| Brand: | Canon | ||
| Average Rating |
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The FS100 is one of Canon’s first Flash Memory camcorders. In addition to the advantage of added recording time, Flash Memory offers quick response time, because it doesn’t have to wait for moving parts. The FS100′s lower power consumption rate allows your battery to last longer. Measuring only 2.3 wide, 2.4 high and 4.9 deep, it combines big video storage capacity in a small, easy to carry body. The 2.7 Widescreen LCD on the FS100 lets you see more of what your camcorder is recording. With the FS100 you get a powerful 1.07 Megapixel CCD image sensor. The video you shoot will be sharp, clear and more true to life, as will your still photos. The Genuine Canon 48x Advanced Zoom on the FS100 extends the power of your zoom. In both wide angle and telephoto positions, there is virtually no loss in image quality throughout the range. The Canon DIGIC DV II Image Processor is the next generation of Canon’s exclusive DIGIC DV signal processing technology to ensure optimal image quality for still images, even though video and still images have different color requirements. Focal Length – f=2.6-96.2mm Minimum Focusing Distance – 10mm (wide)/1m (tele) White Balance – Daylight, Tungsten, Auto, and Manual Programmed AE – Auto, Program, TV, Portrait, Sports, Night, Snow, Beach, Sunset, Spotlight, and Fireworks 2-channel Dolby Digital Audio (AC-3) 3.5mm Stereo Mini-jack Microphone Terminal Dimensions – Width 2.3 x Height 2.4 x Depth 4.9 (58x60x124mm) Weight – 9.2 ounces (260 grams) more info
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Quit Reading & BUY.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
First, my review of the Samsung SC-MX20 Flash Memory Camcorder:
**** I bought this and was thrilled at how far a cheap camera could go. That was while hooked up to my TV. Then I came to understand ANY software that comes with any product just sucks. The software company blames Samsung and Samsung blames the software company. We on the other hand, are stuck here screaming and kicking….
Long story short, I kept this 3 1/2 weeks before I returned it. Some picture quality was nice, a LOT had that cheap looking blurry look. Have to use a lot of “technique” to trick this camera into consistent quality video. Then there is that great zoom. Great but very “jerky”. No thanks. Image stabilazation? Not much of a help. Oh, and then I run into a few people who have had the battery LEAK and ruin this camera? NO THANKS! And you are supposed to remove the battery every single time you are not going to be using it? No thanks again. And to remove it, you have to just go to too much crap for me.
**** (Now The Canon FS 100)- What did I replace it with? The Canon FS 100. I read about all the nightmares of dealing with MOD files. Well I’m sorry….people having problems must be using computers older than me? I simply pop out my memory card, pop it into my computers (running both Vista AND one running Windows 7) and the movies all play PERFECT! Wide-screen is already wide-screen. My Pinnacle Editing Software has NO problem with it. The zoom is WAY better than Samsung and give me 3 built in setting to “control” that zoom so it is smooth & professional looking. Plus, it is simply so much clearer & stronger. Then the BEST feature. It has a remote control. Use it for not just play back, but for recording. Can zoom in on yourself etc from across the room. Picture quality? I would say 70%+ BETTER on the Canon. Why? No idea. It just is.
There’s more but my YouTube site lets you see all the quality differences plain as day. Indoor picture quality problems do NOT exist as I have read for me either. Check mikentrishcartwright out on YouTube if in doubt. For $50.00 more, I have a camera that will work every time, looks professional and I have yet to even master it! And the remote control, ease of getting to that memory card, just so many things make this new Canon a joy. Every single quirk of the Samsung is replaced with ease of use on the Canon.
UPDATE 4/11/2009: After noticing so many little details that just work better, FEEL better when using this camera, I stumbled upon a probable cause? I noticed this camera is MADE IN JAPAN… The Samsung is made in CHINA. Had I known this in the first place, I never would have even tried the Samsung. The details & differences just show up everywhere, in every button you push, every switch you touch, in every operation you perform. The weight, the solid feel, it is a very different camera.
