Canon VIXIA 3.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with Flash Memory - Silver

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This is a bad thing. But you later discover that your vacation videos are now wasted because the internal hard drive was engaged (remember you were recording) and the hard drive is also trashed! What do you do now for vacation videos? You would have to re-do the vacation!!!

In my case, I would remove the SDHC card and buy another camcorder. I could even get one at a vacation stop and continue!

So here are my points:

- Video quality: 10
- SDHC instead of tape: 10
- SDHC instead of Hard Drive: 10
- Editing software: 8 (It's out there, but just starting to hit the market - try Pinnacle Studio 11 or 12!)

The cost of SDHC cards are coming down fast. 16GB will get you 2 hours of 1080/30p video. If you get a hard drive backup unit with reader (about $150) you can reuse your SDHC cards every day. My portable hard drive card reader is a Digital Foci Photo Safe, model PSF-250.

My bottom line: get it. You won't find better - except for Sony. And Sony had it's own special memory sticks. And Sony's comparable camcorder costs more. If you can tell the difference on a Blu-Ray DVD between a Canon HF100 video and a Sony video you are way too close to the 60 inch screen! I pick at the quality of the video from 2 feet away on a 42 inch screen. I like the Canon HF100. I cannot tell the difference from a professionally made HD DVD!

Canon VIXIA 3.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with Flash Memory - Silver

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- the supplied BP-809 battery is only good for about an hour and the higher capacity BP-819 batteries aren't currently available at any of about a dozen locations that I tried. I purchased a 2nd BP-809 and they do change out fairly quickly. The software starts to warn you with 5 minutes of battery remaining, and I took it down all the way to zero without losing any data. The other negative is that you have to leave the AC power supply connected if downloading via USB cable.

The lens at the widest zoom setting isn't quite wide enough to film a standard baseball field from behind the backstop, and a 0.5 to 0.7 wide angle lens would be a very good accessory for shooting sports.

I have a 37mm to 28mm adapter, and the cam works well with the Nikon 3X telephoto lens from my Nikon 4300 still camera, although you have to have the telephoto on the cam set all the way out to get full field in the cam.

As an aside, I use Pinnacle Studio 12 Pro to build my movies, and it handles the AVCHD output files from the cam without a hitch. You'd better have a fast PC with at least 2GB (better 4GB) to work with HD, however.

Canon VIXIA 3.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with Flash Memory - Silver

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the local Apple store and after 2 hours of them playing with it, they produced a DVD for me to take home to play on my PS3...and guess what, the PS3 would not even recognize the disk!

Don't get me wrong, this camera takes beautiful, full 1080i high-def video, but once you've downloaded the files to your computer, it's almost impossible to burn those AVCHD files back onto a DVD for playback in full 1080i high-def unless you've got a Blu-Ray disk player such as the Sony PS3. The people at the Apple store indicated that Final Cut Express would import the AVCHD files, but would then convert them into an intermediate codec which ends up downgrading the clips to less than full 1080i high-def.
They told me to actually burn the edited movie onto a DVD in full 1080i high-def, I'd have to buy Roxio's Toast 9! Is amazed me that even their $1000 Final Cut Pro required the purchase of an $80 piece of software to complete the process!

The AVCHD format is the future, but I'm afraid there's just too little in the way of a simple workflow to actually be able to import, edit, and then burn these AVCHD format movies onto a DVD for playback in full 1080i high-def on ones HD TV set. I have spent a month researching this, and decided that I was just not willing to upgrade to an entirely new computer with an Intel Duo Quad Processor to work with the AVCHD files that these cameras produce.

The new Sony Vegas 8 Platinum will burn the AVCHD files to a DVD, but again, check out the required hardware specs on Sony's website and you'll see that the minimum requirements for hardware are probably much more than what you have unless you bought your PC within the last year.

Based upon all of this, I finally decided to return the camera and wait until this newly adopted AVCHD format is easier to work with. By the way, for most of us, a Blu-Ray disk writer and the BD blank media are just too expensive to buy. Most people will most likely want to burn high-definition DVD's instead, that will play in full 1080i high-def; 30 minutes on a single layer DVD and 60 minutes on a dual layer DVD.

You will see that virtually all of the software currently available; including Adobe's just released Premier Elements 4.0 will NOT burn AVCHD files onto a DVD! In fact, it does not even support AVCHD files created by Canon HD camcorders that are in the AVCHD format! And Sony's Vegas 8.0 Platinum also does not support Canon's AVCHD files.

It's all way to difficult for the average consumer. Pretty much your only option to see your movies in full 1080i high-def will be to attach the camcorder via an HDMI cable (not included) to your HDTV. This will allow you to watch your raw un-edited footage directly from your camcorder. However, the HDMI cable you'll need costs about $40-$50! And don't think you can use a standard HDMI cable...no, it takes a special one which has a MINI-HDMI at one end and a standard HDMI to plug on the other!

WOW...what a pain. The marketing information is very flowery in its description, but the reality is far different. Do your research and you will that the products out there for editing these AVCHD movies simply fail to mention anything about actually BURNING the results onto a standard DVD for playback in high-def on a regular DVD home player. Why? Because you cannot! You MUST own a Sony PS3 to do this!

