’s not a “techy”. Worth the money and very compact. I also love the color. Easy to use as well.

criticschoice2009

Good Camcorder but struggling with getting video on dvds
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This camera is just what I needed and it was very affordable. I wasn’t really concerned with HD. I just wanted a camera that could take good videos and be able to share them with family by copying to dvd so that the videos could be viewed using a standard dvd player and TV. I have become so frustrated because I am having such a hard time trying to copy the video to dvd. While not a pro by any means, I do not consider myself computer illiterate. Most reviews have said not to even bother with downloading the transfer software that came with the camera but what can I use that will produce good videos and isn’t so expensive? I’ve had trouble with Nero and Sonic MyDVD. I don’t have the money to buy software to experiment with to see if it will work or not. What good is taking the video if you can’t save it and be able to share with others. Being so frustrated with trying to copy to dvds has caused me to regret buying the camera. If anyone can give me directions on what I need to do, I would greatly appreciate it. I’m using Windows XP. I gave the camcorder a 4 rating but if I was rating my overall experience with the camcorder I’d probably give it a 1. Using a product shouldn’t be this hard.

Canon Camcorder.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
First of all, I just want to say that this camera is TINY/SMALL. I was surprised at how small it actually is, not that it’s a bad thing. I know I read reviews that this was a small camera, but like most people, I just didn’t understand that it was this small. BTW, I really like the size. I’m a big guy, 6’3″ , my hand dwarfs this rig. But I’m still able to reach and use all the buttons and controls. I sometime forget I have this camcorder attached to my hand. I’ve only shot a couple of hours of recording with the camcorder, and the playback was OUTSTANDING. The download to the PC was a snap, viewing was beautiful. I have not tried to copy to a DVD yet, but I will in the next couple of weeks. I’ll write more after that. Overall, love this camcorder. Small, easy to hold and control,AND the quality of the picture is AWESOME. Very satisfied with this purchase. For the money/price……..what’s not to like!

good camera with decent features
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I bought this for my wife as a christmas present to capture our Son’s first christmas. It was easy to use right out of the box. The zoom, record, and selector functions are in convenient places for one handed operation. The other functions are easy to navigate and learn on the fly. I haven’t read the manual and was easily able to pick it up and operate it with little trouble.

I like the fact that it makes movies in files so you don’t inadvertently record over something you may have wanted to save. Overall a good purchase for the price.

Ultralight, compact quality video on-the-go
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I bought this video camera to take on an upcoming 3 month walk through Utah and Arizona. It is very lightweight, simple to operate and durable in the sense that it has no motorized tape drive that will break down from repeated shock. The video quality is equal to that of mini DV and is a huge step up from the typical video of digital cameras. The other plus here is that it has a low rate of power consumption. I bought an extra battery and, based on field trials, expect that 2 batteries should be sufficient between town stops for this hike.

Very good product at a very resonable price…
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I was looking for a video camera to capture all the memorable moments as my 5 month old was growing up. I had been using a MiniDV recorder and it was a real pain to transfer the files from the cassette to a computer and make a CD/DVD. I came to Amazon looking for something that will fit my needs and my wallet. I searched for some camera and then when I sorted them with their Ranks, I found this amazing thing Canon FS100 Flash Memory Camcorder at I think 6th or 7th position. After reading some of the reviews I was convinced that this is something that I should have. When I received the camera, I was certainly amazed by the features.

Its a very small and light camera that can even fit my pockets .

With 48x zoom you can record things that are far off and works as good.

The menu is very simple to understand. I am a person who never reads the instruction manual and try to figure out things by exploring the product. Its very easy to get used to this camera.

Best thing is, its very convinient to transfer the files from the camera to a computer. Just take out the SD card and put in the card reader. Fortunately my laptop has it inbuilt and removes one more step for me. I read in some of the reviews that the software doesn’t work properly for the camera. I never installed any software. The files are just fine and open up with Windows Media Player.

It allows to take still photos as well. The resolution is not great but okay if you do not want high quality images and don’t want to carry a separate camera for taking stills.

The video quality was much much better then I had expected out of it.

Now making videos is fun and easy. I would definitely recommend this camera to anyone.

Great for family use
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This camera seems to work fine for taking home video. It is lightweight and compact. I took it out of the box and had no problems with using it right away…it is extremely user friendly. I have previously owned a Canon video camera and loved it so this camera was an obvious choice. My previous camera is almost 10 years old and still works wonderfully which speaks to the quality of Canon products. My movies look amazing and the stillness of the movie even with high zoom is perfect. No motion sickness from shaky video. The battery life has been long lasting and transferring the clips from a built in SD reader in my laptop was a piece-of-cake…rapid transfer and plays on Windows easily. I haven’t tried the SD converter for MPEG as another reviewer recommended, nor have I tried the software but I am completely happy with this purchase! They are very nice looking cameras too! I love the wine version-being somewhat influenced by the “cuteness” of it.

Okay starter camcorder
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
This is a pretty neat product. Easy to use , easy to upload very cheap for a flash based product. In good light the videos are excellent. The trouble is when shooting indoors in tungsten or fluorescent light, there are many artifacts and that is a real problem. It seem to be well documented by other reviewers. Overall buy if you are a first time camcorder user with little time for learning the ropes on HD ortherwise go HF100.

Perfect camera starter
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Can do all you need as a beginner. Flash storage beats the socks off of other media. Plenty of features. Small, lightweight, good battery life, great video camera.

Good “beginner” camcorder, and a little more
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I got the cheaper Aipteck “HD” camcorder for Christmas, and it just didn’t cut it in any way. My previous experience has been with a good, but old, Sony mini dv recorder. I still like it, but it’s comparatively big and heavy and uses tapes, which are a pain to store, rewind, etc. The Sony is easy to edit with, using Adobe Premiere, and produces very good video. But, I wanted a kickaround camcorder that was lightweight and small that I would use in more casual, spontaneous situations. The reviews for the FS 100 were good enough so I got one, a little cheaper elsewhere. I liked it right out of the box. It has limited but adequate functions, so it was easy figuring out all of them pretty quickly. The manual is ok. I had no trouble navigating the menus with the joystick, and found it quite responsive and easy (and quick) to use (easier than navigating the multiple layers of menus on my Sony). The biggest appeal of the FS-100 is the light weight, and how it fits in the hand–you almost forget you are carrying it around. Simple on and off–click one button and flip out the viewfinder–the shutter cover opens and you’re instantly ready to shoot. This was my first flash disk camcorder, though I have other flash disk equipment. I was concerned about the speed of the card needed so I bought an Extreme III 4 GB card, and being satisfied with that, tried a couple Kingston 8 GB class six cards. All have performed well so far. Just for fun, I took a 2 GB class 2 Kingston card out of my still camera and tried it in the camcorder. It worked just fine. The flash disk operation makes transferring files a snap. I have a card reader built in to my laptop and the transfer of files is lightning quick. It’s a little slower using the USB cable to my desktop, but not bad. So once I could see the DVD produced from the footage on my 42″ plasma TV, I noticed what others have mentioned–this is not a great camera for low light. You will get grain. I haven’t fooled much with the manual settings, and I think I could get better results with some experimentation. I shot some band footage in dark clubs and noticed that some of the blurriness was the result of the autofocus not quite knowing what to focus on–I’m going to experiment with using manual focus and see if that improves things. Where this camera shines is in daylight outdoors. When the camera is still, you can get excellent crisp video of outdoor objects. The camera is a bit slow to refocus in the modes I’ve used it in, so movement of the camera produces some blur–not too bad. Once again, I think some experimentation with the limited manual settings could improve that. If the camera is on a tripod, or very still, the zoom is absolutely incredible. You can control the zoom speed with a great deal of precision, with a little practice, and the video stays in focus through the zoom as long as the camera isn’t moving a lot. You can get excellent closeup shots of small objects with this camera using manual focus. The stereo mics on the camera are very good– you get crisp clear sound, as long as it’s not too loud. A loud band will kick in the compressor, but it takes a lot to distort the sound. Normal everyday sounds come through brilliantly. I haven’t tried using any of my external mics yet, and I’m looking forward to seeing how that goes. As for the editing software that comes with the camera–it’s not too bad. You can import the MOD files directly from the camera, arrange them in a timeline, add titles, transitions, etc and produce an ok movie, and burn it to DVD. The rendering takes a while, but it all works. For those who said there were no help files, you need to access the pdf file on the program CD. The program is pretty adequately explained. People who want to use Premiere to edit, as I tried to do, will have to do some file conversion, or they may run into problems. I wanted a program that would work directly with MOD files, run a little faster than the program that came with the camera, and work on Vista 64-bit. Some research turned up Corel Video Studio, and I downloaded the free trial. It works great as a basic editor, probably similar to Adobe Premiere Elements. It renders video quite a bit faster than the camera’s editing program and gives a greater and more convenient selection of file formats to export to. I’ve created several standard DVDs complete with nice menus that were simple to put together, and I’m happy with the results. I’ll most likely buy the Corel program with my educational discount. Bottom line for this camera: it’s a pretty good entry-level camcorder, extremely easy to use, and convenient to carry with you. With the right editing program you can produce adequate DVDs that look pretty good in a minimum amount of time. With some care and time spent practicing with manual settings, I think the quality in lower light situations might improve. I’m happy I got this camera. It won’t be the last or best one I buy, but it serves the purpose I got it for–speed, convenience, and fun.

happy with it
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
So far, very happy with the palm-size Canon camcorder. Fun to use, nice features. Had to buy inexpensive software to convert the digital movies for editing with Mac’s iMovie, but not a big problem.

make that 3.5 stars
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
Update 05.18.2008: Contrary to first impressions (below) this camcorder is capable of remarkable video quality – even in EZ mode. Example: I shot a jackrabbit from more than 200 feet. Resulting video is sharp enough to see it blink.

Pixela installation problem (red and blue models only): Replace the first three digits of the camcorders’ serial number with 808.

Another quirk: the “Digital Video software” (from the included “Digital Video Solution Disk”) is for still images only. It cannot import or edit digital video. Go figure.

To work with video, you need the aforementioned Pixela. It’s bare-bones, so you’ll need better video editing software. Problem is, both Roxio and Nero mistake these 16:9 clips for 4:3 and squish them accordingly. PowerDirector keeps the proper aspect ratio.

After Market Lenses: Not threaded to accept filters or lens attachments. Too bad because shallow lens setting makes it susceptible to glare.

FPS: You can set the video shutter speed, but that’s NOT the same. Canon Vixia HF100 has 24p Cinema Mode.

Manuals: Must cross-reference 3 separate manuals to learn everything you need to know. The main one spends way too much time on the basics and glosses over the advanced features.

Tech support: good, so far

Durability: Amazon sent it (free) in a huge box with too few air pillows to keep the camcorder box from bouncing around on its 11-day journey from Lexington to Albuquerque. Camcorder seems intact, so it must be tough.

Photos: Pro – focal range starts at 1 cm. Cons – no macro preset; max res of 1152×648.

Bottom line: Video quality – a bit disappointing. Lots of jagged lines (interlacing effect) and slightly washed out colors. Fast-moving subjects come out particularly messy. Not a huge step up from 1.5 mbps .mov clips shot with a cheap old diMage camera. Maybe if I tweak the settings, I’ll get better results. But like I said, the manual glosses over the advanced features, so must rely on trial and error.

Small, good price, but format is downfall!
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
Its small, cheap (I bought it for $250), but the format makes it a little bit of a pain. Which is very valuable to me. You can just rename the file from .mod to .mpg. But, it gets annoying to have to do that, while other camcorders put them as .mpg to start.

first-time videographer
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is the first camcorder I’ve owned and I love it! They finally made one that fits in my small hands easily and is so easy to operate. Video quality is fantastic, too.

Do not buy this product
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
Average Camera, Large body compare to its function and other similar brands, and worst of all really bad quality software, Returned this camera in a week, bought JVC. I am satisfied with quality and price.

Perfect
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Awsome camera. Unbelieveable zoom, incredibly quiet operation that picked up a violin player at an outdoor wedding who was 200+ feet away, making great background music for every scene. Use a tripod, then stand away from it as it records, and nobody is spooked at somebody taking pictures, since it makes no sound when recording.

Windows Vista’s Media Player, Movie Maker, and DVD Maker all handle these .mod files perfectly.

The Windows Vista DVD maker was a big suprise – it creates menus on your DVD that are moving video – very professional looking DVD’s compared to what I was expecting. Thank goodness I didn’t buy an AVCHD camera – with all the editing problems of handling that format which spills part of the existing frame into the next one, so that you need diesel computer power to put the spilled video back into it’s frame.

Direct USB Transfer of files to PC from the camera went fast but didn’t transfer 20% of the files! All the while the LCD on the camera said “Don’t turn off, don’t disconnect the USB cable, while attached to the PC” What the Canon FS-100 LCD meant to say was “dismount from the PC before you disconnect” (using that icon in your system tray that leads to the message on the PC that it’s “safe to disconect”. Had to use a $[...] SD Card reader on a USB wire to get the missing files into the computer. The camera was probably faster than my 6 year old Pentium 4, so my PC choked on the data causing the missing files – maybe. Still the SD Card reader works, while the USB transfer seems to go fine but misses some files.

Attached to the composite video ports on the side of my Philips tube HDTV, I was suprised at the quality of the video – seemed like HDTV – and it filled the 6:9 screen. Previously I thought composite video was supposed to be junk. Nope. And, once started it didn’t need any button pushing to continue to the next file, although the remote would control the action.

Caution: read Wikipedia on the difference between DVD-R and DVD+R. Older players will only do DVD-R but they skip. DVD+R is preferred because it doesn’t skip, slide, halt, freeze – except that players older than 2002-2004 will not play DVD+R.

Best Buy store last week had all three colors – wine, blue and silver at full list price $[...] plus tax. Nope. Go Amazon – mine arrived in perfect condition. Awsome, just awsome. I love it.

UPDATE Aug 2009 – Windows Vista Movie Maker handles this video file format just fine, but can’t find your .mod files until you change “Import Media Items” box on the lower right from the default “All Media Files” to “All Files” – then your video shows up. Golly, Wow, I love this cameram although the still photos it takes are worthless – it turns varnished wood into chocolate. Made the mistake of burning a DVD-R, which halts and skips. DVD+R works perfect. I love this camera. My previous Pentium 4 probably wasn’t enough horsepower, but my Dell Core-i7-920 is fast enough, with no problems burning DVD+R.

Works as designed
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is not a HD camcorder, but records excellent SD videos and for the price, this is a steal.

