Canon VIXIA HG21 AVCHD 120 GB HDD Camcorder

Great daylight video, grainy in low light – updated 1/10/2009
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Let me start by saying that I’ve been using camcorders for 20 years, way back to the full sized VHS days. Canon and Sony have been my favorites for many years, starting with their 8mm days. Since consumer HD seems to have stabilized in its second generation, I decided to upgrade from my six year old Sony 8mm.

The Canon Digital SLR cameras are second to none, I own three of them (Digital Rebel, Rebel Xti and an EOS 40D) and they blow the competition away. I fall into the “prosumer” category for digital categories, and the Canon Digic processor is one of the things that has separated Canon from its competitors. So certainly the second generation HD Canon Vixia 21 with the Digic II processor would be a no-brainer, right? Not exactly.

The good:

120GB hard disk drive – you can record up to 45 hours of video in LP mode, and about 11 hours in the best HD mode the camera has. The storage capacity will, by far, outlast the battery that comes with the camcorder.

SDHC slot – Unlike Sony and their proprietary Memory Stick, Canon has and continued to use SD and now SDHC memory. SDHC cards are available from numerous vendors and they are easier to find and less expensive than the Memory Stick.

12X optical zoom – this works extremely well, as advertised. Digital zoom takes away from the quality of the recording, so I prefer to stick with the optical zoom. The controls for the zoom are very fluid and smooth.

Picture quality – in daylight and indoors with good light, the picture quality is exceptional. Playing the video on my HDTV is just as good as any broadcast HDTV quality you’ll ever see on TV.

Image stabilization – very few people can hold anything completely still. With the image stabilization feature, you don’t have to worry about it – the camcorder handles it for you and does a great job of it.

The bad:

Short battery life – the battery that ships with the camcorder (BP 807/808) will give you no more than 80-90 minutes of operation. If you don’t plan to use it any more than that on each outing, then it is not a big issue for you. If you plan to use it for a day of on and off shooting, you need to get another batter. The BP827 will give you almost five hours of running time, for a steep $144. Adding to this, you can only charge the battery while the battery is in the camcorder. The external battery charger is another $60 or so. In short, if you plan to use this camcorder for longer than an hour, buy an extra battery and the external charger so you can charge one battery while using the other. This is not a Canon specific problem, every vendor, including Sony, has its limitations with batteries and charging. They also have the “optional” longer life batteries and external chargers for a steep price as well.

Low light shooting – The picture quality is grainy and unimpressive. After seeing what the daylight shots looked like on the TV, then watching the low light shots, you will be somewhat dissapointed. Perhaps there is some special low light setting I do not know about – I’ve only had the camcorder for a week. Another reviewer indicated better luck in low light. I will report back if this is resolved.

Despite the additional battery and charger purchase, I think this is a very good camcorder. I hope to resolve the low light issue. Daytime and good lighting recording is breathtaking on replay. Given that this is a consumer grade camcorder, I doubt you’ll find any better for the money.

Update:

As promised, I’ve worked with the camcorder for a couple of weeks now, and not much has changed. The daylight and well-lit room video is broadcast quality HD. Low light is still somewhat grainy. I also purchased a longer life battery and external charger from Amazon, which comes in very handy. I would still purchase this camcorder.

great video
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Love this camcorder. The video is beautiful, especially in low light, which was a concern since I read many reviews of other video cameras that indicated the low light performance was not very good. It’s super easy to use, and very lightweight. The only reason I did not give this camcorder a 5 star is because one of the pixels on the lcd screen was broken when we took it out of the box, and Amazon won’t exchange it for only one broken pixel. For the price, and considering that I bought it new, I would expect it to be absolutely perfect when it came out of the box.

Spectacular!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I am blown away by this Camcorder. I did alomost 3-4 months of review on Price/Performance and narrowed down to this one and HFS11/HF200.. Its a joy to shoot with. Images and Vids are crisp, yes blurring is there while shooting in dark and high speed but how many times are you going to do that.