Great digital camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is my first digital camcorder. And I have to say I love it, it is great. The picture is good and the sound recorded is pretty clear. It satisfies all my needs and plus it is very cute to hold.
Very happy to have this camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
[...] I suggest you buy a tripod along with this camera or make/buy a steadycam.
Some free video converters are:
Any Video Converter
Super Video Converter
Format Factory
Some free audio editing studios are:
Audacity
Wavepad
Windows Movie Maker is free and usually comes with your PC.
Sony Vegas 9 Pro, the latest version, can be found at Gradware.com for [...] dents and [...]for all others.
iMovie does NOT come with your Mac (I believe) and can be bought for [...]
If you are interested in Greenscreening, Sony Vegas and Adobe Premiere have that capability, but so can Movie Maker 2.6 for Vista. (the version with the multicolor film on a reel) Ask how in the comments section.
Ok, but could be so much more.
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
Briefly, if you haven’t figured it out already, this camcorder is flash card based, and records MPEG-2 files directly onto a SD/SDHC memory card. This means that tranfering files to your computer is a breeze, although you may need to download a utility to help since the files are labeled .MOD
This camcorder records at 720×480 resolution, so it’s not high definition.
This camera has a few things going for it, briefly, they are:
*Great optical zoom. 37x optical zoom.
*Camera is small and very handy.
*Mic Input allows you to connect an external Microphone
*standby mode allows you to almost instantly capture movies/pictures
*Easy to use and figure out. Some of the controls could be better, but overall, this camera is very user friendly and easy to work.
Now for the “sin which doth so easily beset” this camcorder.
*Absolutely attrocious low-light recording capability. even recording in my room, which has (6) 100w lights, the camera displays a lot of noise and artifacts on the screen. Daylight shooting is fine; the picture looks great and there’s no macro effects or jerkiness noted. Step inside a pretty well-lit room, however, and you will immediately notice artifacts on the picture. There is a decent LED based light on the front of the camera that will provide decent illumination for four to six feet, but past that, forget it. If you plan on primarily shooting outdoors, this is camera is a good choice. If not, forget it.
* Still image taking mode is almost worthless. I was incredibly disappointed with the built in digital camera. I realize that’s not it’s primary function, but the ability to take semi-decent stills would be nice.
* Controls are fairly well placed for smaller hands, but if you have paws bigger than a twelve year old girl, you might have some issues reaching the “still image capture button” or with controlling the speed of the zoom. Again, most of these issues are related to the size of the product, but should be noted.
* No optical image stabilization. There is some form of electronic stabilization, but it’s not all that great.
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Small observations and bottom line:
If you are using a tripod with a quick-disconnect, you won’t be able to open the battery cover door to replace the battery or the SD card.
Aftermarket batteries abound for this model camcorder, and can be had for approximately 20 USD each. The only problem is they don’t support the Canon battery monitoring software so you won’t know how long you have before your camcorder craps out.
If you can find this camcorder for 170 USD or less, I think it would be worth it.
If you plan on shooting indoors a lot, keep moving.
Great, but packaged without important bundled software
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This is a great little camcorder. The zoom can be difficult in a small room. With all the rage pursuing magnification like processor MHz, the wide angles suffer with almost all the camcorders, so I guess that’s an indictment of the industry. It’s very light and convenient, and the battery charge lasts long enough it’s not a constant worry.
My one big gripe is that it didn’t come shipped with the ImageMizer 3 SE software. The manual for the software made it into the package, but not the installation disk. As expected, all you can download is the “updater” software. Not sure what kind of hassle I am in for trying to get an installation disk now. It’s been a few months, I didn’t think I would have a problem getting access to the video files on the SD card…
Great camera though, just check your package for the video software.
Mac users – works well with iMovie ’09
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I bought this back in February to use on a ski trip and have been pretty happy with it. Some points of interest:
- Works nicely with iMovie ’09 on the Mac. You MUST have the camera plugged into a/c power. Start up iMovie, let it initialize, then connect the FS100 via USB. iMovie will find the camera, and after scanning things will bring up a window to allow you to import “scenes”. You can import in multiple batches, so if you’ve got video from a number of events you can create multiple new Events in iMovie as you are importing.