Also i didnt want to get a traditional black or silver colored one, so i went out of the way & purchased this wine colored one. It looks really cool & its too small that it can easily be clenched in your fist.

Great outdoor camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Great little video camera for outdoor use. So small it can fit in your pants pockets if you have the need. Inside video is acceptable, but not has good as other video cameras. For the price this video camera is very difficult to beat. I highly recommend it for the casual video user.

canon fs100 simple and effective
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Love the external mic input….Medium quality just fine for

my purposes.

SD card inexpensive….only hope technology doesn’t change for a while…..Old camcorders piling up in my closet.

Hi 8, mini dv, thankfully i did not fall for Hard Drive camcorders. This has more viewing quality.

Access is instant and that makes it a pleasure to use.

Good product at a reasonable price
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this product to replace my Sony DCR TRV33 that was heavier and bulkier. The good part about Canon is the excellent video quality, and responsiveness of its controls. The camera is alright, not great though. The focus light in the front does indeed help in some situations.

The only issue I found is that I cannot transfer videos to my computer through the USB without also connecting the power adapter.

I paid $250 for this piece, whereas BestBuy was selling it at $350.

Canon FS100
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I bought FS100 because it was cheap and it was Canon. Also I liked the fact it uses SDHC which I bought separately. Easy to use. So far battery life is decent (approx. 2.5 hrs). Night time records seemed the only draw back even with built in light. Day time recording looked very good. For less than $300 I find it to be a good buy.

Very pleased with Canon FS-100
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Canon FS100 Flash Memory Camcorder with 48x Optical Zoom

I was looking for my first camcorder because we had a baby and I wanted to capture special moments. I’m pretty happy with it! It’s very lightweight and the memory is not too expensive for it. It doesn’t work so well under low light conditions (putting him to bed, for instance) but all in all a pretty good experience thus far and connects directly to my TV and computer.

Canon FS-100, Excellent tool
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have been most impressed with this camera. It is easy to operate, quick to record, tolerant of user shortcomings, and gives good picture and sound. The control position and activation are well thought out and the camera has a secure feel when held. I have used this around the house, local travels, for documenting events, and on a long cruise. The battery life is excellent. The 8gb chip records a large amount of footage. The optical zoom is impressive and clear but a steady hand or tripod is best used. I considered the FS-11 with built in memory but for the cost difference went with this model. So far quite pleased. Lack of a viewfinder has not been an issue. Seeing the view screen in bright light can be difficult, but can plan around it, point-and-shoot has worked for me. The Canon has done well in low light, and has the automatic lens cover closing compared to the new Sony 30gb HD mini-cam my wife uses. I think it outperforms her camera, but that is a subject of debate, though I see her borrowing the Canon more frequently.

exellent
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
exellent, no problem at all, simple take the video format, chage to mpeg, then burn with any recorder.

thanks

Light weight duty, light weight camera
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
For a number of years now, possibly 5, I’ve been using a Sanyo Xatci, since they first came out, mainly for it’s small size, portability, flash based media and ease of use. It was not however used for it’s high quality results. And for indoors, forget it, the light only worked for snap shots, not video. So for outdoor events, it was handy and easy to carry. But you could forget about it for indoors or low light situation. It’s audio was also very poor unless your subject was within a few feet and battery power, under continuous filming you were lucky to get 60 minutes out of it.

I’ve waited a long time for another flash based card/medium, reasonably priced, light weight, small form factor,long battery life, a light for indoor recording, and the ability to use an external microphone. Over the last year or so, there have been some early models from different makers, however, they were very expensive, and still a little heavy. Also, the external microphone option was missing.

Along came the FS100. I’ve read the reviews on Amazon about this camera and other forums. I spent a lot of time researching other cameras, but couldn’t find anything comparable in the price bracket. Since I was ordering from Amazon not an Amazon Market Place vendor,(though I’ve had good experiences with the majority of them as well) I felt confident in making the purchase that should it not meet my needs or expectations, returning it would not be a problem.

Now, I had just switched, after almost two decades with Windows to a Macbook Pro, though I’m running XP on the machine via VMfusion, however my goal was to winnow down my need for Windows products. So, I was somewhat concerned by some reviews and their experiences with OX 10. However, one reviewer made a great suggestion about a third party software which addressed the issue of changing the unusual movie format Movie.MOD to something I could edit or play on the Mac. It’s Visual Hub, and works great. Be aware however, the longer the movie the slower the conversion, but it is still way faster than using the old DV tapes.

Now, if you buy a SDHC card and don’t want to use the camera’s usb cord, you must buy a newer reader that accepts SDHC card. The older readers will let the card fit in the slot, but will not read it. It took me a couple of days to find this out. I went with the FS100, because it didn’t come with built in memory, and am glad I went that way, since you could only transfer those scenes via the USB cable.

I bought a 16 gb Kingston card for under 40 at [...], including shipping, and some unknown brand off Ebay for about the same price. (The [...] deal was only available after I’d purchased the one off of Ebay)

I’ve been playing with the camera now for over three weeks, and I have been pleased overall. Outdoors the pictures are clear, the audio a great improvement over my old Sanyo, and battery life close to three hours with continuous shooting.

Indoors, with the light on, it’s still grainy, but much improved over the Sanyo without the light. With the camera set to it’s highest quality video using my 16gb card, I can shoot about 3.5 hours.

If you are looking for a video camera for shooting a lot of indoor video, especially in low light, you may be disappointed with this camera. If your shooting indoors with lots of outside light coming in, it’s fine.

For sporting events and action videos this camera really excels for with it’s light weight and small size, you’ll find yourself taking it along with you more often than a standard video camera.

But as others have pointed out, the software, at least for the Mac, is poor. Really poor in fact. Accessories like additional batteries, and a separate charger are outlandishly priced. But like I did with my video card, I found non oem replacements on Ebay for under ten dollars, not including shipping. I recommend buying at least one battery with a charger so you don’t have to plug the camera in using the AC adapter to charge the battery.

This is an update to my original posting.

Shortly after purchasing this to use with my Macbook Pro, Visual Hub the program another poster suggested for converting the odd movie format .MOD, into a one for the OS X is no longer available.

I still love the camera, as it takes great shots, weighs close to nothing, and is very compact, but the conversion process on a Mac, without Visualhub, may make it near impossible for a strictly Mac person.

I did try changing the format letters as someone suggested, but I had mixed success, very often not having any sound.

If anyone knows of a file converter for the Mac, please post it for others.

Great little unit with some minor annoyances, but overall pleased for the price
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Canon FS100 Flash Memory Camcorder with 48x Optical Zoom (Garnet Wine)

This is my 6th Canon digital video camcorder, having owned a ZR30MC, ZR50MC, ZR90, Optura 20 and Elura 100 before this one. My main objective for purchasing the new flash-memory based camcorder was to get away from the dreaded motor noise from most of these units. Out of all 6 previous models, the Optura 20 had the best video sensor CCD size (1/4″), followed by the Elura 100 (1/5″). The other models, including this FS100, use a sensor CCD size of 1/6″, so I was expecting the video quality to be a bit more grainy (especially from reading all these reviews).

Right out of the box after charging the BP-808 battery, the unit starts up very quickly, however, the LCD is a bit grainy even in moderate lighting. Don’t be alarmed though, this granularity image is not transferred to video, it’s just the nature of the 123K pixel color LCD (my Powershot SD750 has the same problem with its LCD but still takes great pictures). But the biggest test of this new unit was to see how the audio sounded from a camcorder with no moving parts/motor. I am pleased to report the sound is great, and even better (good bass) when hooked up to my 55″ projection TV.

Now for the video quality, it is true the video is very grainy and noisy in low-light settings, but I am much impressed with how well the unit retains its focus in these situations. What I am very much disappointed in is the unit only uses electronic stabilization and at max. telephoto, I can’t get a steady shot with the IS on no matter how steady my hand. And I am not sure what to think of the advanced 48X zoom, the picture tends to pixelate at you approach the 48X, so I may just stick with the 37X optical zoom (I never owned a camera with a zoom bigger than 22X on the older ZR models). Now I haven’t had the chance to video in bright sunlight, but I do feel the single LED video light works very well to help out in low-light situations.

The record, photo and playback menus are excellent on this model, since you are recording to the SD card (I use 8GB Transcend card with included USB reader) and you can never accidentally erase footage and you can choose scenes and playback with a few touches of a button. The joystick on the LCD is placed in a comfortable location and is very responsive. One major complaint I have is why does Canon insist on the user having to press buttons to activate the faders/digital effects? Every model I have owned has this same problem, and yes the mics will pick up on you having to press button to activate you fade-to-black for ending your current recording in progress. I know for a fact on older Sony 8mm units, once you activate a fader, it will remain active for every scene you shoot until you turn it off. Canon needs to do this on future models.

Still photo quality is surprisingly good on this model (as compared to experience on previous models), but it is a function of lighting available to you.

I use iMovie ’08 and the software/Macbook has no problem recognizing the files. I don’t like the fact you have to use AC power to transfer your files/photos to your computer, but I bought the USB card reader to get around this. IMovie HD will not recognize these files, so you’ll have to upgrade to iLife 08 and you need an Intel Mac for this to work. iPhoto immediately recognizes the camera if you have any still images to transfer.

In summary, the unit is very light and easy to hold, very responsive to start recording in about a second, and the electronic lens cap is a nice little feature. Here are my PROs and CONs:

PROs:

- Sleek, lightweight and colorful unit that is easy to hold and the major user features to operate it are well placed

- Focus in excellent and very responsive even in low light settings

- Very bright LED video light that helps in low-light recordings

- Very good video quality in very well-lit surroundings, and audio is great with no motor noise!

- Excellent menu hierarchy with quick, easy playback of your scenes

- Flash memory is great and very reliable, but pick up extra cards (8GB Class 6 or higher) especially with the good prices here at Amazon.com. I recommend Transcend from experience with this unit.

- Many manual controls I have not yet explored

- NO MOTOR NOISE, did I mention this?

- Quickstart standby mode is great and really helps to conserve battery power.

- Intelligent battery meter a great addition to help you gauge remaining battery life

CONS:

- Low light performance on this unit is very poor, but video light does improve video quality and I’m sure Shutter priority and other manual settings could even help out more.

- Electronic stabilization is not at all useful at maximum telephoto and even pixelates the image while producing a really bad shake even with steady hands.

- I am not impressed with the advanced zoom to gain an extra 11X from plain optical zoom. Video quality will suffer at maximum telephoto.

- You have to use the joystick to activate faders and digital effects during your recordings, so expect to hear the button-pushing on your video footage.

- Have to plug in the unit to AC power to transfer video/photos to your computer.

So as you can see the PROs outweigh the CONs and I am happy with this unit in overall performance and value for its price (I got mine in a bundle pack at [...] with the unit, extra OEM Canon battery and a carrying case, sorry Amazon!) This camera is a definite keeper for me for a while (until I get HD TV and home theater systems), and then I’ll probably upgrade to the equivalent HD model the HF100.

I would recommend this camera to anyone wanting a new standard definition unit, but be sure to invest in several SD memory cards to support your video needs. As you can see I am a loyal Canon consumer for both my camcorder and digital camera needs. Nice job overall, Canon, on this FS100 model.

Great Camcorder for the price!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I read a lot of reviews this camera before i purchased it. It is a very nice camera for the price. One of the neat features that no other camcorder the price bracket has is a MIC jack.

great camcorder
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
got this for christmas works great with image maker to see the files

got online videothang.com to edit them free download with those two programs OUT OF THIS WORLD !!!!!

Great canon fs 100 camcorder
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Have used this camcorder a number of times love the size and weight.

Pros:

-easy to use both recording and replaying simple just touch and record

-take out the card and place into computer (vista) card reader and watch the action, also easy to watch on tv. I have a 720p hd tv no problems with the quality of the picture. I am not a pro just doing home movie type stuff

-light weight easy to handle

Cons::

-off easy mode hard to get zoom to focus at max

-so light need tripod when zooming in tight to decrease movement (minor detail)

so far very pleased with this, would recommend to anyone shooting simple home video, have not tried the picture on my larger tv

Easy to use!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Very good camcorder. Easy and friendly to use. Since we have other canon products, we are very used to the software and all the comands.

Great Camcorder
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I am completely satisfied with my purchase of this camcorder. It is all than I expected and more. The software that came with it to produce DVD’s seems very vertasile, even though I haven’t yet used it. I think the value I received for the price is very good. I had a camcorder that used mini tapes that took lots of reinding and fast forwarding time, not to mention the cost of tapes, and so I was excited to graduate to one with an SD card. I have a Canon Rebel also, and I really am satisfied with both products.

What a Great Camcorder!!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
If you are looking for a simple, compact, lightweight, inexpensive and troublefree camcorder, look no further!! This camcorder is so easy to use, its unbeleivable. It is super compact (comparable to a 12 oz. soda can) The battery life is over 2 hours and with a 8GB flash card, you can easily record for over 2 hours of great video. Beware of purchasing the aftermarket battery packs for this camcorder. They will not show the battery life display. Stick with using the Canon battery packs only if you wish to view the battery life while using the camcorder. The still pictues are ok for emailing or viewing on a computer screen, but they are not great. I don`t use it for still pics. I bought a Canon Powershot SD1100IS for around $150. The SD1100 is a compact digital camera that takes excellent pics at (8.0 MP)and is the size of a deck of playing cards. I highly recommend these Canons (FS100 camcorder & Powershot SD1100IS) as a simple and inexpensive still picture and camcorder combo that you can take with you anywhere.

Nice Camcorder
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this as a gift for my son in law/daughter. The used it for x-mas 08 and it seems like a very nice camcorder. I choose it because of the flash memory. They are both very happy with it also.

Love this camera
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
one of the best electronics purchased.

With still image option, I don’t need to carry my digital camera on trips, couldn’t imagine this small machine has so many good surprises.

I love the small and handy size.

This is a great flash camcorder that works with Ubuntu Hardy Heron!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This camcorder has been great! I was debating between this one and the Panasonic SDR-S7 and Samsung MX10. Those camcorders had around 680k pixels whereas this one comes in around 710k pixels. What does that mean? Better videos. The 48x advance zoom is awesome and if you want only the optical at 37x, that is great too. You can’t tell the 48x is doing some digital tricks. The quality looks just as good as just optical. The other camcorders can be found online for around $200 but with this one coming in at just over $300, you will be far happier with this one.