Battery life is pathetic so plan to have a spare one. Overall, this is my fisrt camcorder and I am loving it

Question HD is really possible?
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I finally decided to replace my Sony 8mm camcorder with an HD camcorder. Read the reviews about the Canon Vixia HG21. Sounded good to me. Bought it, took it to the beach to film the wife and kids in HD. Read the manual and set proper settings before we left. Got home and watched it on a 46′ inch Samsung HDTV. WHAT? The video would blur, if the camera moved slighlty, then, the second the camera was held steady, the video would snap into High Def. The focus would pulsate in and out of high def quality constantly. So, got the manual out, played some more with the settings, filmed some birds in the back yard. Watched results, same thing. So, decided to go with the EASY mode button, and took the camera to film my 5 year old son at a gymnastics class. Got home, again, watched the video on a Samsung 46′ HDTV. Wow, same thing. Filming the kids moving, jumping and playing, the camera could not keep in focus until the camera was held completely steady. Picture quality, when this happened was outstanding and amazing. I have an 8mm Sony camera that I’ve used for 7 years, it always kept the subject and entire scene in focus at all times. Whether the camera was moving or not. I now question if you can actually film in HD and the video be better than 8mm?

I find the comments on this camera, on Amazon interesting. Not one person mentions what the quality of the video is like when played back on an large HDTV. That’s what I was interested in and didn’t find out until I bought the camera. Wasn’t impressed and returned the camera. Now, I’m not sure of other HD cameras or if it was just this camera. But, I’m questioning if you can actually have a hand held camcorder that is HD and have it film in HD? To get the best results, I bet the camcorder would have to be mounted on a tri-pod and not be hand held.

I’m waiting for the technology on HD to improve before I buy. Not impressed.

Cannon Videocam
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
The camera is easy to use out of the box. Takes quality picture in most condition, even low light. The stills are comparable to a point and shot camera. The only negative is the editing software, its weak.

Excellent camera – BUT WATCH FOR COMPATIBILITY
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I love the camera and the video quality. But check the video format and see if it’s compatible with your software and your other videos. Adobe Premiere, for example WAS not fit to edit this camera’s videos (look for updated review below)!!! I am using Vegas editing software (you can buy it online).

Ah, the camera is a bit bulky. Doesn’t fit your pocket. You have to carry it around your neck.

**** VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE:

ADOBE PREMIERE CS4 already supports the video format for this camera. NATIVE EDITING – i.e. no lenghy and quality deteriorating conversions before you edit. But YOU HAVE TO DOWNLOAD a specific patch to the software – free on the internet. Just google it. I don’t remember the name. I use it on my Mac CS4. Double check for PCs, but it should work.

FOR APPLE USERS:

iMovie IS ONLY PARCIALLY COMPATIBLE. It recognizes the format, but does not edit nativelly. Which means that you have to import everything into iMovie before editing. And this importing looses A LOT of quality !! Really. I could not get anything that was good quality out of this setup. It doesn’t make sense to buy an HD camera, and end up with crappy output because of conversions. DO NOT USE iMovie with this camera until they upgrade the software for native editing (like Adobe did).

Good Luck !!

Love this camcorder
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
My husband and I love this camcorder! It holds a ton of clips, works really well in low-light situations, and focuses wonderfully. We’re very pleased with our experience so far.

We did not purchase any extra batteries – and although we may in the future, so far there hasn’t been a need. We just charge it as often as we need to.

BEST AVCHD OUT THERE!!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I was using a MiniDV camcorder and decided to up grade. I’m not a big Canon fan, mostly because of price but I sure do love this camcorder. There is A LOT of great features on the HG21 and yes it does have a viewfinder (the HG20 does not). Its very simple to use and you have a lot of storage with the 120GB hard. I love shooting in the 24p cinema mode. I definitely would recommend it! If you don’t need a huge hard drive or viewfinder than go with the HG20 its exactly the same and you will save some $$$.

A Superb HD Camcorder – flexible automatic & manual features
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I purchased this camera for personal and work use. Although people complain about low light problems, I found settings that use aperature priority and take fine night video. It has fantastic automatic features and just takes some setting up and getting used to to make it produce incredible HD output.

I did a lot of research before buying this model. It is truly the closest thing I could find to a profesional camcorder in a small and reasonably priced camera. The option to use hard drive or SD card for recording or taking still pictures is very fast and easy to switch modes.

The still picture mode takes exceptional pictures and the included flash was something I had missed in my research and was a great surprise!

Note: The mini HD connector is recessed and will require a tapered mini connector! I was able to shave off the corner of the mini adaptor I purchased until I could get a properly sized cable.

Canon Camcorder
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Camera was as advertised and is as good as reviews I have read on it. Very happy.

