Canon FS100 Flash Memory Camcorder with 48x Advanced Zoom (Silver)

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.

exellent, no problem at all, simple take the video format, chage to mpeg, then burn with any recorder.

thanks

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.

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.

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.