When I was looking for this, I wanted to get a camcorder who’s file format would play on Ubuntu without any conversion and also plays on Windows Media Center Vista. This camera does both! To copy the videos, I remove the flash card from my camera and insert it into the flash reader on my laptop. The only “conversion” I have to do to get the videos to play is to change the “.MOD” ending to “.MPG”. This also makes the videos play fine on my WMC box. I then copy them to my WMC box over the network.

I use to have a Sony Digital 8 camcorder that I connected to my computer via a firewire cable. The videos the FS100 takes are just barely better than those. However, to get the videos on my computer is way faster copying them from a flash drive. I never want to use my Digital 8 camcorder again. The videos I have taken with this easily upload to YouTube. My FS100 videos show up there with the “watch in high quality” option below them. They really look good on YouTube when you click that link… better than most other videos out there. The quality of videos is phenomenal outside at sporting events and is just okay inside with low light conditions.

The videos I have so far record around 0.7 to 1.0 MB per second. That is why the 4 gig card gives will give you around 120 minutes of recording time. I have a “class 4″ card and I haven’t had any problems with it not being fast enough. I’d recommend at least a 4 gig card. If you can afford an 8 or 16 gig card, it would just give you more recording time before you have to copy them to your computer.

When the files are copied directly off the card on to my Ubuntu desktop, they play in Movie Player in wide screen format like they are suppose to. However, after I copy them to my Windows Media Center PC, they play in 4:3 mode. I have to adjust the “Zoom” setting to “3″, I think, and they look normal. This isn’t much of a downfall. I’ve heard there is a “sdcopy.exe” file that will copy the files and correct the header information for WMC so they will play in widescreen format by default.

I ended up going with the gray version because companies now seem to be charging more for the colored ones. It doesn’t matter much because other than the color, they are all the same.

The FS100 really is about the size of a can of soda, except with a large screen sticking out of it. Some people criticize the lack of a view finder but why would you want anything like this attached to your face.

It starts up from a cold start in about 6 seconds. If you close the screen it goes into a low power mode which conserves the battery life.

The menu options on this are pretty simple and the “easy” button makes things, well.. easy.

If you are thinking about getting one of these… do it. The only type of camcorder that could create a better picture would be an HD one.

PROS:

Great Quality Videos – 710k pixels!

MPEG 4 video format and AAC audio

Videos Compatible with Ubuntu Hardy Heron with extension change

Videos Compatible with Windows Media Center with extension change

37x Optical, 48x Advance Zoom (check YouTube for examples)

Simple Menu

CONS:

Picture quality is kind of low… keep your digital camera for those.

ATTENTION: INFO ABOUT .MOD FILES
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
First things first, I do not currently own this camcorder. However, I have been researching all the issues with the .MOD file extension and have come across a potential method for the Windows Movie Maker crowd. Although I have no way of trying this myself, I felt compelled to throw it out there so that others may benefit from it (if it works).

Windows PCs – Windows Movie Maker

a) Launch Windows Movie Maker

b) Go inside Tools -> Options menu

c) Make sure that the encoding setting is set appropriately. If you are in tjhe US or Japan it should be NTSC, but everywhere else it should be set to PAL.

d) Set the aspect ratio to 16:9 if that is the format you have been recording in (for 4:3 select “4:3″)

e) Click OK and you are set.

f) Select “Import…” and bring in your original Canon video file (renamed in .mpg) and the video file will look great.

If missing you may want also to download and install an updated AC3 Codec.

Note: these are not my original instructions, to view them directly along with more information about .MOD files, platform specific instructions (including Mac iMovie instructions!) please visit

http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2008/06/12/how_to_convert_mod_video.htm

and give credit to the guy for helping us all out!

I gave it a 4 star review to keep it at its current rating, when I actually buy the camera, I will update the rating with what I feel it deserves along with more info about .MOD files and how to convert!

Everything is great except for low light performance
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This is a great, tiny little camcorder that takes great quality video and audio. The only problem is that in low light situations, the quality gets a tad grainy, and if you have it set to “easy” mode, the shutter slows down and produces some unnatural looking results. In normal, everyday use though, this is a great camcorder.

As far as the file formats and software go, I found that by importing the files with the ImageMixer software that comes with it, I can then edit the files with Nero Show Time, and output them to DVD in full, widescreen quality.

So far, so good!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Canon FS100 Flash Memory Camcorder with 48x Advanced Zoom (Silver) While we haven’t used it extensively yet, so far this seems to be a very good camera that is easy to use. Sound and video quality are decent for a small, low-end camera. Overall, glad we made the purchase to replace our 8mm tape camera. Also, lots has been written about Apple Mac compatibility. If you’re using iMovie ’08 (can’t speak for ’09 yet), it seems to be a seamless integration…iMovie ’08 recognizes the camera and pulls in the video files very nicely.

My first video camera
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
First I’ve never written a review here…I’m actually a near 50 musician with a nice little home studio. Last fall I started getting into a little video after decades of just music. I started doing some videos with Magix Movie Edit Pro Plus and fractal art software. Then I got a green screen and started using my digital camera on movie.

So I didn’t want to start with something large or with a learning curve. After reading reviews here I decided that the FS100 was a good place to start. I was concerned about the MOD issue but was happy to see that Magix read it fine. For audio I use Magix Samplitude Pro so that’s how I got started with Magix.

I very much like how this camera is working out, it works good with the lighting here and fits nicely on my little mini tripod. I’m not taking it out much yet so the ac adapter is working well. The quality of the picture suits my needs but I run it on XP.

When holding it in my hand I like how it feels, the screen and the controls are all in a good place for me. I do fear the joystick might be a little cheap, but I trust Canon. The microphones on it are not adequate for my needs but do a good job has a home movie cam, I wish they could be shut off though. I’ve glanced at the software but am not impressed, I am sorry I cannot record right to my DAW (music computer) but that will come with my next camera. My daughter is 13 and getting into music and guitar, she uses my canon a520 for making movies. I could see myself passing this on.

However for right now it’s great for me to learn with, I’ll spend big bux when I know what I’m shopping for. I gave this 4 stars because of the mic, I do not care for three jacks inside where they are (that just makes me uncomfortable), the screen menu functions are a little clumsy, the joystick worries me and 5 stars are hard to earn with me. Certainly a good value and a good little video camera.

Great size and value!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Good Camera, for the price. Palm size is very comfortable. Get a 16 Gig Card and you are good to go. No complaints with a Canon. Would recommend to all real dads who want save kid memories.

Good Camcorder
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Pros : Small, handy, good quality in Outdoor. Can easily add more memory as I like.

Cons : Battery shorter than I thought it would last. Indoor night video – lot of noise.

Overall, it’s a good buy for the price.

Important thing for me was ease of making DVD’s
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Okay, I have had this camcorder 4 months, I couldn’t tell you the zoom range, the memory it has, it’s battery life or anything very technical about it. I got it on am impulse before a Disney vacation as I was looking for something simple, small and cheap. It wins in all three categories.

My big thing was can I record my own DVD’s without a lot of hassle?

Glory be, yes you can!!! I decided I wanted to send my mom a DVD of the kids and sat down to try and figure it all out. Using only the downloaded software that came with the camera, it took me about 20 minutes to figure it out and get a DVD made. Albeit I had already downloaded the discs and some video, I just had no idea how or if I could make a disc myself. But if I could do it, I am sure 99% of you can. I can’t edit, no fading, no fancy stuff for me.

The only not so great thing about this camera is the lack of image stabilizer. Yikes, my kids take video as they walk and talk and you would think there was an earthquake going on. But I knew it didn’t have that feature when I bought it.

Bang for the buck
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
For literally years I’d been waiting for the price on a “real” flash based camcorder to drop to an affordable level. At one end you had traditional tape camcorders, which gave great results but it seemed every one I had would start malfunctioning in a few months, not to mention the trouble of copying off the tapes. At the other end were the cheap “camcorders” who’s best claim to fame was taking a moving picture.

Finally I found the FS100; some people may sniff that it’s “only” standard resolution and does not have optical stabilization, but I can live with that. Mine is currently running with a 16GB SDHC card, that gives 3 1/2 hours of video. For people who want even more, I say remember the 30 minute VHS-C tapes?

It’s quiet, takes good quality videos, and pretty much gets the job done. For the price it can’t be beat, it even takes external microphones. My complaints about it are minor, but I’ll list them so people can see the FS100 in perspective:

The joystick menu is a little awkward to get used to.

The light is a bright blue/white LED.

In dim situations video quality goes downhill fast–but then remember the price.

The battery is removable but entirely internal, so forget about the “extended power” batteries available for most other camcorders.

The last is probably the worst, it records in .MOD files without flagging the 16:9 wide screen format. The .MOD files will play in media player (they’re Mpegs in a different container after all) but all scrunched up. If you use a free utility called SDcopy they are not only turned into Mpegs but with the correct wide screen ratio.

You won’t want to use the FS100 for making the next Hollywood movie…..although after watching the quality of recent flicks you probably could. But this is a great little camera for family movies, vacation trips, and general shooting.

Love, Love, Love it!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This camera is amazing. I bought this camera for my son and he and his wife absolutely love it. For the money this camera is awesome!!!!

camcorder
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
It’s hard to imagine finding fault with this inexpensive easy to use little camcorder. It’s not intended to make broadcast quality video, it will probably see many birthday cakes being blown out and for this it is perfect.

I find that the smaller a camera/camcorder the more often it will be used, and that’s a good thing.

low quality pictures
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
It might just be a difference between flash memory camcorders and camcorders that record on discs, but the quality of picture (especially still pictures) is very low for this item. I would not recommend this item, you are better off with a regular camera that takes video or a disc recorder.

Cool camcorder until you upload the files to CPU…
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
First impression of it is how small it is. I had read reviews and knew that it was small, but this thing can EASILY fit in your pocket and is shorter than a soda can!!

PROS:

-Very fun to use

-EXTREMELY comfortable to hold (mesh on inside of hand strap instead of leather makes it really comfortable to hold for hours), also fits the shape of your hand really well

-Menu is very similar to other recent (last few years) Canon camcorders and it’s easy to navigate

-Better quality

-Good zoom (although surprisingly slower than previous Canons, not by much though)

-Blinding LED light!!

-No motor noise!

CONS:

-Good luck figuring out how to use the .MOD files in WMM (Windows Movie Maker)…

After hours of endless research I decided to go with the $30 Movavi Video Converter [...].

Unless you can understand codecs and everything else there is to simply converting these files to non-MPEG 2 format, there’s no free software that can do this (or if there is, let me know…) unless it’s some trial version. I had tried [...], but that takes forever for each clip and doesn’t even put out very good quality.

-Lots of ‘noise’ inside, even if room is well lit

-Cannot take pics while recording video (as was possible with my previous MiniDV camcorder, the Canon ZR830)

-Editing software with camcorder is pretty much useless, although it may not seem so at first. It’s only for VERY limited editing (maybe cut a bit here or there, but that’s it) and just putting all the files together. Probably is a bit worse than WMM even (is that possible??)

I would definitely recommend buying this camcorder if you can find it for about [...] or less. Only reason I didn’t give it 5 out of 5 stars is due to the .MOD file issue. (IF you only plan to get video and leave it in a folder somewhere on your computer, then ignore the entire file extension issue and get this camcorder.)

Some things I haven’t seen mentioned here…
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Just purchased this camera, and thought I’d mention some points that I haven’t seen elsewhere – so far I agree with ALL the very positive reviews for this camera. I’m only mentioning small negative points here because it’s obvious from reviews that this camera is great for most users, so I just want to put up any small points that may annoy some potential owners. I’m a performer and use my video camera exclusively to tape my shows, so my needs are very specific.

* Something I had to hunt for – if you rename the MOD files as MPG and then use Windows Movie Maker you’ll need to force the 16:9 by going to TOOLS -> OPTIONS -> ADVANCED -> ASPECT RATION and choose 16:9

* The door to access the SD card is on the bottom of the camera – that means if it’s on a tripod you have to take it off and possibly remove the quick-release plate to open the door. Even if you buy a big enough card to shoot continuously, you might have to remove the quick-release plate to pull the SD card out for transfer to the computer (if you transfer via the SD card instead of through the cable) This is a small annoyance because I like to just leave the plate on the camera, after all that’s the whole purpose of a quick release plate.

* When you plug the camera into the computer it forces you to plug in the power, even if you have a full battery. That makes no sense because files transfers usually take less than 10 minutes, and the battery lasts for hours. Just one more little annoyance that makes things more complicated, you have to dig out the charger every time you want to transfer files via card.

* It would be nice if the prongs that plug the charger into the wall would fold down into the charger instead of being fixed in the “out” position. A minor point, but it does make it that little extra bulky in a small camera bag.

* It shows you the audio levels but doesn’t let you adjust them (I thought it would)

* The MOD files – yes there are work-arounds that people have wonderfully shared here (rename them as MPG, force the 16:9 perspective, etc) but the bigger question is why the heck should we have to – if a MOD file is the same as an MPG file, why don’t they just call it an MPG and save us the hassle?

So Far, So Good…
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Overall this is a great camera for the price. A friend of mine recommended it after using it on an excursion to the top of Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina(22,834′(6,959 meters)above sea level and has the distinction of being the highest mountain in both the Western and Southern Hemispheres). My camera will live a more modest exsistence filming kids playing, holidays, etc. but will be perfect for that. Easy to use and my MacBook easily downloads the movies. The only issue I had, and the reason I didn’t give it 5 stars, is that to save a buck I bought an “off brand” SDHC memory card which my camera would not read. After referring to the manual I discovered that only Panasonic, SanDisk & Toshiba SDHC cards had been tested. I picked up an 8GB Toshiba card at Sam’s Club for under $20 and it works perfectly.

A Great Little Camcorder
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Canon FS100 Flash Memory Camcorder with 48x Advanced Zoom (Silver)

We bought the FS100 prior to a trip to Spain to upgrade from our old 8mm camcorder and to save space. I chose the flash memory type due to the absence of moving parts, as well as the reduced size and weight. The camera has been impressive. The picture and sound quality are very good, despite the fact that the unit isn’t hi-def. I like the fact that you can just shoot in auto mode and let the camera adjust itself or you can compensate for unusual lighting or motion situations in the pre-selected scene mode.

There is one major problem with this camcorder; the lack of a viewfinder. Granted, a viewfinder would add to the size and weight a bit, but I think that it is a necessity. With a camera this small, it is very difficult to hold it steady while shooting a scene. You need the stability offered by holding the camera against your face. A viewfinder also makes it much easier to see what you’re shooting when you are in very bright conditions, such as at the beach on a sunny day. The high-def versions of this camera have a viewfinder, but one may not wish to invest $700 to $800 in a camcorder.