Im Happy to Sitck with my HG10 and HF10
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
big deal then made hard drive from 40 GB form last years to 120 which copied off of SONY and JVC th eblack is ugly on it but the black on HF10 is awesome they took away view finder off of HG21 sad to say people still go nuts on a newer model not ME i love the HG10 would think of selling to upgrade UGLY HG21 but AWESOME HG10 / HF10 RULEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

SHARE THE GREAT NEWS
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Stunning colors, highest quality and the image stabilzation works perfectly, even in the car. I absolutely love this camcorder. It is so small, it fits in my pocket. I can take it anywhere I go. The photographs are extremely sharp and 8x10s look fantastic with a single pixel showing.

I can designate if I want to put it on the hard drive or the memory card. For right now, buy a dvi cable and plug it into your LCD monitor. I can’t speak enough about this camcorder. You don’t need a big bulky professional video camera anymore. When canon made it, they were thinking about the consumer. I rate Canon on the top of the scale when it comes to any photographic equipment. I also have a 40D with all the lenses. Good luck and stay happy!

HG21 Works for Mac/iMovie
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
HG21 is probably the best HD Camcorder out there. I say this because I have tried another high end camcorder from Sony with a 120GB harddrive, which (the Sony) was unbelievably disappointing in both color and resolution. Fortunately, we bought it at Costco, and just returned the Sony within a day.

The Canon HG21 has amazing High Def pictures for daylight scenes. The color is very rich and eye pleasing. If you do a good job shooting, it can fool the untrained eyes as if it’s professional HD video. I have a Pioneer 50″ 1080i Plasma, and the pictures from the HG21 are so refined, the colors are beautiful.

Night scenes are grainy. This is very disappointing. I also have a Flip MinoHD. The $200 little Flip out performs the Canon for night scenes. Canon should be a bit embarrassed by it and catch up on this front.

The Mac/Apple compatibility of HG21 is a big plus. Canon has shipped a software CD with the camcorder, however, the software doesn’t work for Mac, and Mac users really don’t need it anyway. It was a pleasant surprise to open up iMovie’08 and the HG21 was automatically recognized on the USB port, and the Camera Import Window within iMovie popped out immediately to guide you through the importing of videos. Previously, everyone said AVCHD editing tool is hard to find. The Mac has it built in. Hats off to Apple. Select “Large” setting to import, “Full” resolution will cost you a lot of hard drive space.

Overall, I would give this HG21 a “A-” for great daylight performance, working with iMovie’08 which is a wonderful consumer movie making tool, but has lackluster grainy night scenes.

Excellent Value
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
The Vixia HG21 is an excellent camera. The image quality surpasses others that I have seen. Using Shutter Priority (Tv) I was able to capture waterfalls on HD video and on Still image with the misty quality that Ansel Adams had captured with his large format cameras.

The extended life batteries and the additional lens kits from Canon are a bit pricey. But found it is best to go with the recommended Canon accessories rather than 3rd party.

Using HDMI out port or the Component Out port to a 1080p flat screen monitor provided surprisingly beautiful HD video to the screen with crystal clear imaging.

The camera is very light and takes a bit getting used to after having used professional cameras.

Excellent Camera at a great price for HD
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’ve been shooting with Canon cameras for years and I purchased this camera approximately 2 months ago. It has been nothing but fantastic. Even low light night football games turned out to be very impressive. My only complaint which has been addressed in other reviews is the battery life of the original battery that ships with the camera. I bought an extended battery (a bit pricey but worth it) and the camera has never run out of juice for any of the shooting I’ve done. Here is an example of a low light video I shot at my sons flag football game – I edited it together with Adobe Premiere Elements:

[...]

Watching the video on a big screen LCD TV is absolutely stunning. Even with a 120GB hard drive I back up my videos on 2 external hard drives and I use an online service called motionbox. I highly recommend this camera.

This camcorder can take a beat down.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’ve dropped this thing twice now. Once on concrete, once on a hard surface from about 3 or 4 feet. It’s still working great. I hope I don’t find out how many times you have to drop it before it breaks.

This is my second HD camcorder and this one definitely has the best image quality. My older Sony HDV (almost 4 years old) has more features but this one has the better image quality. Probably because it’s alot newer.

I’m going to have to upgrade my computer soon to edit the AVCHD video.