In short, "buyer beware" on any HD Camcorder which records in the AVCHD format. And as a topper, each camera manufacturer who supports AVCHD format does so in their own way, so the editing software that will import AVCHD files from one brand of camcorder MAY NOT import is from another.

Even the Pixela SE software that Canon supplies (which is bare bones, but does work) will ONLY work with files from these "HF" series camcorders from Canon! Oh, by the way, the Instruction Manual for using the Pixela SE software that Canon includes with the camera IS NOT available for download on Canon's website, but rather, one must buy the camera first and it's included on a CD which you'll find in the box! Only the Installation Instructions are posted on Canon's website! Why you ask? Well once you see the manual you'll find out that the hardware requirements probably exceed what you own, rendering the software almost unusable.

Again, let me repeat...this is a fabulous camcorder and the HD video is spectacular! It's the bigger issue of "what do I do with the files on the SD card now that I've shot the video?" that will stop you in your tracks.

Canon VIXIA 3.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with Flash Memory - Silver

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the local Apple store and after 2 hours of them playing with it, they produced a DVD for me to take home to play on my PS3...and guess what, the PS3 would not even recognize the disk!



Don't get me wrong, this camera takes beautiful, full 1080i high-def video, but once you've downloaded the files to your computer, it's almost impossible to burn those AVCHD files back onto a DVD for playback in full 1080i high-def unless you've got a Blu-Ray disk player such as the Sony PS3. The people at the Apple store indicated that Final Cut Express would import the AVCHD files, but would then convert them into an intermediate codec which ends up downgrading the clips to less than full 1080i high-def.

They told me to actually burn the edited movie onto a DVD in full 1080i high-def, I'd have to buy Roxio's Toast 9! Is amazed me that even their $1000 Final Cut Pro required the purchase of an $80 piece of software to complete the process!



The AVCHD format is the future, but I'm afraid there's just too little in the way of a simple workflow to actually be able to import, edit, and then burn these AVCHD format movies onto a DVD for playback in full 1080i high-def on ones HD TV set. I have spent a month researching this, and decided that I was just not willing to upgrade to an entirely new computer with an Intel Duo Quad Processor to work with the AVCHD files that these cameras produce.



The new Sony Vegas 8 Platinum will burn the AVCHD files to a DVD, but again, check out the required hardware specs on Sony's website and you'll see that the minimum requirements for hardware are probably much more than what you have unless you bought your PC within the last year.



Based upon all of this, I finally decided to return the camera and wait until this newly adopted AVCHD format is easier to work with. By the way, for most of us, a Blu-Ray disk writer and the BD blank media are just too expensive to buy. Most people will most likely want to burn high-definition DVD's instead, that will play in full 1080i high-def; 30 minutes on a single layer DVD and 60 minutes on a dual layer DVD.



You will see that virtually all of the software currently available; including Adobe's just released Premier Elements 4.0 will NOT burn AVCHD files onto a DVD! In fact, it does not even support AVCHD files created by Canon HD camcorders that are in the AVCHD format! And Sony's Vegas 8.0 Platinum also does not support Canon's AVCHD files.



It's all way to difficult for the average consumer. Pretty much your only option to see your movies in full 1080i high-def will be to attach the camcorder via an HDMI cable (not included) to your HDTV. This will allow you to watch your raw un-edited footage directly from your camcorder. However, the HDMI cable you'll need costs about $40-$50! And don't think you can use a standard HDMI cable...no, it takes a special one which has a MINI-HDMI at one end and a standard HDMI to plug on the other!



WOW...what a pain. The marketing information is very flowery in its description, but the reality is far different. Do your research and you will that the products out there for editing these AVCHD movies simply fail to mention anything about actually BURNING the results onto a standard DVD for playback in high-def on a regular DVD home player. Why? Because you cannot! You MUST own a Sony PS3 to do this!



In short, "buyer beware" on any HD Camcorder which records in the AVCHD format. And as a topper, each camera manufacturer who supports AVCHD format does so in their own way, so the editing software that will import AVCHD files from one brand of camcorder MAY NOT import is from another.



Even the Pixela SE software that Canon supplies (which is bare bones, but does work) will ONLY work with files from these "HF" series camcorders from Canon! Oh, by the way, the Instruction Manual for using the Pixela SE software that Canon includes with the camera IS NOT available for download on Canon's website, but rather, one must buy the camera first and it's included on a CD which you'll find in the box! Only the Installation Instructions are posted on Canon's website! Why you ask? Well once you see the manual you'll find out that the hardware requirements probably exceed what you own, rendering the software almost unusable.



Again, let me repeat...this is a fabulous camcorder and the HD video is spectacular! It's the bigger issue of "what do I do with the files on the SD card now that I've shot the video?" that will stop you in your tracks.