This camcorder has impressive features, quality, and ease of use for one in this price range. The battery charge lasts quite a long time and with a 16 GB card, you can shoot all day. It’s a good $300 investment.

Love This Camcorder!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
After wavering back and forth between this Camcorder and the JVC Everio GZ-MG330, I eventually decided to go with the Canon because of it’s flash memory as opposed to hard disk.

I just got mine this week, and this is my 1st Camcorder ever, so I have nothing to compare it to. Firstly, I have to admit that I was shocked by how tiny it really is, and my most major concern was how well it would perform indoors (as that’s where most of the action occurs with my kids), and while it was not as fantastic as outdoors, I still found it quite acceptable and the zoom is unreal.

I am extremly happy with this purchase and if I had to do it over again, I would make the same choice again.

Just to add on to my previous review, since then, I have actually been tinkering around with the settings, and when switched to tv mode as a previous review suggested and the other settings adjusted, it does very well indoors – and is capable in general of some great videos!

Also, I choose to get the 16gb card – now I feel, it may have been a bit of overkill, but don’t regret it – hey you never know when something may come up and I use the whole card. My other great love for this camcorder is that it fits in my digital camera case, so I can stick it in my handbag (and no I don’t have one of those huge monsters some like to lug around) and roll out with my kids to the next adventure..

Camcorder smaller than my camera
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This camcorder is smaller than my camera. The video quality is great, not high def but if you want to spend twice as much there is an HD version. Controls are simple and you don’t have to mess with a lot of extra buttons you’ll never use.

The only problem is the file format. It makes two unusual files for every clip, I just change one of them to .mov manually and delete the other one. Then if you want to use imovie, a conversion through some free software found on the net is necessary. If you’re a “techy” it’s not a big deal, if you don’t like using computers maybe you should find a camcorder that still uses tapes.

Anyway, I’d buy it again.

Great camcorder (Linux user here)
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I wanted to write a short review of this camcorder without repeating a lot of the stuff from other reviews. First, let me say the quality is great for a standard definition camcorder. The key is always to have decent lighting.

Pros: great form factor (about the size of a can of soda), light, built-in automatic lens cover, great video quality.

Cons: some functions are buried under odd key sequences & aren’t intuitive…you’ll need to keep the manual handy for advanced features until you have them all memorized.

Now, on to the file format issue. I’m a Linux user, so using the included software wasn’t an option. I knew this before I bought, & went ahead based on the information in other reviews. My gamble paid off, & I wanted to pass this info along to everyone concerned about the .mod file format (especially Linux users). As others have said, its mpeg 2 w/ some configuration info for the included software. I have a Dell laptop running Kubuntu Hardy, & when I connect via USB to the Canon, it mounts it as an external drive (just like any other SD card reader). I then took the .mod files, copied them to my computer, & renamed them to .mpg. They played perfectly. Note: I record in 4:3 because not everyone we send videos to can view widescreen, & we have a Panasonic plasma which does an amazing job turning 4:3 into 16:9 with its “justify” mode.

In summary, I would highly recommend this camcorder!

Mac users – works well with iMovie ’09
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I bought this back in February to use on a ski trip and have been pretty happy with it. Some points of interest:

- Works nicely with iMovie ’09 on the Mac. You MUST have the camera plugged into a/c power. Start up iMovie, let it initialize, then connect the FS100 via USB. iMovie will find the camera, and after scanning things will bring up a window to allow you to import “scenes”. You can import in multiple batches, so if you’ve got video from a number of events you can create multiple new Events in iMovie as you are importing.

- Get a tripod or monopod. It’s hard to hold this as steady as you’d like, especially at longer zooms. I’ve been using a monopod (Gitzo), which is great for basketball or baseball games (elementary school kids). I haven’t used the Image Stabilization feature because I don’t want to give up video quality.

- Noisy in lower light, but not as bad as you might think. I’ve done some (kid’s) orchestra concerts, and while the video is somewhat grainy and noisy it really doesn’t detract from the video that much. Audio is better than I expected it would be.

- Great battery life. On a full charge I can record at least 2 hours of video straight; more if I’m not zooming around a lot.

- Get the Transcend 16 Gb Class 6 SD card. It’s cheap, works perfectly with the FS100, and you’ll never run out of space before you run out of battery (unless you don’t empty the card!).

A great, compact camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Canon FS100 Flash Memory Camcorder with 48x Advanced Zoom (Silver)

Canon FS100 Flash Memory Camcorder with 48x Optical Zoom (Garnet Wine)

Canon FS100 Flash Memory Camcorder with 48x Optical Zoom (Blue)

It records H.264 video (the new standard) to a flash card, so you can put it on sites like YouTube without trouble, instead of converting it from a MiniDV tape or the like.

I’m recording family stuff and video podcasts with it and it performs very nicely, the onboard mics work pretty well, actually (mic in port is there for your use), the autofocus is quick and intelligent and picks up motion without artifacting (or blocking if you will).

My single complaint so far is the memory card has to be formatted FAT32, which for your purposes means that it’ll only hold 4 gigabyte files maximum. I recorded on high quality and I got my video in 1 hour, 2 minute, 39 second chunks. For most people, recording on medium or even low quality should be sufficient for what you want, so you might assume upward of a 3 hour recording within a single file.

I looked for about 6 weeks before settling on this particular brand and model. There are also 2 other cameras in the FS line, but the only thing they add is internal storage. Save yourself the money and pick up a 16 gig SDHC card (no more than $30) and a card reader ($10ish – you will get the video off faster using the reader). The battery life only lasts for 90 minutes or thereabouts, so I hope it doesn’t die on me for my friend’s wedding. I may pick up an extra one ($60) just to make sure I get everything, but we’ll see.

In reviews, I have seen some people complain about the lack of stability control (shaky video) but for less than $1,000, I don’t think you can complain much. Some also complain about poor indoor conditions and I haven’t had a problem with it. (I haven’t used it outside yet, but if it works indoors, outdoors should be just fine.) You can see the podcast episode at [..] if you want to take a look at the quality of it… it’ll be episode 50. That’ll give you a reference for the quality of the camera… don’t pay attention to the performance of the bald guy with glasses… if may leave you wanting for actual talent.

Overall, I’m very pleased with this camera. Its small size (5 x 2.5 x 2.25 [add another inch if you leave the strap on] inches) allows me to stow it in a pants pocket and not look like a tourist.

Great Camera!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
We did the research, read the reviews and purchased the Cannon FS100 mainly for recording high school sporting events and family footage. We are thrilled! The kids say the picture is great, it is very easy to operate automatically, yet the capability is there to be creative and manually operate the camera. Download is easy, have yet to create a CD, but I expect that to go well too. The still photo is a bit grainy, but when you are in a pinch it works. The way I figure, if you want a good still, use your camera, this is for video! Oh, and the size is amazing! It literally fits in the cup of your hand, and light weight too! It starts and stops amazingly quick, picks up sound well and the zoom feature, although I have heard others complain, works well. We zoom in on the football action and do not have a lot of trouble with “wobble”. Cannon delivers again!! (I have a 17 year old EOS Rebel that I love!!)

I got stuck when it came to moving the movie off the camera
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I really liked this camera for shooting video. It worked fine and I was easily able to figure it out quickly.

Then the world came crashing down when I tried to get the video off of the camera. I am a teacher trying to use the video to earn my national board certification. I do not need to do anything fancy, just stick 15 minutes of solid, unedited video onto a dvd. The software runs ridiculously slow on my PC. I think I finally got a chunk of video edited down to fifteen minutes (this was no small feat–the software is ridiculous) and attempted to burn it to a dvd and for some reason it fails every time.

OK, so I read a bunch of these reviews and many people said the file type is the problem and that you need to resave it as an mpg and that then you can just use windows movie maker. OK, so I tried that. I have used movie maker many times, but when I try to rename it as an mpg it looks like it works but then when I try to import it into movie maker it says something like the file may be corrupted or unsupported.

From reading these reviews I am sure there is a way to do it, but I am really, really frustrated right now. What seemed like a great camera is quickly angering me. I am writing this review in hopes that someone will post a commment or other review CLEARLY explaining how EXACTLY to get this thing to work in movie maker. I am wishing I had a mac and iMovie right now but I really can’t afford it. Anyone out there???

All you could expect…
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have had the mini DV tape, and mini DVD camcorders and I like this SD card camcorder much better. Gone are the hassles of tape sticking and skipping, DVD finalizing and being limited to 30 minutes of recording plus the expense of tapes and mini DVD’s. This FS100 has a zoom to kill for. The video it takes is as sharp as any I’ve seen on a camcorder. It’s small and easy to carry around and starts up instantly. The Joystick control on the outside edge of the viewing screen is very easy to get used to for accessing various menu items. Yes, the included video editing program sucks, but don’t all camcorders come with bare bones editing? I own editing programs as do most experienced camcorder users for decent editing. I find I must edit what I’ve shot using the included editing program or the video is distorted, everybody looks tall and thin on the raw video. The included video editing program corrects this distortion without loss of any detail. You will need a tripod or mono pod when using the big zoom that it has. The picture taking feature on the camera is just so-so. Not of good printing quality but OK for e-mailing, but do you honestly buy a camcorder to take pictures? Get a Canon SD1000 for that. In conclusion, shoot the video, plug in the charger, plug in the USB cable from the camera to your computer, after the computer opens the software, transfer the video then edit and save it under a new file name, its really that easy. All in all I’m very pleased with my Canon FS100 and I wholeheartedly recommend this great camcorder.

Good for the price
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I wanted to have a good experience with this camera, but it was complicated and took me a while to figure things out. The menu functions are complicated, the little “joystick” sucks and the still image function isn’t great.

The video does look nice. Daytime videos look crisp and clear, I’ve had little issue with movement and ghosting. Indoor video is a bit fuzzy sometimes, but using the proper function and the LED light help a lot. My husband hates the LED light, so do my animals, it is rather bright.

I love the remote control, and I love being able to hook the camera to my tv and play the video back, it transfers to TV nicely and looks great!

The video quality really saved this camera because otherwise I would have returned it.

Crappy video camera, cool featues
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
For the price you’d think they actually focus on making a decent camera sensor. I mean all the features like zoom, different camera modes, and the SD recording are great but the one thing it fails in is what it was made to do, that being recording video. Low light sucks, and for a cheaper camera like the Flip I have seen 10 fold better quality. You need to either have lots of light or sunlight to take decent film.

If you plan on going outdoors a lot then this camera is fine because it works best in lighted areas otherwise if you plan on doing a lot of family films or even recording in a place where there is lots of light but no white light then don’t get it. In general even well lit videos come out poorly and considering the price of the camera you want something that can shoot good video which this does not. It is almost like Canon was trying to emphasize all the features of the camera to overshadow the crappy film quality.

Good camera with a few quirks
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
The camera records clear videos during daylight and it is pretty light sensitive in low light. Plus there is a night mode that will record in near darkness; almost like a cat’s vision, but the video will be choppy, so use a tripod for that mode since the exposure is long.

My main reason why I gave it only 4 stars is that the videos are a bit too shaky compared for example, to an old hard drive sony camcorder sr42 which didn’t have any zoon stabilization unlike this canon which has digital stabilization.

I think the heavier cameras just tend to be less shaky, and since this is a very light camera, it has a lot of jittery in its videos.

If you are careful while recording or you are using a tripod, the videos will be excellent.

Love the features and the portability. The absolutely best bag I found for this camera is a tamrac 5292. It is extremely small and very easy to take the cam out and put it in.

Very fast start up, very nice vivid mode, good sound, great zoom with variable adjustable speed, and a dedicated microphone input. Overall this is a very good camera. Highly recommend.

Not compatable with Macs
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
I own an iBook G4 laptop and have not been able to download ANYTHING. The software that came with it is useless, both for videos and still images. Since I have iPhoto, I don’t need the still imaging software. The files are written in .mod format and iMovieHD is in .avi. Somewhere, I found that if you use iMovie (not HD), you can download them, but we don’t want to pay even more money to buy software that we shouldn’t need in the first place. My husband owns a PC so we could try doing everything on his computer, but I’m the one with the time to download and edit and I’m the one who takes all of the movies. The clerk at Best Buy, where we bought the camera, told us that this camera would work with Macs. Either he was wrong, or we just haven’t been able to figure it out.

As for the picture quality, it’s quite good. The handling of the machine is easy and the interface is mostly user friendly. But, what’s the point of having a good camera if you can’t share the videos or keep them.

Great Camcorder, But Something Missing
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I purchased this camcorder from a 3rd party seller on Amazon and was amazed at the lightening fast shipping! This was my first camcorder as up until now I hadn’t seen a need for them.

Wow, great camcorder! Color is absolutely beautiful (wine) and size is smaller than a can of Pepsi and really made to fold into your hands (I have small hands). I loved the flash drive and recording was pretty simple, although I did read the manual pretty thoroughly.

I was a bit unimpressed by the lens cover–when the unit powered on, I didn’t get that nice “powered” movement I’m used to with my digital cameras. I’m not sure if it’s a camcorder thing or just due to the low price of the FS100, Canon cut corners to save a few $$$. That was only a small thing.

The features on the camera was cool. I used another reviewer’s advice on recording in low light by setting the TV differently. It slowed down movement, but I did get a higher light. Not sure if this would have been irritating in the future. I like the cartoon image recording and also the fact that I could record in black and white. I would have liked to see more recording features like I see in my digital camera. For instance, I love recording in “my colors” on my Canon. Though gimmicky, it’s a cool feature when you have a camera in someone’s face! Then again, I may have missed it. I noticed the manual kept harping over things that seemed pretty easy, but I had to keep flipping pages to find the features that weren’t easily accessible. Again, maybe a user error.

Downloading files was also simplistic. As soon as I plugged the Transcend reader in my Macbook, iMovie started and asked if I wanted to import the files. I was impressed by the ease of it all.

In the end: I did send the camera back. Not due to the camcorder’s setbacks, but just the fact that I’m not ready to lug around a video camera all the time. I absolutely love taking pictures and can’t see myself jugging both a good camera and good video cam trying to see how to capture the right moment.

great for family vacations
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Bought this camcorder for a family trip to Italy. I wanted one that was small and portable. I wanted it to fit in a waist pack easily or else I would end up leaving in the hotel and not using it.

This one was perfect. No, it is not a high definition camcorder…it is standard definition. But that was fine with me. It uses SDHC memory cards…no more tapes! A 4 GB card recorded about 1.5 hours.

Once I got home, it was fairly easy to transfer to my PC and then burn a DVD. Warning-the manual is terrible. It tells you how to connect the camcorder to PC but that’s about it.

