Canon FS100 Black Friday Sales!
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Canon FS100 Black Friday Sales!.
Product: Canon FS100 Amazon Price: Too low to display Availability: In Stock |
This is a long review because I took a lot of time in researching the camcorder I wanted, so I consider my knowledge and consume of this thing should be well-behaved to SOMEONE out there. I had my examine 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 puny remote, by the scheme, which came in handy when I connected the camcorder to our TV.
Preface: I am an intermediate video editor. I employ 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 level-headed easy to employ, but the more advanced features catch some button pushing to access. Detached, the basics are out in the inaugurate.
(By the intention, I purchased the sapphire blue and it's more graceful 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 accurate now in a camcorder.
These were my requirements that I wouldn't rush 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 miniature, but I had no plan that the whole thing could sit in my hand. It also fits in my purse (and my purse isn't a large "hobo" bag that many girls carry around these days) . Because there are no "spirited parts" and everything is recorded to a limited memory card (SD), the camcorder is also very light and tranquil. If it's calm not composed enough for you because you're in an extremely detached surrounding, consume 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 serene be of large quality, but SD memory cards are unprejudiced 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 contemplate the inequity between DV and flash memory. Memory cards are also lighter, smaller, and unruffled. They get it easier to actually net 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 Procure 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 determine where you want the clip to inaugurate, and voila - some basic playback editing without ever leaving the camcorder interface. You won't have to demolish an entire DVD (or bore a viewer with vacation footage of your spouse snoring) .
I weak the FS100 *all day* in Hollywood, CA during an outing with two diminutive 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 place 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 composed has a bit of a shake in the extinguish, but the stabilization seems better than other camcorders.
I jumpy about the battery life because it seemed short on paper, but using it all day without its Like A Flash Begin option (letting it hibernate so you can fair commence the veil and instantly portray something), was dandy. The battery extinct up about 25% of its power! (By the method, you can thought 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 concept on using them for grand unless you need very, very basic editing capabilities. Don't even contemplate using the still-photo camera. I don't know why Canon even bothered with it at all. Some cell phones lift better pictures.
Since I have Premiere, I unprejudiced wanted to employ my reader, but a 16GB SD card requires me to take a newer reader because it's so tall. I tried USB affirm to my computer: Method. TOO. Dead. So I belief I would install the program for now impartial to transfer my footage, but that also was too wearisome. I ended up purchasing the Transcend reader on Amazon for ~$9 and it worked spacious.
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 search for the files as widescreen at all. Windows Movie Maker does, but I really don't want to spend that for editing. I tried Avidemux, and it didn't pull in the audio. So, I calm have a pickle to figure out.
My Premiere also didn't study 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 crude light. Quality goes a bit downhill. It does have a light you can turn on, but it doesn't invent that mighty of a inequity.
I haven't played with the settings to glimpse 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 gloomy. The light through the window objective gets blown out, so I had to angle the camcorder away from such "exclaim" light to collect my subject-in-shadow nicely.
SUMMARY:
Great camcorder with fair features, but complicating issues with retrieving files, so I couldn't give it 5 stars. Quiet adore it.
I've been looking to update my conventional Sony Digital8 camcorder and have been looking primarily at Mini-DV. But, this flash camcorder caught my recognize since the mark 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 dissimilarity, 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 preserve 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 mask to jog in the AC adapter. Once I did that the camera came apt 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 tiny) . 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 intention, it's impartial powerful, mighty less hassle to hold an SDHC/MMC card reader and copy the folders off.
If you wish to mess with iMovie and other specialized software, then I disclose you'll have to withhold your file structure safe and follow the manual more closely. I expend Final Sever on the Mac, not iMovie, so my first danger was, What is a MOD file and an MOI file? That is what you're left with after you copy your card. The short retort is, toss the MOI files - assuming you are not using the on-camera editing features. I unprejudiced relate and dump to the hard drive and edit with Final Slice.
A MOD file (not to be confused with the music format file) is fair an mpeg2 file with audio included. This will confuse some Windows programs which query the audio in a separate file, so exercise Media Player Classic. Quicktime on the Mac had no pickle 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 moral for WideScreen format. You may need Mpeg tools to right 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 Prick" and "Begin." I was left with DV files ready to edit, although 5x larger. There's even a setting to force 16:9 aspect ratio. The bag is that you'll need to re-encode serve to Mpeg2 if you're burning for DVD.
The nice thing is there aren't any tapes to acquire dirty and wear out. Flash cards may be customary hundreds or thousands of times, unlike DV tapes which are weak once or twice. The size of files are very puny and easily archived, over an hour of video on a single DVD-R of raw footage. But, re-encoding to DV and support to Mpeg2 will sacrifice some quality. I assume it's a respectable trade-off to using a DV recorder since you can do in minutes what it would usually recall 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 recount a conversation in a noisy room you will enjoy the ability to employ a directional mic. No headphones, but it has an audio meter level point to. White balance! Numerous white balance settings as well as manual. Auto and manual shutter accelerate, exposure, focus, and audio win at your finger tips. And, an "Easy Mode" for corpulent automatic for those who detest buttons or honest need to grab a quickly action shot - press "on", press "easy", press "recount" and you're recording in seconds. No intelligent 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 shroud the camera in the palm of my hand. It's miniature, lightweight, and easy to shoot without getting tired.
As for the not so hot stuff, the recording light is an LED. My ragged Sony Digital 8 camcorder faded a small 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 form 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 expend one very considerable - you will need to shoot with the LCD commence.
Overall the camera is a reliable dinky 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 pause recording sound. We simply expend it to relate family moments so I'm not doing any kind of professional video recording.
I do like the concept of having the SD cards vs. a hard drive. I can change out and replace the SD cards even if they go terrible but if the hard drive goes unpleasant 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 report about 1 hour and 45 min. of video (I assume that's proper) . I also found it VERY easy to transfer the video straight into my computer with an SD reader. This was a Vast spot with my previous recorder because it had problems transferring the video from the mini DV tapes to the PC.
I haven't old-fashioned the tranquil photo capability yet and don't conception to since I have a qualified 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 diminutive glitch (ONLY with the colored units; the blue and red) when entering the serial number to register the software it doesn't seek the serial number from the unit. You actually have to change the first 3 numbers from 822 to 808 to score the serial number to obtain. I found this from an earlier review on this situation.
2. My other verbalize is the sound can be a cramped better. It was a microscopic shameful but I can live with it.
3. One last thing, it DOES NOT approach 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 imprint and its capabilities, it is a superior camcorder.