Great camera but no FireWire/IEEE port
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This camera has a great image quality but only support USB computer connections. Mac based systems require IEEE for direct connect and recording. Nonetheless I get great video quality from this camcorder.

One feature that I really wanted was manual focus and manual exposure control, and with this camera you get both.

HG 21
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I bought this camcorder (120 gb) about three weeks ago and love it. I’ve shot several night time football games and some indoor volleyball games. All my videos were amazing! I think the battery life is ‘OK’. On a full charge it shows about 1 1/2 hours (give or take). I purchased a spare just to make sure. I’m also going to purchase the Canon DW-100 to burn the discs so I don’t have to store everything on my laptop (just in case something happens to the computer). If you have a hi-def TV, I would highly recommend this camera.

awesome
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Really like the size and function of the camera this has to be my 5th video camera and by far the best Technology is a wonderful thing!

Happy so far
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I haven’t had the camcorder for too long. What I can say is that I am soo thankful I bought the larger capacity battery. The original lasts about 30min on the highest settings. The high capacity battery is almost 3 hrs. The stabilization really makes this camera worth every penny. I am still messing with some of the settings to get the best picture for me. Quality is really high, almost too high. Transferring about 80min of video (60i mode) via the included USB took about 80min!!! I have since turned down the resolution a bit.

I do recommend this camera and have shown it to a few friends who are now looking to get it. The additional battery is a must, so factor that in the price. I have an Apple (running 10.5.7 iMovie ’09) and had no issues importing and editing video without the need for Canon’s software.

All in all, this camera was worth it for me. It has everything I want at a reasonable price. This will keep me for the next 10 years.

Great
Rating:5 out of 5 stars

Ordered this and the Sony SR12 and kept the HG21. Outdoor shots are great and the 24P and 30P options for low indoor lighting work. Indoor light during the day can be shot with ‘easy mode’ and look great. Easy mode is your friend until you know how to film.

The software is not great but it works. The build quality compared to the Sony is less but still good. The video quality and manual controls more than make up for it….

Bottom line ……. great. Bought it from Amazon.

nice but:
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
it is very good but cant get the video’s on to the computer! if sombody cen tell me it will be grate-thank you !

Great Camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Nice small size. Easy to use interface. Great looking video (even at medium quality settings). Holds many many hours of pictures, easy to transfer to the computer. Bonus: the view finder moves in and out, to adjust to a short or long battery, (old versions didn’t, and battery got in the way of the view finder; glad they improved this).

On the minus side: The optional large battery is overpriced. The AVCHD video compression requires a high powered computer (I need to buy a new Quad CPU at 2.66GHz for my video editing software, with BluRay disk burner). So if you are used to the old standard recorders, you may find that the camera is the cheapest part of the upgrade to higher resolution movies.

P.S. I used the free 10 day shipping, but it arrived in only 2 days; very nice of Amazon to ship it quickly at no extra cost.

Great pics!!!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
We simply love this item. Easy to take both movies and pictures with it. Have yet to learn how copy items off, but the book is very instructional and easy to follow. The pictures are clean, the audio very good, and the replay on a TV is great quality. Would strongly recommend to all.

2008 Christmas Gift of the Year
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This camera is just plain awesome. The minute you have it in your hand, you can feel the workmanship in how sturdy of a unit it feels. Easy to use even for the novice, with settings and features that will you in awe.

Worth every penny and memory it will capture.

Peace Love & Honest Self Expression

Flawless recording on every rough ride and rollercoaster
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
We bought this camera from Amazon for a family vacation to Disney World in January 2009. I had initially selected the similar Sony camera because of it’s reviews and my past experience, plus it had surround sound capable recording, but reviewers complained that camera recording shut down during rough car ride or filming through open window. I chose the Canon instead and am glad I did. I recorded every wild Disney ride and roller coaster I went on. It never failed to record, although it could not focus during one indoor high speed roller coaster because of the darkness. I still give it 5 stars. The camera not only has a large hard drive, but can record video or photos to removable memory cards as well and has a fantastic hi-resolution camera for great still shots and photos. You only need one camera to do it all.

Battery life is not great and dark scenes are grainy. The camera could benefit from a mainstream light accessory shoe, but the camera does have a built in flash. A pricey light and boom mic is available. The camera kit does not include the proprietary HDMI cable to connect to your HDTV (sold separately). There is a wide angle lens available and would be helpful when you can’t back up enough to capture the whole scene.