After I transferred the video files to my PC, I thought I could burn the DVD from there. I learned that you have to keep the camcorder connected to the PC via USB, in order to burn the DVD. And you have to use DVD-R and not DVD+R. Once I figured these steps out, it actually was fairly easy. I have burned several copies to give to family members, and they play back in my DVD and my PC without problems.

The quality is very good (standard definition). I highly recommend this camcorder.

HappyCanonUser
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I was looking for a “good” camcorder that was reasonably priced and easy to use. I read many, many reviews and compared several different makes of camcorders. I kept leaning towards the Canon FS100 camcorder. I was told that the video quality of the Canon FS100 was better than the competitors when it was being shown on a widescreen television. But the reviews really confused me because there were reviews that went from 5 stars down to one. The higher reviews said the camera had great video quality, while the 1 & 2 star reviews said the video quality was terrible. Video quality was probably the most important feature I wanted in a camera, so which was it, really good or really bad. The only way to find out was to try one myself. So I ordered one from Amazon.com, because their return policy is excellent. If I didn’t like it for any reason, I would just return it. When I received the camcorder, I charged the battery and started using it immediately. I think it is very easy to use, and the “video” quality was excellent on my widescreen TV. I was thrilled. When shooting in extreme low light situations, the video is grainy, but acceptable for me. I really don’t plan on shooting in the dark with the mini video light on the camera. Regular indoor video with existing lamp light, was still excellent quality. BUT, if you are wanting to use the camcorder for still pictures, don’t. The still picture quality is pretty bad. Now, about the packaged software that comes with the camcorder. I didn’t like it. The camcorder saves the video in .MOD format, which MAKES you use the Canon software. So for you beginner and intermediate users, my suggestion is to download “SDCOPY” from the internet to your computer. The “SDCOPY” will convert the .MOD files to .MPEG files. Then, you will be able to use different software programs. I am using Windows Vista on my computer, so I use the Windows Movie Maker program that comes on Vista to burn my video onto DVDs. So I didn’t have to buy any additional software. I am not shooting video for “professional” reasons. I just want my memories recorded onto DVDs so I can watch them in years to come. So for those of you that may be looking for a really good camcorder at a great price ($250.00 at Amazon), and one that is easy to use, then I recommend the Canon FS100. How can you go wrong at that price and receive great videos? I absolutely love mine.

Great camera for those looking to not spend a lot
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I just purchased an FS10 (same thing, but it has built in memory) and I am very satisfied with my purchase. I bought mine from Costco for [...], and it included an extra 4 gig SD card, a neck strap, and a case. IMO the price on Amazon is a rip-off.

The camera takes great videos. There tends to be lots of noise in low level areas, and when you zoom. If you mess around with some settings though, you’ll find something you like.

Zoom is great. 37x optical, 48x advances, 2000x digital! Unfortunately zooming to 2000x results in a mess of colors (noise).

Getting videos on my mac was easy. I don’t like how i have to plug in the power cable along with the usb cable, but it’s no deal breaker or anything. I just import to my PC, rename the MOD files to any video file I want, and I’m done. I also use MPEG Streamclip to encode my videos into widescreen or even HD (upscaled, but it still looks decent)

I highly recommend this camera if you find it for a good price. But at the price it’s being sold on amazon ($480, but $280 if you get the garnet wine color) you could find better camcorders

Excellent choice
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Love this camcorder. Amazing picture, awesome zoom. Intuitive, easy to use. I haven’t found anything I don’t like about it yet. You can’t beat Canon’s picture quality and they don’t disappoint with this camcorder. I only wish we had these 20+ years ago when my kids were young and we were lugging a huge Panasonic camcorder around!

Great improvement over DV camcorder
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I purchased this camera for my recent trip to Burning Man, in the Black Rock desert of Nevada. The conditions there can be very harsh, with extreme temperatures and blowing dust and sand. My previous video camera, a Panasonic mini-DV was a great camera, but would get bad dropouts and lines on the screen when there was dust in the air. So I missed out on all the atmospheric and dramatic footage during duststorms. Then I had to clean the heads with a head cleaning tape. And although that camera wasn’t very big, I still wanted something much smaller, lighter and easier to carry around. The FS100 fit the bill, and I’m very satisfied with it. It performed like a champ out in the desert, taking flawless video during a massive duststorm with 40mph winds and visibility of just a few feet. The battery life was good, and I often used the quick battery check button to see exactly how much time I had left. The sound seems better than my last camera too, especially the bass response. And the size is great, small enough to carry around all the time. And I love the fact it has no tape or hard drive. Data just goes straight to the 16Gb SD card I installed, which gives me over 5 hours of video at standard resolution. I found that it performed well both during the day and night. Of course, things can get a little fuzzy in low light, but that’s to be expected. Overall, it performed about as well or better in low light than I expected. This camera is a very good value for the money. Since I don’t have HD (High Definition) TV at home, and I’m not even sure if my editing software supports HD, I didn’t bother spending the extra money on an HD camera. This camera does everything I need now.

Small, Handy, Quick – Needs better Stabilization and Low Light
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
The reviews I read on this are a little too generous. It’s all right, but not spectacular. Mine is a replacement for a high-definition HV-20 that I share with my in-laws. I can never get my hands on it, so was hoping for something inexpensive, all-digital with good qualilty.

The video is good in BRIGHT light, so-so indoors, and very grainy in lower light, but it does a good enough job if you’re just trying to preserve something right away. I don’t think any of the video shot is usable as professional quality; not even semi-professional. Perhaps it could be used a secondary camera — like if you were looking for a 2nd simultaneous shot to do a cut-away. But I would definitely suggest spending more on a hi-def camera instead of this if you care a lot about quality. The EASY button is nifty, though, for when you get tired of pushing buttons and sorting through menus for the perfect setting.

As a camera that shoots still, give up. I was totally not impressed with that. You can turn the LED light on once you figure out where it’s hidden among the menus, but it is no substitute for a flash. Don’t think you’re going to get a satisfactory 2-in-1 video/still experience with this device. Nor can you use this as a webcam or import video directly from the camera to your PC, unless you have a capture card that will accept the RCA video out.

It does zoom in pretty good, but the image stabilization is a bit weird. And the focus can have a hard time finding it’s mark. I’ve used a camera before where you could shake it like an earthquake and it hardly shows at all on the recording. Unfortunately, the FS100 kind of floats around the image when it’s zoomed in. You’ll be able to see what you’re recording later, but wonder why the images sways around so much. Fully zoomed out, it does a good job. THERE’S NO VIEWFINDER, only the flip-out screen.

I play with a lot of ideas in low light and the reviews I read were mixed for low-light quality, but they really should have been on the bad side. Yes, you can tell what you’re looking at, but it’s extremely grainy to me. I’m disappointed in that aspect the most. There’s different white-balancing options. I don’t get the point of widescreen on a standard definition camera. The video just looked squished when played back in Windows Media Player.

The A/V out jack is not designed for regular headphones — you’ll get a loud buzzing in your ear if you try it. I suppose I’ll have to find some kind of wire with stereo female RCA jacks on one end and a stereo female mini-jack on the other or splice something together.

The Built-In Microphone does a pretty good job, I think. If you’re taping yourself and flip the screen around to see, the handy input meter disappears for no good reason. The External Microphone jack requires a battery powered microphone. So, you’ll get dead air if you try to use a headset or unpowered mic to record sound. I should have seen that coming, I suppose.

The battery life is pretty good — takes longer than expected to charge. The SD card is much more convenient than using tapes. After hooking up the USB cable and the power cable simultaneously, I can download the videos.

The software included is pretty dumb — Pixela ImageMixer is for video, while the Video Solutions disk is for still images only. Kind of confusing and backwards, fellas! If you’ve got Vista, then Windows Movie Maker will do a pretty good job of editing your videos.

I don’t know…. Overall, this camera is all right, I guess. But I had higher expectations for the price I paid. I got this camera from a BigBox store, but should have waited and gone with Amazon’s better offer. It’s definitely small and handy, but not going to get you any awards for artistic quality productions. I recommend it for anyone whose looking for something simple and consumer quality only.

Nice little camera.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I wanted a new video camera and I really like canon. I have a canon elura 65 minidv camcorder but it was having problems. My new laptop doesn’t have firewire so I thought I’d try a flash drive camera.

I have an HP laptop with Vista 64 so the software is incompatible, but I have a card reader so that problem was solved.

The clips play in media player, not sure about Windows movie maker as I don’t use it.

I use Pinnacle studio 11 ultimate and with that program I can add any video files and stills to a project, no problem.

It fits in my purse, I like that.

The battery charges in the camera. I checked prices for a second battery and they run about 80.00, ouch!

It only uses an sd card and I was dismayed that it didn’t come with an sd card at all (not even a small one). I had a 4G with my digital camera so I used that to practice with until my 16 G card came.

It performs poorly in low light but I have not tried all the settings and if you are up close to your subject it is better. There is a night setting with a light.

So far, I like this camera but I am aware that it is not top of the line but has had good reviews.

easy to use, stablizer is poor
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
it is easy to use. transfering video to PC is a breeze.

digital statlizer is of poor quality though. When zoom in, no matter how you hold your hand steady, the resulted video is shaky.

Nice little camcorder
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Overall the camera is a good little unit with an exceptional zoom. I was very impressed with the zoom quality. I bought this as a replacement to my previous mini DV tape camcorder that quit recording sound. We simply use it to record family moments so I’m not doing any kind of professional video recording.

I do like the idea of having the SD cards vs. a hard drive. I can change out and replace the SD cards even if they go bad but if the hard drive goes bad in a hard drive camcorder, it will probably be hard to replace. Also I will never be stuck filling up my hard drive and having no where to unload the video. After doing some testing, I had a newer SD 4G memory card and the recorder would let me record about 1 hour and 45 min. of video (I think that’s right). I also found it VERY easy to transfer the video straight into my computer with an SD reader. This was a HUGE problem with my previous recorder because it had problems transferring the video from the mini DV tapes to the PC.

I haven’t used the still photo capability yet and don’t plan to since I have a good digital camera so I can’t comment on it.

I only have a couple of issues:

1. The SD software that comes with the recorder has a little glitch (ONLY with the colored units; the blue and red) when entering the serial number to register the software it doesn’t recognize the serial number from the unit. You actually have to change the first 3 numbers from 822 to 808 to get the serial number to accept. I found this from an earlier review on this site.

2. My other issue is the sound can be a little better. It was a little low but I can live with it.

3. One last thing, it DOES NOT come with a separate battery charger so you are forced to charge the battery while it’s in the recorder. [...]. Canon 2590B002 CG-800 Lithium Ion Battery Charger for 800 Series Batteries

Overall, for the price and its capabilities, it is a good camcorder.

Best non-HD super zoom video camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Very nice zoom. Image stabilizer is so-so. Video quality is DVD-like. Software package is limited to 99 video clips (use sdcopy.exe)

Junk file format, almost unusable, good camera
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
Well, what can I say. This .mod file that they have chosen to use does not tell editing software the aspect ratio, so the videos are always distorted.

The software the camera comes with is a joke, and may be ok for the very very light user.

Otherwise, if you don’t care about better editing, the camera actualyl works very well, great picture, except low light seems to lack behind other models I have tried.

We love this camera!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
We bought this camera in anticipation of the birth of our baby. He’s not here yet, but we’ve been testing it out over the past couple of weeks. So far, we have really enjoyed using it.

The camera is tiny – probably a little larger than a soda can. It is very lightweight as well. We bought the Transcend 8GB SD cards and an extra battery from Ebay.

We have Vista and have had no problems reading the video files. We used Nero to create a DVD and it played in the DVD player with no problem! The video looked great on the television and we unknowingly recorded it on the medium resolution setting. I can’t wait to see how it turns out on the highest resolution.

Great camcorder for the money
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
For around $300 you can’t beat this little camcorder. I love the format with the SD cards. The video quality is really high on it as far as color and clarity go. Not a great low light camera as others have stated but not unwatchable by any means. Video’s look far better on the TV then on a computer so don’t make any judgements based on computer viewing (at least on an older computer). I thought it was only marginal and then hooked it up to the TV and the difference was like night and day. I shot on SP and XP and both are good. I would definately recommend this camcorder to anyone who is a casual user. Great for family videos and vacations. Software is basic but gets the job done….even on my old computer. Only drawbacks are the low light issues and the image stabilizer isn’t the best as the small size makes it hard to hold still.

Very nice little camcorder
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This nicely compact little camcorder captures video with sharp images and excellent color. I use it mostly outdoors and the long zoom capability is great for wildlife viewing. I was able to see images on the LCD viewfinder in bright sunlight with sunglasses on. Battery life is very good and my 4 meg SD card had loads of space left after a long day on the trail. The supplied software unfortunately can best be described as POOR. The documentation for the software is even worse and I had to call tech support to get it installed. Fortunately there are several very good software editing packages available.

Great Camcorder, Tricky Files
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Ok, I am writing this small review to people who are like me who look everywhere for the lowest price on an item and live and die by customer reviews. This camera is great for everything it does but I am mainly focusing on the file problem. I read at least 100 reviews on this item from professional sources and customers until I finally purchased it. Anyway the files come in as .MOD files which need to be converted into .MPG or .AVI or something else that can be read by your editing software. After trying multiple FREE converting software, I found the easiest and fastest one was sdcopy. It did not degrade the quality of the video and allowed choice to convert into 4:3 or 16:9 which is very handy.

Canon FS100 Flash Memory Camcorder
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
This camcorder is light and very easy to use. The resulting clips are beautiful and clear. My big problem is that I record specifically to make movies using MS Movie Maker and the format created by this camcorder (.mod) is not compatible with any of the movie making software that I could find out there. Only after a lot of work did I find a way to convert my clips to something I could use and there is some loss of quality in the process. I’m okay with it now that I figured out what I need to do but I’m pretty sure I’m going to move on to something else sooner rather than later.

This is my first sd hc camera. I think its great I wish I would have purchased it years ago. Oh it wasn’t on the market then.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
The best camera for the value. My personal camera is bigger and heaver than this one and it takes really great pictures. Its light and stores video very easily on a sd hc card. I wish I had purchased it long ago its a keeper for a lot of reasons.

1st Review
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I am very pleased with the size of this product and the easy use for talking stills and movies

Great little camera ..
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
its a great little camera, image quality is beautiful… the image stabilization at full zoom works nicely…

as someone else pointed out they had a problem installing the software

replace the first 3 numbers of the camera serial number with “800″ ..

this worked with the “wine red” camera… hope this helps..

other than that, i’m very happy with it..

