Good choice for point and film users (Canon FS100)

Member Name: fubaringly

Product:	Canon FS100
Date:	29/06/08 (508 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Battery life, cost and size

Disadvantages: Not high def.

The key feature of this video camera is that it records onto flash memory. Because it uses these SD and SDHC flash memory cards you get some useful benefits;
1) The battery last longer than HDD, DVD or tape cameras. The standard filming time is 3 hours.
2) Transferring video and photos to a PC is incredibly simple, you just stick the SD card into your PC card reader (I haven't seen a PC sold without a built in reader for years) and drag the files over to your PC.
3) The video camera is small and light, not much bigger than a digital camera. So it can fit into your bag without it being a pain to carry around. It's also pretty good looking which is a nice bonus and really well designed to fit in your hand comfortably.

Its worth mentioning that if you forget to put a SD card in you can still record directly onto the internal memory. Also as SD and SDHC cards get bigger and bigger in capacity you have a camera that will never be limited by a shortage of memory space.

So this is a well designed, good looking, easy to use camcorder and it's well priced. However the price reflects the fact we will be getting standard definition not high def. footage. Online prices I've seen are between £200 and £250. You also get a good optical zoom of x37 which is great for distance shots, the digital zoom of x2000 is something you probably won't use.

I think this is a perfect camera for anyone wanting to point and shoot and be able to quickly transfer and share their films. It's Ideal for holidays and active filming, the small design and lack of moving parts makes it a study choice for any knock about film making. If you want to get serious with high def. you will have to pay more and you may still loose some of the advantages of this camcorder.

Specs:
Record To Memory Card
Definition - Standard Definition
Video Recording Format SD Memory Card, SDHC Memory Card,
USB Connection
Optical Zoom Factor 37x (45x with Advanced Zoom)
Digital Zoom Factor 2000x
Image Stabiliser
Colour Viewfinder
LCD Screen 2.7" widescreen colour
Media Card SDHC Card, SD Card,
Sound Stereo
Manual Focus
Backlight Compensation
Built-in Light
Top Shutter Speed 1/2000th sec.
Minimum Light (Lux) Approx. 1.7 lux (Night Mode)
Remote Control
Dimensions (WxHxD) mm 58 x 60 x 124mm
Weight 260g

(also on Ciao)

Summary: Good but not great

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