It is very comfortable in the hand and has a built in viewfinder which saves battery life by not using the lcd screen. I did a lot of accidental recording when using the viewfinder because I pressed the record button unintentionally. Some reviewers complained of jittery zooms, but disable the digital zoom and the problem disappears.

Recordings were edited on camera and burned to Blu-ray without problems. I am very satisfied.

UPDATE: Another reviewer asks is HD is worth it. Definitely yes. Recording is quite remarkable viewed on 46 in HD television. I disabled digital zoom to avoid grainy jumpy video in super zoom and enabled cinema 24 plus AVCHD for high density HD recording.

Great little HD camcorder
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
After several weeks of research on the best HD camcorder for under $1000.00, I bought this one. I hadn’t had a camcorder in about 7 years and the last one I had was a lot bigger. I wanted something small and easy to hold with a hard drive. I was originally going to buy the 60GB model, but for a few hundred more I thought it was worth getting the 120GB model. This camera is wonderful. I can shoot video of my daughter who plays soccer for Barry University in Miami, without any difficulties. I went all out and bought the extra battery, the light and the camera bag. I didn’t realize how small it was until it was shipped to me. The picture is awesome on my 65″ lcd Sharp Aquos TV and the sound is fantastic. The zoom is wonderful and the extra battery lasts around 4.5 hours for me. (it was worth $125.00) to be able to record longer lenghts then what the original battery lasts. I can tape the entire soccer game and the half time activities without needing to change the battery out. The software is OK. I wanted to buy a different software program that I can use with my Windows Vista 64 bit that runs in my computer, but I need to make sure it is compatable with 64 bit and not just 32 bit. ANY SUGGESTIONS???? Anyway if you are considering this camera- you will not be disapointed- I love it!! And with Amazon Prime, It arrived the next day for $3.99-can’t beat that. Canon makes great products and I am extremely happy with this one!!

A terrific camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Purchased this camera a month or so ago from Amazon — extremely happy with this camera. Incredible image quality – especially in the 24mbs setting (the highest quality setting). The camera is compact and light in weight.

Some notes for purchasers : You’ll definitely want to get the BP-827 battery for this camera — it eats through the standard battery shipped with the camera quickly. Personally, I bought a couple of the BP-827′s. Also, the cameras image quality in low-light scenarios is average — so the VL-5 light (another accessory) comes in handy and seems to work very well with this camera. Best image quality from this camera will come from very well-lit scenes — which is going to be true for almost any consumer grade camera out there.

Overall, I’m very happy with this camera.

Excellent HD camcorder!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Fantastic color, easy to use, great viewfinder which works perfect for outdoor recording. This camcorder is a bit bulkier than many other HD models out right now, but is comfortable to hold while shooting.

The software included is needed to download videos to your computer, but I am using Pinnacle Video v.12 Ultimate for editing my videos. The manual is a bit lame also but gives enough of the basic info to get you started.

One of the biggest reasons to buy this camcorder over the HG20 is the viewfinder though! Also, first time out I recorded about 36 minutes at the highest quality which used 6.55GB on the hard drive. When I downloaded it to my computer it only took 7 minutes! This is awesome as my old camcorder recorded to tape which meant the download time was minute for minute. Uggghh. I really like the hard drive feature and expect to use this awesome camcorder alot!

Most Interesting Camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
First of all, this is my first camcorder. We do have the ability to use our small Canon digital camera in this mode but this is a far cry from that. I was excited to get one of the first even though I figured I would be taking a slight gamble as I am not exactly that informed on the subject and wonder about the wisdom of getting a product that is not yet proven.

So far, so good…Our grandchild had a birthday the very day this thing came in so I was determined to figure things out in order to capture the event. I figured that we paid a premium price to have the high HD quality so of course I shot in the highest mode. I only had time to charge the battery and skim through the book but I am happy to report that the quality of the videos was simply outstanding. In my opinion, the easy part is taking the pictures…set it to the quality and mode and fire away. Then, the question is, what to do afterwards…This is the hard part.