Great Price, terrible indoor picture quality!!
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
I too, wanted to love this camera. Boots up fast, lightweight, great price, works great w/imovie 09. Problem was poor indoor picture quality, very pixelly. I did not even try it outside because the indoor quality was so bad, i just boxed it up and sent it back. Bought from J&R, had no problem returning it, it just cost me $15 to return with insurance of course. Great camera for internet video or just for youtube. I can’t believe this camera has gotten a four star average. I guess most of the reviewers have never had a digital camcorder. Not even close to MiniDV quality. I guess I will have to spring for the HF100.

Not for low light. . .
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
. . . unless you like grainy, smeary pictures. My kid’s Flip camcorder is a better choice for low light.

No better than my Fuji Digital camera
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
I bought this camera thinking that it would be an improvement over my Fuji S6000fd digital camera (it records movies as well). I use it to record my sons wrestling matches. The video is just as grainy and ugly as my digital camera if not worse. Maybe this camcorder will work well outside but if you’re thinking of using it indoors, look elsewhere.

Mac users, beware…
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
Canon really dropped the ball on this one. As other posters have noted, the FS SD flash memory series of camcorders output in an oddball file format that’s not readable by QuickTime. My hopes of being able to pop the FS100′s SD card into my card reader and just click & drag my shots into iMovie immediately went down in flames – it was for that seemingly easy mode of import that we bought 2 of the bloody cameras in the first place (for use in a college A-V department, where easy is best for our toy borrowers – some of whom still put VHS tapes in upside down or backwards into the classroom VCRs…need I say more?). Included software was of no help, either – the ImageMixer 3 for SD is from Pixela, a Sony company, and stopped Mac support before OS X hit the market. Mac users might have better luck if they’re running Leopard and have iMovie 8, which I don’t. Therefore, our shiny new purple FS100s – while attractive little camcorders with wonderful ergonomics and great optics – will remain lovely (and expensive) little paperweights until I either upgrade my already current Mac or Canon finally releases a software fix to allow Mac users the luxury of a working click & drag method of clip importing in a format recognizable to Macs.

Good Product, Poor Support
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I am pleased with the camera, but don’t try to get any technical information. I tried three times and got conflicting information between two and just a smattering of information all together. Canon’s view seems to be that this is a consumer camera and no consumers ask technical questions. The support staff seemed ill prepared to handle even basic questions. If you purchase a consumer-grade camera from Canon, you are on your own. I guess you have to spend over $900 to rate support.

Even though I couldn’t get answers or specs, Some reviews, flash memory storage and the processing chip prompted me to buy the camcorder anyway; I could always return it if my evaluation was unsatisfactory. The camera performs well for the price, but, without complete specs, it is a guessing game to perform manual operations and I don’t know what will happen if something goes wrong.

Tom H.

Canon FS100 Flash Memory Camcorder w/48 Advanced zoom (Sliver
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I had purchased a camcoder that used tapes, it took good quailty pictures but transfering to DVD was slow. When I saw they had come out with flash memory I did my research on Amazon and read hundreds of reviews. I finaly chose the Canon FS100. When I recieved the camera I found that the card I had ordered had been shipped separate. After checking the manual I saw that I could use the card out of my digital camera. My granddaughter had a friend over so I had them act funny for me so I could try the new Camcorder. After filming them I shot some footage in different lighting to see how well it did. I had read in one review don’t bother with the software that comes with the camera, so I didn’t.

I removed the card and placed in the reader on my computer with Vista

and down loaded the film clips.My computer came with DVD maker for windows. I copied the clips to that program and in a few minutes had a DVD ready to watch on my TV. I was very pleased with everything. I did find that when I recieved my new card a SDhc that my reader won’t read it.

So again went to Amazon and brought the new reader and card. My wife is very peased with it and we have had a chance to use it with the grand children a few times now. What I like best is I can put it on my computer and make into a DVD right away. I have a pile of tapes we need to transfer where we have gotton behind.We had tried a DVD camcorder but we were not happy with it at all. The Canon FS100 is everything we were looking for in a Camcoder. Leroy Hazzard

Excellent camera, great features.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Takes great video, and is super small and lightweight. Get a 8GB card, and you’ll get hours of video. Best price on the net for this model.

Great camera !! DVD + R (impossible) buyer beware
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This camera is everything I expected it to be. I would give it an easy 5 star rating, BUT !!!!

Pros: with 16g card and reader, even at XP, it is an easy 3 hours of video.

the battery last longer than a 16g sdhc card, really incredible !!

it is virtually silent in operation, while filming in a deathly quiet room, I could hear the zoom (barely).

the zoom is way beyond anything you could possibly use, but is fun if you have a tripod, was able to zoom in and count the windows on a building 10 miles away on top of a mountain.

low light indoors is good, despite other reviews. Just understand what the conditions are. I use “night mode” and dial the shutter speed down to 30. then make sure I pan slowly. The results are very good even in badly lite restaurants. At home indoors, with any kind of daylight, I use 60, the results are perfect.

the FS 100 is so small, you really don’t need a case, just put it in your pocket. I did buy a sunpack uv filter lens ($7) at best buy and scotched taped it to the Canon lens, very crude, but it does protect the lens and more importantly the auto lens cover.

Cons: The Pixela software is truly horrible beyond belief, but it does work, kind of.

BUYER BEWARE !!!!! WHEN TRYING TO BURN A DVD OF YOUR VIDEO…… it WILL NOT BURN TO A DVD + R BURNER. This is a major problem !!! Unless I am missing something here, it only burns to DVD – R. See my post in forums section below. So alternatives are buying new editing software, with all those issues re: file types, etc., or buy a seperate DVD – R burner.

THEY DON’T MENTION THIS LITTLE DETAIL IN THE MANUAL !!!! Canon obviously knows this fact, they should be ashamed.

If I didn’t love this camera so much, I would return it at once on pure principal. But I guess I’ll just buy a seperate burner.

If anyone has any ideas about this, thanks in advance for your suggestions.

Canon fs 100 camcorder
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
The Canon fs100 Camcorder was a nice camcorder easy to use but the camera was defective I am in the process of returning it. Billy

Wonderful piece of technology
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I simply love it’s small size, wonderful clarity, great optical zoom, instant start and above all no moving part in it.

The SD card format is so easy to use and download to computer. i am using Mac to download and it work great with imovies.

Although it came with CD software for windows. i never tried that.

It is bit shaky at full zoom (48X) but that is the price you have to pay when you want extreme zooms. you have to use tripod to shot at that zoom.

otherwise it is fine. i don’t see any reason why somebody will buy upper models of this FS series which cost another [...] bucks and have only 8GB or 16 GB of internal memory when you can buy 8GB memory card for under [...] Bucks from Amazon.

Overall it is good starting model for those guys who can’t afford HD models at this moment.

For $250 it’s ok.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
For $250 it’s ok, but for 300 or more, brrrr.

For ytube ok. Of course software included it’s worthless. You download videos then you change file extension to mpeg or avi, and can see it using any player (and for this you don-t need software). For editing you have to look for some software that edits mpeg or avi. Don’t even install the software.

Tiny Camcorder that’s Awesome
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This camcorder is incredible! It is so tiny and so easy to use. It is literally the size of a soda can! Great quality and even comes with a remote control to use while the camcorder is on a tripod. I wish that this came with an external battery charger, but I can always buy that later. I love the fact that this is strictly a flash card memory camcorder which has no moving parts related to the storage. I always thought the hard drive based camcorders were a bad idea, because of how sensitive hard drives are to shock. No problem for flash card memory! I was really surprised at how small this camcorder is, incredible! You will love this camera!

Great little camcorder
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
My family lives in another country, so I wanted a camcorder to take family videos that I could burn to DVDs and mail to them. I picked the FS100 because of the price, SDHC support, and because it uses MPEG2 and stereo AC3 to encode the video files–meaning you can put them on a video DVD without having to re-encode anything.

I don’t use the included ImageMixer 3 SE software (preferring to use the open source Avidemux and DVDStyler applications instead), so I can’t comment on that.

If you plug the camera into your computer using the included USB cable, it shows up as a removable drive, which is nice. However, it won’t do that unless you plug in the camera’s power adapter at the same time–this means if you want to copy files to a laptop while on the move, and you don’t have access to a power outlet, you’ll need to read the data off the SD/SDHC card directly instead. This isn’t a big deal for me since I find that using an SDHC card reader is a much easier solution that plugging the camera in every time anyway. You can get USB SDHC readers for around $7 on Amazon.

I’ve never owned a camcorder before (digital or otherwise), so I don’t have anything to compare it to, but I can say I am very happy with this one. It’s small, light, easy to use, and produces quite acceptable video quality, even at the medium 6mbps setting.

It is useless, however, as a digital still-photo camera. It doesn’t have enough megapixels for any kind of serious work, doesn’t have a flash, and photos will usually end up blurry if you don’t use a tripod to stabilize it.

If you’re looking for an affordable, decent widescreen standard def camera with direct-to-dvd burning in mind, this is fantastic.

Good camera. I got a solution for these .mod files
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Let me start out by saying I am a novice to video editing. I read about the problems with .mod files before I bought this camera, but purchased it anyway. The files were driving me nuts. I tried everything I read on reviews and nothing seemed to work real well. I was using a pretty old version of Adobe Premiere Elements. I read some reviews on this web site http://video-editing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/. I downloaded a trial version of the two top rated which were CyberLink PowerDirector 7 and Corel Video Studio X2. I used the software that came with the camera to put the video files on my hard drive. The were saved as .mpg file (not .mod files). Using either of these applications, I was able to edit the files and make perfect DVDs in both 4:3 and widescreen. I preferred Corel Video Studio and purchase it. It is so easy to use. So now I don’t have any problems with this Canon .mod files at all. Of course I had to buy new software, but my Adobe version was pretty old anyway.

In regards to the camera, I really like it because it is small and convenient. What I don’t like is that it is not good in low light and is very shaky when using the zoom. But for the price I really like this camera

very light and very easy to operate
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought it for my parents. They do not know english at all but they can operate it very well. Just need to remember those four signs for recording, stop, review and shotting. And this camcorder is very light and very cute. Would like to bring it with every travelling~

Very happy to have this camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
[...] I suggest you buy a tripod along with this camera or make/buy a steadycam.

Some free video converters are:

Any Video Converter

Super Video Converter

Format Factory

Some free audio editing studios are:

Audacity

Wavepad

Windows Movie Maker is free and usually comes with your PC.

Sony Vegas 9 Pro, the latest version, can be found at Gradware.com for [...] dents and [...]for all others.

iMovie does NOT come with your Mac (I believe) and can be bought for [...]

If you are interested in Greenscreening, Sony Vegas and Adobe Premiere have that capability, but so can Movie Maker 2.6 for Vista. (the version with the multicolor film on a reel) Ask how in the comments section.

Not as expected
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Good camera for the price. Very poor quality in low light as mentioned in other reviews. Even with all the lights on in my livingroom, quality was still very poor.

Excellent Camcorder!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought an FS100 and have used it for almost a month now. The picture quality is excellent and the zoom is amazing and the great image stabilization lets one actually use it. The value you get for the money is unparalleled.

The cons so far are:

1. I haven’t been able to use the black&white/sepia/etc. mode for some reason. Selecting it doesn’t enable it.

2. The video takes up a huge amount of memory. I would recommend buying atleast an 8GB sdcard for this.

3. There is no night mode.

4. The quality of still photographs is worse than my cellphone. (I know this is a video camera but putting in a good still-image sensor really isn’t that hard or expensive! A 1MP image sensor is really rock bottom!)

Amazon is not truthfull
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
First let me say that the product is great. Amazon on the other hand is dishonest. They are advertising this product but they are unable to supply the product. When I purchased the product they said it would take 5-9 days from shipment, they offered free shipping. After I purchased the product they said they did not have a shipping date, I complained and they offered a ten dollar off offer on my next purchase. Then they told me that they could not get this product from Canon (yet they are still advertising the product). I will not purchase computer/photo equipment from Amazon again. If you do decide to purchase a product from Amazon, check if they will confirm the ship date when you purchase. Good luck.

Canan Fs100
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Just got this and here are my 1st impressions.

Very small yet feels solid. The test footage so far looks good for standard def video. I just take out the sd card and plug it into my media reader and I am able to import the files.

They have a .mod extension so no program on my XP computer can view them. I had read that you can rename them to .avi which i did and was able to play them in windows media player. They looked horrible and all jagged.

I then tried adobe premiere elements 4, hit the import files and this import window came up and imported them to a folder on my computer. It then dumped them into the editing program where i was able to view and edit!! They played very nice in this program. I did a test render to avi and they looked great.

I have read lots of reviews about how the included editing program is horrible so i have not even installed it. The still photos are not great but good enough for web or email.

I will post more once I have shot some more footage.

Nice, compact, easy-to-use video camera
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
So far, so good. I received this little gem a couple weeks ago and have been using it off and on. Downloading the clips is easy and the image quality is quite clear.

Best Camcorder Out There
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is the best camcorder on the market. Has great grafics and has an extremely reasonable price. It will connect to Mac’s and iMovie with ease. This is one of the only camcorders i could find that would do that. It also can connect to PC’s. If you have a mac, don’t bother downloading the software they give you, but just use it with iMovie. It has amazing zoom and after one day of owning it i had already made a great video. Don’t waist your time with other lame camcorders. This is the best one available.

My first camcorder meets expectation
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I picked this camcorder mainly because 1. I have a Canon camera (S2 IS) that takes great videos, 2. I want a compact camcorder with good battery life. So far it meets my expectations. The SD cards are getting cheaper every year. They will soon replace battery-thirsty and bulky hard-drive camcorders.

Pros:

1. Light-weight, ergonomic to fit small hands.

2. SD card is small, quiet and cheap compared to memory stick or hard drive.

3. video is crisp and clear, the sound quality is great.

Cons:

1. USB port is in the middle of the camcorder, you can’t get to it without opening the lcd. And transferring files requires the power adapter and the speed is slow.

2. It takes 195 min to charge which is slow.

3. The “set” key is made of low-quality plastic. Feels like it can break any day.

Nice home movie camera
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
The low light resolution is a little disappointing. In all other categories, I am very happy with my little camcorder. For the price, and for normal home movie stuff It is fine. For outdoor Kids sports etc. It is really much better than I would have thought for this price. It takes much better video’s than my old VHS camcorder which was almost triple the price.

great christmas gift
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
my daughter and son in law found this very user friendly and now i have videos of my new grandson’s every smile and coo!!