- Get a tripod or monopod. It’s hard to hold this as steady as you’d like, especially at longer zooms. I’ve been using a monopod (Gitzo), which is great for basketball or baseball games (elementary school kids). I haven’t used the Image Stabilization feature because I don’t want to give up video quality.
- Noisy in lower light, but not as bad as you might think. I’ve done some (kid’s) orchestra concerts, and while the video is somewhat grainy and noisy it really doesn’t detract from the video that much. Audio is better than I expected it would be.
- Great battery life. On a full charge I can record at least 2 hours of video straight; more if I’m not zooming around a lot.
- Get the Transcend 16 Gb Class 6 SD card. It’s cheap, works perfectly with the FS100, and you’ll never run out of space before you run out of battery (unless you don’t empty the card!).
Best non-HD super zoom video camera
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Very nice zoom. Image stabilizer is so-so. Video quality is DVD-like. Software package is limited to 99 video clips (use sdcopy.exe)
Good Unit but has a devastating single point failure
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
The camera itself is really quite good, with proper lighting the unit is capable of recording high quality stills and moving footage. The microphone is also above average. Essentially this is a really good unit, but it is susceptible to an extremely devastating single point failure. If the ac adapter breaks the unit essentially becomes an expensive paper weight. This is due to the fact that one cannot find replacement parts for this camera, so I would recommend a different unit.
Crappy video camera, cool featues
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
For the price you’d think they actually focus on making a decent camera sensor. I mean all the features like zoom, different camera modes, and the SD recording are great but the one thing it fails in is what it was made to do, that being recording video. Low light sucks, and for a cheaper camera like the Flip I have seen 10 fold better quality. You need to either have lots of light or sunlight to take decent film.
If you plan on going outdoors a lot then this camera is fine because it works best in lighted areas otherwise if you plan on doing a lot of family films or even recording in a place where there is lots of light but no white light then don’t get it. In general even well lit videos come out poorly and considering the price of the camera you want something that can shoot good video which this does not. It is almost like Canon was trying to emphasize all the features of the camera to overshadow the crappy film quality.
Canon fs 100 camcorder
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
The Canon fs100 Camcorder was a nice camcorder easy to use but the camera was defective I am in the process of returning it. Billy
Perfect camera starter
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Can do all you need as a beginner. Flash storage beats the socks off of other media. Plenty of features. Small, lightweight, good battery life, great video camera.
Small, good price, but format is downfall!
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
Its small, cheap (I bought it for $250), but the format makes it a little bit of a pain. Which is very valuable to me. You can just rename the file from .mod to .mpg. But, it gets annoying to have to do that, while other camcorders put them as .mpg to start.
Software is beyond bad
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
Like other, let me just say that the ImageMixer software is so completely unusable that it is reason alone to avoid this camera. Too bad, because the camera works well. But the movies it produces are in an odd format and can’t be read or edited by some other software packages.
I use Canon software almost every day for still photography, but the bundled software ruins this product. Don’t but it until Canon comes up with a better solution.
Compact, light and affordable
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is my first video camera…but not my first Canon product. My Canon cameras have been user friendly, very affordable and trouble free. So far, I see the same with this camcorder. I also shopped around for the best deal on SD flash memory and found a 16GB online for a good price. The SD is great…all I have to do is remove it from the camera and plug in the side of my laptop to transfer movie for editing. I purchased Vegas Movie Studio from Sony…seems to be relatively user friendly (I can’t wait to see what it can do after I read the instructions…have already done some editing…very fun).
For $250 it’s ok.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
For $250 it’s ok, but for 300 or more, brrrr.
For ytube ok. Of course software included it’s worthless. You download videos then you change file extension to mpeg or avi, and can see it using any player (and for this you don-t need software). For editing you have to look for some software that edits mpeg or avi. Don’t even install the software.