I have an Intel Mac and IMovie 08 so I read other reviews of similar cameras and figured out how to move the shots from the camera to the computer. No problem. In my opinion, and that is what these reviews are all about, if you are shooting at the highest quality, you better have a lot of room on your hard drives, and, or, prepare to spend a lot of time on the back end moving your videos off the camera and on to disks or the drives. I did not have much hard drive space left on my Mac so perhaps that fact made things seem very slow. On the other hand, because I wanted to shoot in the highest quality, the wait and trouble were worth the investment…Remember, I am just at the edge of knowing what I am doing so you must consider that my skill level is still very low by comparison.

The great thing about this camera, in addition to the fact that the HD videos are breathtaking, is that the built in hard drive is 120 gigs…wow! that is equal to 82 of the smaller 3 inch DVDs! About 45 hours of recording time on lower quality and near 11 hours or so in the highest quality…so, unless you get nervous about hard drive failure, you can go for a long time without having to move them off the camcorder.

After doing a little reading and fiddling around, I hooked the camera up to our HD TV and was pretty much able to use the little remote device and see the videos. Simply outstanding…most shots were taken in the house with average lighting. One of my concerns was reading that low light might cause grainy videos but I did not find this to be the case….I suspect this could be the case when shooting in extremely low light but I cannot see this ever becoming an issue. I was too impatient to actually link into the HD ports of my TV so we settled for using the ports at the front and went to the game port…I do not think this was actually in HD but it still was just incredible. Later, when I played back some videos on our HP Vista computer and just was blown away with the quality…I had gone outside and take videos of the hummingbirds on our feeder and could not believe how crystal clear the shots were.

The 12X optical zoom is very close to walking up to the subject…very nice. The image stabilizer works great as I never used a tripod and still saw no real shaking. I did notice that you can negate image stabilizer when using the camera on a tripod so that was something I was a little concerned about.

One addition thing that may concern some…apparently these hard drive camcorders could suffer damage to the drives if used at an altitude of 9800 feet and above. If you are a serious mountain climber or plan to be above 9800 feet, you might consider other options.

I am very interested in reading other reviews. So far I am very pleased…no camera will ever be perfect and do all things so, regardless of the quality or cost, there will always be some element of compromise. I have already ordered another battery as well as an SD card for it. The battery life is short of two hours so trips out in the wild pretty much would demand more power. Most may not feel the need to have another battery but I cannot imagine missing any great shots…you pay too much for these things not to be able to use them to their fullest extent…maybe another review when I actually know what I am doing!

Best camcorder on the market
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is best HD camcorder on the market. It takes amazing pictures. The clarity is similar to watching a blue-ray movie. I love the huge hard drive. It takes hours of video without any worries. The best part is the quick and easy transferring of video clips to my computer. I used to spend the whole day uploading DV tapes. Now, through the USB is 10 times faster. The editing software is very easy to use.

Worth the investment
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’ve used this camcorder for about a month now and I’m very happy with my purchase. Canon released the new 2009 models at CES2009 – and this model still compares well in comparison. (The newer models sport much better camera capabilities, but I already own a great camera.) Originally purchased this model instead of the HG20 for the viewfinder, and although the viewfinder works OK the additional hard drive space makes the purchase worthwhile. Picture Quality is awesome (I only record in MXP) and sound quality so-so, but I’ll connect an external microphone if I need better sound quality. Due to the enhanced picture quality in MXP you will not get away with common standard definition recording mistakes – especially when you play back on a large size LCD or Plasma. Quick pans or bumpy recording could make you feel sick when watching playback on a large screen. Maybe a good book on the subject is in order before capturing that big event … or let your wife do the recording . Car power adapter and extra battery is a must for long trips.

Great little package
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I was really surprised by its size. it is very small and light, but does a great job with pretty much anything, but it does struggle in the dark like every other camcorder under 2-3 grand. The resolution is great and the added program for transfers is simple and easy. If you want to transfer files onto the computer in a usable format it gets more frustrating as it scales down the resolution, and not all file formats are available. You would have to buy a separate program. All in all it is a great camcorder with lots of options for its intended users.

-Buy a better battery,

-Don’t try using the camera for action shots

-must have lots of lighting to get a great photo.

Happy customer
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Very small device – fits in your hand. Could easily fit in a winter coat pocket. We leave it laying around the house so we can quickly capture video of the kids being the kids. Display is a little poor but the picture quality is great. Overall, it is extremely easy to use and the functions are well laid-out. I am coming from a Sony which had night-shot (IR system) which was really fantastic – this camera does not have that. I have not uploaded to the computer yet. Overall, very satisfied.