Poor Autofocus, Bad Low light, JVC 330 Comparison
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I want to save anyone from buying this product. I bought the JVC Everio 330 prior to this, but was interested in the Canon because it had a mic input. I bought the Canon FS100 at Walmart and of course started filming right there in the parking lot. On a sunny day, the camera struggled to get good focus on a zoom in the many many tests that I put it through. At full Optical zoom, it never focused completely. I took it home and put it throught many more tests, indoors and out, same problem. It had poor low light capabilities too, and of course equally bad autofocus indoors. If only they would have used the same Instant Autofocus system and optical image stabilization that they put in the High-Definition Canon HF10, they’d have a great Standard Definition camera here.

Just to let you know, I am a professional filmmaker, and two of my films have made it to television, one on PBS. But I wanted a really simple no frills hard drive camera to record video notes and just for fun.

Now for the JVC Everio 330. After two weeks owning it, I am amazed with it. It records great in low light with Electronic Gain Up, and it focuses SO WELL, that most of the time it appears that there is never anything out of focus. It does it so fast. AND, unlike the Canon FS100, when you take it out of manual settings to auto settings, then back to Manual, it REMEMBERS the last settings. The Canon FS100 clears them.

The only thing I can say good about the Canon is their electronic image stabilization is better than JVCs. But with the focus problem, does it really matter? I love my JVC Everio 330!

Great Value Buy
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Just got this and a lot of what has been said about it is true- you get a GREAT camera for the money. Small, good picture quality, well designed. Just be sure you throw away the horrible software that comes with it. Also be prepared to deal with MOD files. If you go here (http://www.squared5.com/) you can DL a free transfer program that solves the file problem very well.

In sum, the money is all in the product, not the supporting software or the crummy manual. If you can deal with that, pick this up and you’ll have a great camcorder for the price.

Perfect for a new baby..
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I got this back when it came out in April right before the birth of my son. I absolutely love it! I love how easy it is to pick up really fast and catch a priceless moment. It takes only a few seconds to turn on the camera and flip it open. It’s also soo tiny! I stick it in my diaper bag and bring it everywhere with me. On that note, it’s pretty durable too!

Gr8 camera for the $$$ and cute too!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Let me first give Amazon.com 5 stars for following through on the promised shipping date. That was truly a life saver.I was attending my sons graduation and I needed the camera OVERNITE. And thats precisely what I got. Cudos to you Amazon.

Now onto the camera. I LOVE it. I am totally electronically challeged, so it was great to see the ease and simplicity with which this camera operates. Not to mention the color is so pretty. I highly recommend this camera for the novice photog such as myself. If you are into making short films this camera is way beneath your skill level. But for taking pix of your kids on the beach or in a school play, it works.

Easy to use
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Easy to use, long battery life time, simple, very good for video shooting. Quality is poor for still pictures! For the money, it is a very good camera! I would recommand it.

Finally a Solution for the Mac
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I purchased this camcorder because of all the great reviews, but was hesitant because of using the .MOD files with the Mac, and iMovie. As many other reviewers have said, getting .MOD files to work with a Mac is near impossible.

I tried just changing the extension to .MPEG..no go. I tried several other conversion programs that either did not work or left the end product fuzzy.

I lastly tried the conversion program from iSkysoft [....] which works great with a few hiccups. The program is only $35 and the conversion results are very good. However, sometimes the program crashes my computer which can be a bit of a problem. I just redo the movie I was working on and it seems to work the next time.

As for the asthetics, many of the other reviewers have said how nice and small the camera is. I like the camera because I now can remove the card, use a USB connection and immediately download the files to the computer. If you use the camera, it has to be plugged in (kinda a pain). Next I use iSkysoft converter and whalah! my files are in .MPEG and iMovie6 reads them without a problem. iSkysoft has a Windows version but I cannot vouch for the quality.

For less than[..] it’s quite a deal, though I think the image stabilization is as great as I would like.

BEST small video cam I’ve ever used!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I owned a video production studio for 8 years, and was using 3 Sony DVX-1000′s for documentary work. Having been out of that biz for 11 years now, I was wanting something small and simple that still had good resolution and able to handle a Mic-in for narration or interviews. THIS FS100 WAS IS THE TICKET! I have had it for 2 weeks now, and can only rave about its ease of use, the clarity and sharp res from edge-to-edge, and the FLASH MEMORY! WOW! For those of you who have dealt with mini-DV tapes and mini-DVD disks…forget that mess! I got an 8GB Transcend SD HC(Class 6) disk for mine, and I get 2.75 HOURS of video time, then just pop in another and continue shooting! I pop the disk, put it in a reader on my computer, bring up Media Player Classic or Movavi Video Converter and play, edit or convert the video file from .MOV to whatever I want—NO PROBLEMS WHATSOEVER! The .MOV format creates a LOT of problems for most peeps that use the small-sized videocams, BUT if you use the proggies above, there is NO problem! It just works. Anyway, for you YouTubers…THIS is a kick A** videocam and will give you some of the BEST FOOTAGE you’ve ever seen! Oh, and the shock is that this cam is literally THE SIZE OF A BEER CAN!! It slips into my front pocket with no problem! I carry it everywhere now! And the battery—I haven’t had a problem with battery going dead on me prematurely…shot over 2 hours the other day and still had PLENTY juice left for more footage. There is an on-screen battery meter that is highly accurate. Audio meter, too. I thought I would have to buy another battery…but not with it performing like it is now. I cannot say enough cool stuff about it…so give it a shot! I think I’ll get another one, but this time get the FS10 so I have BOTH a built-in flash drive AND the extra pop-in flash drive as an option.

FS100 -SUITS MY NEEDS
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Canon FS100 Flash Memory Camcorder with 48x Advanced Zoom (Silver)

I purchased the FS100 for my wife’s B-day. She wanted something to record our infants ‘firsts’(rollovers…crawling, etc all that good stuff). I read a lot of the reviews and took the chance with the FS100 as my first camcorder. I got the package deal @ amazon w/extra battery and 16gb card. Pretty good deal compared to sale prices (e.g.at Best Buy). I also got an extra 8gb card and bag. Total (w/shipping $461)

Camera is pretty easy to use right out of the box(after charging) for a novice. There are plenty of features that you can use to fine tune your recordings…night time, snow backrounds, etc…..read the book…there if you need them.

While recording the mini joystick gets you through the menus relatively easily. You can turn on the LED light with about two movements if you wish. Sound is well, and you can play with that after the fact anyway.

I was tempted to go with an HD, but read mixed reviews for the both the FS100 & for HD devices. Seems there were issues with both. So, I saved at least $400 by not getting one of the comparible HD models.

I think the video on the DVD is fine….and I didn’t have to do anything to the format or get another Program to do it. I used the software that came in the box. The only problem I had was that it would not recognize the particular DVD-RW I had. But once I stuck in a DVD-R(up to 16x)walllah…it worked just fine….(for me). Again, I’m not making any professional videos, I’m just watching my new baby roll around on the floor. But plenty good enough to send DVD’s to the grandparents and make keepsakes. I haven’t had it that long yet, so I’ll keep you updated if I run into any other issues.

One other note,…several people complained that the two software programs included do not have manuals. FALSE. The discs have PDF manuals on them. You must install the software first, and then you can open up the pdf’s (I dropped them on my desktop) to lead you. They may not be the best programs for video/image stuff, but they are all I need. Definitely reccommend have an extra memory card. The software does take a long time to make DVD. Plan on kicking it off via the SD cardreader and walking away from your computer and just let it go. Then you can pop in your other memory card and still record if you want.

I would reccommend for others that aren’t looking to make professional broadcast videos or something….I think it’s fine for school, home, the kids soccer games….etc….stuff like that.

Mac and the FS100 – Card Reading and Compatibility Issues
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
It’s a beauty of a design – rests lovely in your palm, light as a breeze, good-looking, ergonomic (well, good enough), with the promise of Canon digic-ii goodness…And then the plug-in struggle begins…I’m using a Mac core 2 duo, with iMovie 7.1, running with current updates. Will other iMovie versions work? I don’t believe so.

The problem – the video is coded as a unix file – that is, it’s m-peg2 video with a shiny Windows coating. No native Apple program recognizes or plays it. You can rename the suffix from .MOD to .AVI, and witness the low-res results.

The Mac, with iMovie ’08 running, Will Import your files, IF:

* The camera is plugged in and charging (A real flaw – Binding us to a power-supply for transfers. Needs to be remedied by Canon.)

* You then turn the camera to the “video Play” mode, once attached via USB umbilical to the computer…

* And then, if you select the correct “output” source. You’ll be asked (on the camera’s fold-out viewer), to choose the “output” source: DVD or Printer/PC.

Choose the “PC” option… and iMovie should recognize the files, but it can be a little touchy. I’ve had to go through the process a couple/few times to get recognition.

Note: iMovie will not recognize the very same files, on the very same SDHC card, if that card has been Removed from the Camera, and placed in a card reader, thus defeating the purpose of removable flash memory.

This is a Flash Memory Product. All Flash memory products – cameras, Mp3 players, Phones, etc – are built so that their easily-swappable internal memory can be jettisoned, and the files read by a card reader on a PC, while you go fill up your empty card on your liberated hardware. Swappable. Or why bother with Flash Memory at all?

I went through several Canon representatives (1 800 OK CANON) before encountering one who understood my complaint, and agreed to pass on my notes to technical.

As to the rest – Built-in mic sound seems good. There’s an audio-meter, and an audio/mic-input. Have not tried that out, but will soon and report on quality.

The zoom is very strong, great reach. Stabilization seems very good.

The image is hit-and-miss. This camera does not like low-light. It shoots significantly better in bright sun than on a cloudy day – a painful loss of detail occurring in the second scenario.

The image is terribly aliased when played directly out of the camera into the computer (into the iMovie pre-viewer – before transfer), but looks much better once transfered. I’ll look for a way to upload a bit onto amazon in the near future.

In the meantime, Canon, please supply a software fix to allow transfer of files into PC/MAC movie editing, without binding it both to hardware, and to AC plug – that is, make it a true FLASH memory product, amigos.

Truth is, I’m now undecided about whether to keep this, or upgrade to the stronger (but twice-priced) Canon VIXIA HF100.

What a great little camcorder
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I Usually don’t write a review for items that i buy, but this time i do, because this camcorder is a great camcorder. I should say in compare to what i paid for this little camcorder it does a really great deal for me.

1. The video quality is brilliant outside,especially during day.

2. For having a fair good video quality, you should first read the manual and the adjust your camcorder, otherwise you’d say it sucks indoor,especially during nights.

3. I haven’t installed the software yet, however i just take out the memory card an plug it in my PC, i was able to watch my clips and i had no problem with its type of files.

4. I’d like to give 4.5 out of 5, because i think canon could make a better automatic/easy function for recording.

At the end, remember you are NOT buying an HD camcorder, so please be realistic with what you want and what you expect.

Great little camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Have had the camera for a week, got the blue model.

Purchased this camera to take quick videos of the kids and the places we visit while on vacation and at school events. In the two weeks we have taken about 4 videos and all of them came out just great. The snapshot feature is ok, if you have nothing else, but I prefer a digital camera for my shots.

This model is very small. I bought a case for it that fits on my belt and I can carry it right next to my digital camera if I want. My wife likes the camera because it has an EASY mode and she feels very comfortable with that feature.

If you are looking for an inexpensive camcorder that gives great SD quality and does not use tapes then this model should be on your short list. For awhile I thought that my digital camera movie mode was pretty good until I tried to zoom in on a play at school and it just could not get the shot. Camcorders are made for movies and it shows.

I also bought a 16GB sdhc card from Amazon and it has worked perfectly. The entire setup is $100 less than the fs10 with 16gb of built in flash memory.

So far, I lve this camera!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I purchased this camera to replace an older Sony Hi-8 digital camcorder. I use the camcorder for home movies of the family and sports games of our kids.

Additonally, I like to do some basic editing to make some fun videos for family that can play on their computer or DVD. When I say basic editing, I mean – joining clips, fade in/out, mute the video sound and add some MP3 music tracks. add transitions and titles and credits – everything I would do with Windows Movie Maker and Windows DVD Maker. My primary concerns with this camcorder (or any of the non-tape based cameras) was – “will I still be able to do that with the .MOD files this camera creates”. I have seen a lot of reviews on the newer flash based and hard drive cameras that state this is difficult to do. Well, I figured

out how to do everything with Windows Movie Maker and Windows DVD Maker and I am thrilled with the results!! (Let me know if I can help you)

First, I love the size of the camera – it fits nicely in my hand and very convenient to carry with you to the sporting events. I LOVE the flash based media type. Tapes are nice because they provide an automatic backup of the movie on your tapes. However, I have found that we rarely watch those old 8mm videos because you have to get the camera out and the tapes and watch or fast forward through any scenes you would like to skip. Additionally, to do editing, it is a 1 to 1 ratio for time….meaning an hour of tape would run real time (1 hour) to get on the computer. With the flash media the clips transfer very easily and fast to the computer and you are ready to view and edit or play. I forsee us watching our videos so much more now that it will all be backed up to the hard drive.

So far, the only things I am not crazy about and still adjusting is the stabilization when holding the camera. While the zoom is AWESOME, it sure does show a lot more shake then the heavier camera I used to use. I am looking forward to trying out a tripod with the zoom to see the difference.

I was not ready to go hi-def for a couple of reasons….I dont have a blue ray player and I was not willing to go through the process of working with AVCHD files (their size, editing issues, etc.). I have seen some that say it is not that bad, but just not worth it to me yet. The video that this produces looks great to me. I burned a DVD of a night-time little league game and I thought it looked great on my 50″ HDTV. That being said, indoor videos without much light can look a little grainy but still looked better than my last camcorder. Sure, I would like it to be a little better quality on the indoor shots but I also understand if I wanted that I would have to pay A LOT more money and these are just for home use, nothing professional.

All in all I am very happy to have picked up this camera!

Good for the Price
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I won’t beat around the bush. The video quality is average maybe a little above in daylight without much motion and also with very little zoom.

Once light begins to diminish and/or you zoom don’t expect great quality footage.

However, I do find that the sound quality is above average.

As for pictures, I’m not thoroughly impressed. Of course a regular digital camera with the same pixel capability will perform better and produce better looking stills, but even so I find a lower pixel camera still takes better quality images. Not to seem biased, the images are acceptable. But this is only when the camera settings are set to maximum quality. Anything less is simply unusable.

The same for video applies; light and motionless targets are vital more so considering its stills you are taking.

The features on the camera are good and the user interface is simple to understand. Literally a kid can operate this camera.

