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

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!)

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.

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.

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.

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.