Other benefits include the automatic shutter, 48x zoom (Although not of much use at that level, it’s still rather cool to focus at such a distance), the camera display is bright and crisp, and the SDHC memory is considerably better than HDs or DVDs.

You’ll notice I gave 4 out of 5 stars despite the review. This is primarily because of the price and what you get for it. This is a great deal for a camcorder with these features despite the less than fantastic quality.

I would recommend this to someone looking for their first camcorder and don’t want to spend at least twice as much for something around the same lines or more for one of the more exceptional products.

converting files from mod to mpeg
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
There is no reason for other software to convert mod files to mpeg.Windows movie maker does it automaticaly.I also use windows movie maker to write everything to dvd works in all 3 of my dvd players.Why does every look for a solution when none is needed.I use windows viesta.Just throw away prepackaged software and your ready to go and ignore all these reviews that tell you somethig else.

Love it!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I think this camera is brilliant. Got it new for $[...] here, free shipping, and have played with everything on it. I have to say I don’t really get the complaints about how it downloads, etc. I did install the Canon disks, having had great experiences with the Canon softward in the past, both in speed and ease of use, and my movies download as .mpg files, not .mov. The editing software isn’t “pro” quality, obviously, but why would you buy a $[...] camera for that kind of use anyway? It has some cool tools that are fun to tinker with, and that’s all I need. If I can do a nifty little fade in and out with credits at the beginning and end, and throw in a voice-over once in awhile (which the included software accommodates), I don’t need much else. It also will print stills from camera to printer, and burn videos directly from camera to DVD burner, recorder, or, get this…VCR!

It’s perfect for hobby stuff, family videos, and actually a lot of higher-quality movies, too, especially if you read the directions and take advantage of all its little perks. The camera itself is super-easy to use, but if you wanted it even less complicated than it already is, there’s an “easy button.” Ha! It has a rocking zoom, usable in different forms, and it actually records very well in not just low light, but virtual darkness, as long as you’re not 30 feet away from your subject, turn on the mini-light, AND you adjust the exposure to open the shutter longer…then it lights up like a Christmas tree! Again, if you want absolutely no visible grain and incredibly smooth transfer quality, you have 2 options: spend another $[...] or so, minimum, or turn on a light! Anything short of that, this camera has covered. It’s about an inch or so longer than my hand is wide, so plenty tiny and fits perfectly in my palm.

I had some reservations after reading some of the negative reviews, but I am SO glad I blew them off. I haven’t had any of the problems complained about by others, and you cannot beat the price on these things right now.

Problems solved
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I bought the Cannon FS100 (blue) even after reading all the reviews about the problems with the .MOD file extension. After receiving the camera and playing with it for a few hours it was really symple to save the movies. I took two videos, changed the file extension to .MPG. Opened Windows Movie Maker. I imported the two movies and clicked save to my computer. Then enter the file name, choose a place to save, click next and go to other settings. Choose (High Quality Video-large) Once the movie is joined the quality is excellent. I have no problem with saving, using this method. I’m really happy with this camera. I hope this helps.

Great camcorder at a great price
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Bought this for the wifey for christmas. We’ve got kids and have been using an older Sony MiniDV camcorder since 2003. The Sony has been great but the hassle of dealing with tapes was starting to get old.

The Canon FS100 is a great little camcorder. It’s small (about the size of a soda can), light, and does a great job. As others have mentioned, it doesn’t handle low-light particularly well but does fine in the average lit living room in the evening. The image stabilization works very well and the zoom is more than enough for any practical situations. The flash based media is very convenient. The only challenge is that it uses SDHC and there are very few SDHC card readers out there. SDHC are cheap and plentiful, it’s surprising that readers for SDHC aren’t more common. You can always hook up the camcorder directly to your PC via USB cable (supplied) but I’ve always been partial to using a card reader to minimize stress on the connectors on the unit itself.

At the price it’s going for on Amazon this camcorder is a steal. I doubt most people would be disappointed in any way.

Unhappy Camper
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
My first video camera since vhs. Removed cds from box and tryed to load.

Image Mixer 3 SE would not accept serial number of camera and therefore

aborted install. Called Canon Tech support on Friday. Said I would get a call on Monday. Went back to second cd in box, Digital Video Solution,

loaded ok but only works on stills, I think. Obviously, I don’t have a clue. No documentation in box. No instructions. So, have shot some short

videos but can’t down load. Operating camera by trail and error, lots of error. What to do? I just expected instructions and I am very disappointed that it may be a long time before I will ever get it.

Vista does not recognize this Camcorder
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
I used this camera and attached to TV to view the video quality and am impressed with the video quality. I like the SD flexibility. But still this camera is frustrating.

If you try to get the videos and Pictures out of this camera to your Vista based computer you will be disappointed. I tried on 2 different computers One having Vista Home Premium and one having Vista Home Basic. Both do not recognize is camera. I called Canon for drivers, they said Canon does not provide drivers for Vista and XP. The OS have the driver in built. But why the heck this is not recognized by the Vista. To make sure it does not conflict with other USB devices I removed all USB devices except Keyboard and Mouse. But still Vista does not know what this device is.

So overall a good camera but what its worth if you cannot get the videos out.

If anybody was able to get the videos/pictures out of this camera to your computer please share your experience.

Ok, but could be so much more.
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
Briefly, if you haven’t figured it out already, this camcorder is flash card based, and records MPEG-2 files directly onto a SD/SDHC memory card. This means that tranfering files to your computer is a breeze, although you may need to download a utility to help since the files are labeled .MOD

This camcorder records at 720×480 resolution, so it’s not high definition.

This camera has a few things going for it, briefly, they are:

*Great optical zoom. 37x optical zoom.

*Camera is small and very handy.

*Mic Input allows you to connect an external Microphone

*standby mode allows you to almost instantly capture movies/pictures

*Easy to use and figure out. Some of the controls could be better, but overall, this camera is very user friendly and easy to work.

Now for the “sin which doth so easily beset” this camcorder.

*Absolutely attrocious low-light recording capability. even recording in my room, which has (6) 100w lights, the camera displays a lot of noise and artifacts on the screen. Daylight shooting is fine; the picture looks great and there’s no macro effects or jerkiness noted. Step inside a pretty well-lit room, however, and you will immediately notice artifacts on the picture. There is a decent LED based light on the front of the camera that will provide decent illumination for four to six feet, but past that, forget it. If you plan on primarily shooting outdoors, this is camera is a good choice. If not, forget it.

* Still image taking mode is almost worthless. I was incredibly disappointed with the built in digital camera. I realize that’s not it’s primary function, but the ability to take semi-decent stills would be nice.

* Controls are fairly well placed for smaller hands, but if you have paws bigger than a twelve year old girl, you might have some issues reaching the “still image capture button” or with controlling the speed of the zoom. Again, most of these issues are related to the size of the product, but should be noted.

* No optical image stabilization. There is some form of electronic stabilization, but it’s not all that great.

____________________________________

Small observations and bottom line:

If you are using a tripod with a quick-disconnect, you won’t be able to open the battery cover door to replace the battery or the SD card.

Aftermarket batteries abound for this model camcorder, and can be had for approximately 20 USD each. The only problem is they don’t support the Canon battery monitoring software so you won’t know how long you have before your camcorder craps out.

If you can find this camcorder for 170 USD or less, I think it would be worth it.

If you plan on shooting indoors a lot, keep moving.

Guy Serle’s MyMac.com review
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I’ve been avoiding buying a new camcorder to replace the 8 year old DVC tape unit for awhile now. There were plenty of tempting offerings, but none matched the feature set and price point that I was looking for until I happened upon Canon’s FS100 model at an Apple Store. While giving it a once over there, I liked the light weight, the responsive and variable zoom, the microphone input, and that at $399, it was still very much reasonable in price. I almost bought it right there at the Apple Store, but resolved to sleep on it first and check out what other people were saying about it. I’m glad I did, and afterwards I almost gave it a miss but decided that no other camcorder available currently in the this price range would meet my needs.

Let me say what I liked about it first. As said before, It’s lightweight and small enough to fit in most pants pockets (or are you just happy to see me?) without making you walk funny. The unit measures 2.3-inches wide, 2.4-inches high, and 4.9-inches deep. It weighs about 9.2 ounces. It starts up almost instantly and is ready to record within a few seconds. It has a large 2.7-inch LCD display that is clear. It has a relatively easy menu system for setting up some of the various built-in features all of which a clearly displayed on the LCD. It has a variable zoom that can be as fast or as slow as the user might wish and there are some settings in the menu that allow you to adjust this even more. The battery lasted almost 2 hours of near continuous use for me (your usage will vary dependent on a number of factors). In it’s highest video resolution mode, you can get nearly 2 hours of video from an 8GB SDHC memory card, though Canon states that you can get over 5 hours of video from the same card at a lower resolution. Keep in mind that while this camcorder does record in either 4:3 or 16:9, it isn’t true high definition and if that’s something you must have in a camcorder, keep on looking.

There are a number of effects available from the FS100′s menus, like fade-in/fade-out, Sepia, and Black and white recording modes, Mosaic, and a few others of varying effectiveness. Most of these probably sound like nice additions, but I doubt you’ll use them more than once. There are a number of Automatic Exposure settings as well (AE in the menu) including TV, Portrait, Sports, Night, Snow, Fireworks, etc. Chances are unless you have specific needs, the Auto setting will work just fine in most conditions. You can manually set the White Balance as well as the unit having Auto, Daylight, and Tungsten presets.

Canon does not supply any memory for this camera (though essentially the same camera models FS10 and FS11 has 8GB and 16GB built-in respectively for a higher price), so an SD (preferable an SDHC card) will be required. I put in an 8GB SDHC card from Transcend that cost roughly about $31 and if even more storage is needed the camcorder accepts 16GB cards as well.

One of the main reasons I bought this camcorder was that it had a microphone input. The input uses an industry standard 3.5mm jack (there are adapters available for other sized inputs from places like Radio Shack) and as long as Phantom power is not required, the FS100 should be able to use nearly any non-XLR microphone. The built-in microphone is very sensitive and does a pretty good job, but is subject to some wind noise as most built-in microphones are.

Now some of the things I don’t like about this camcorder. The image sensor is only a little more than 1 megapixel. Still images look a little washed out and with both video and still images. The FS100 also does not do so well in low-light situations. I’ve used it now under some different lighting conditions and have had varied results. Fireworks seemed OK. The FS100 quickly adjusted itself from almost total darkness to bright bursts withe little effort. Also the FS100 had little trouble with typical stadium lighting, but any constant low-light situation was not that great.

The FS100 does take still pictures as well as video and it can shoot up to 5 frames a second. The image sensor as I said is only 1 megapixel so this is more like a stop-gap convergence answer for digital photography than a dedicated point and shoot. If your main focus is taking pictures and you want them to scale well in various sizes, the FS100 is not the answer for you.

The included software seemed next to useless to me or most likely any other Mac user that already has iPhoto for digital images. Once you have the camera plugged into a USB port and it mounts on your desktop, iPhoto should (depending on your settings) automatically start up. Downloading your still images using iPhoto is pretty straight forward like most digital cameras.

OK, let’s talk about what this kind of stuff this unit is really meant for: video. Honestly, even with the complaining I’ve done (and I’m not through yet), I liked the video this camera put out. While low-light certainly isn’t a strong point, it does pretty well in every other situation and I liked what I saw. Here’s what I didn’t like though, .MOD files. Know what those are? Apparently they’re some kind of modified mpeg-2 format that Canon uses. iMovie 06 and QuickTime 7 had no idea what to do with these files and it took a little research to find a solution.

A company called Squared5 makes a software converter called MPEG Steamclip that is an absolute free download and that will take those .MOD files and make them QuickTime compatible files (in a variety of formats). Also iMovie 08 will import them as well.

One other minor complaint is that if you want to download the content off the camera, you’ll either need to remove the card and put it in a reader or connect the camera via USB. No big deal in itself, but if you connect the camera directly, you MUST have the power cable connected and supplying power as well. If you’re out and about, that may not be easy. You might be better of having a few other memory cards to use until you offload them later. Also no battery charger is included so the only way to charge the batter right out of the box is to have it inside the camera and connected to power.

I really like this camera even with all the complaining I’ve done and it will be my main family shooter for at least a few years. I can live with its shortcomings as it is light, easy to use, takes great non-HD video and it has an external microphone connection.

MyMac rating:3 out of 5

FS 100 and Mac
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Great camera, but the .MOD movie files were not compatible with my G4 iBook running Mac OS 10.4. I did a lot of forum reading, though, and find an answer.

You need to download the free MPEG streamclip program from http://www.squared5.com AND buy the QuickTime 6 MPEG-2 Playback Component for Mac OS X from Apple for [..] (http://store.apple.com/us/product/D2189Z/A?fnode=home/shop_mac/software/apple&mco=MTA3OTA2

Once I had both of these installed, it translated .MOD into iMovie compatible stuff easily.

A guy at Apple store told me that buying iMovie 08 would work, too, as it would be compatible with .MOD. But I figured my approach was cheaper, and let me work with the computer I already have.

Otherwise I love it. Small and lightweight, great pics and movies.

Just what I was looking for!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Excellent camera, compact size, and no tapes!! Every piece of recording is its own file, so it should make editing and splicing easy. Just what I was looking for to video my 2 year son.

PERFECT except for quality of the video itself…
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
This camera sounds great if you read all these reviews, but I’m here to set the record straight.

Pros-

Optical Zoom

Stability

How fast it loads up in iMovie 08

Microphone seems to record parties well. Kinda has a surround sound effect

Turns on quickly

Small

Cons-

Image quality is GARBAGE

I returned this camera for an HD camcorder. The HD camcorder in question has a less effective optical zoom. Its image stability is worse than the FS100. But the picture is fantastic.

Of COURSE the HD camera has a better picture. The FS100 breaks my heart. It is PERFECT. It starts fast, fits in my pocket. The zoom is great. This camera is SWEET. But the video quality looks like a cell phone took it. And the still pictures are BELOW the quality of a cell phone. This camera is worth no more than $150.00 to me. I’ll pick it back up when it hits that price. …or less. It looks BELOW YouTube quality. That is a buzz word these days to describe your image sensor being wack.

I cannot believe it has a four star rating. What are people basing that rating on? The size? The zoom? I’ll be honest. You can upload a video, do some quick iMovie editing, and upload it to YouTube in under 20 minutes. THAT is worth four stars. Until you see the video on YouTube and CRINGE.

I wanted to love this camera. It does most everything perfectly. But the image is very, very terrible.