Canon VIXIA 3.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with Flash Memory - Silver

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of using removable memory is that if the camera breaks, you don't lose the stored footage. If you have 3-4 hours of video "trapped" on the HF10's internal memory and have to send the camera in for repair, you can be assured it's gone forever. If everything is always saved to an SDHC card, then you can just pop out the card and send in the camera and wait for the inevitable refurbished replacement unit to arrive.

The camera itself is ridiculously small for a product that produces such high quality results. In fact, I don't think any company could make a smaller camcorder that was actually useful (the exception being the "pistol" shape of the Sanyo Xacti series which are nearly the same size anyway). If you have very large hands, then this size may even be too small, and the button placement will be difficult to get used to. I have average sized hands, and the ergonomics are very good. The zoom and start/stop are in just the right place. The screen frame controls take some getting used to, but considering the number of options/settings Canon overall did a good job of arranging the controls. It would be nice to have a "wheel" type control for the manual focus, but using manual focus is probably going to be a rare occasion for me.

The zoom is virtually silent (and since there is no tape or DVD drive, there is no "whirr" sound in the background either :). Most people don't realize this, but there is a 400x digital zoom on top of the 12x optical zoom. Obviously, if you zoom in digitally 400x, the picture quality is going to be awful, but until you get over 150x, the picture quality is fine and just starts to show lots of grain. It is also nice to be able to take pictures at the same time as video (about 3 megapixel), so you don't have to choose between having a camera or a video camera anymore.

The screen is adequate given the size constraints of the overall size of the camcorder. It does do pretty well in bright sunlight. Some washout occurs as expected, but you can still tell whether or not what you are trying to capture will be in the shot.

Sound quality is also quite good for objects/people close to the camcorder. The wind noise reduction is good but not great, especially on a really windy day. If you're shooting a play or a ballgame and really want to hear what's going on wherever you are zoomed at or if you plan on shooting in the wind a lot, you may want to consider getting the microphone attachment. It's on MY list.

Speaking of add-ons, the two gripes I have are these: 1) there is no HDMI mini cable (these are cheap, cheap, cheap Canon, so there is no reason one shouldn't be included) and more importantly, 2) an external battery charger is not included and they cost $50-75 online. This is a huge oversight, and a charger should be included either with the camera or with the additional battery that YOU WILL end up buying (just put it in the cart now).

If Canon had included the charger, I would have given five stars. The HF100 is truly excellent, and it may be the last camcorder you buy for many years (who really is going to need better than 1080i picture on home movies anytime soon. Anybody?) This is a great product. If you're in the market for a camcorder, get this one.

Canon VIXIA 3.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with Flash Memory - Silver

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and a major life saver.

I have both a Mac and a PC so I have some experience with both platforms when viewing video. One major complaint is that AVCHD is somewhat difficult to view on a computer. You do have to convert it to another format to view your movies on a Mac and even to edit them. I use Toast 9 along with Quicktime Pro to convert my video to a format easily uploaded to Vimeo(H.264 - 1280X720 HD). The quality is astounding!

In its RAW format, AVCHD looks excellent. The bundled video software(Windows only...dang) does a great job with unconverted AVCHD playback and some editing. I wish they would make a Mac version of this software. I have even made a DVD with the software and it looks really great on my Plasma. For bare bones editing, and DVD creation...the bundled software does work, and works well. One thing I have noticed when converting AVCHD to a more friendly video editing format such as HDV with TMPGEnc 4.0 Express is some stuttering when panning video is being played. This does not happen when viewing in AVCHD format. My suggestion, unless you really have to, try not to convert the video unless necessary. SONY Vegas video software lets you edit in AVCHD, no conversion is necessary. If you are on a Mac...well as far as I know a program does not exist that allows editing in AVCHD...you have to convert the file to something else (video codecs are numerous).

Eventually AVCHD will be the format of choice as tapes will inevitably be phased out (some will argue this, but this is my personal belief). In my opinion you cannot go wrong with this camera. Hard drives fail, tape drives fall apart and RW-DVDs are a pain. Flash memory is the future.

One issue I have is the lack of a stand alone plug in for the battery. You have to plug the camera in to charge your camera's battery unless you shell out around $60 for a separate plug in charger. In my opinion this should have been included with the camera.

Canon VIXIA 3.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with Flash Memory - Silver

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course, thousands of pines mean millions of needles. That's a lot of detail. And my camera is never completely still in real life - even if only slowly zooming or panning (or if there is some movement in the subject/s). This is not a small quality difference. (I should note I have a 65" 1080p projector - smaller screens may not reveal such a big difference).

2 - Movement is more fluid with the HV20. With the HF100, I noticed that I found even reasonably slow pans bothersome - there was blur and greater "blockiness" to the scenery. The HV20, on the other hand, seems both more fluid and to present more of a solid image as I pan - really allowing my eyes to track the scenery during a pan.

3 - Medium to low light shots are dramatically better on the HF100. With the HV20, I tried to do all kinds of things to compensate any time it was evening in doors (even with a few hundred lux of light) or nearing twilight outdoors. The colors seemed overly reddish on the full auto settings, the image got noisy, etc. I used cineamode to try and offset both to some reasonable effect. By comparison, I have found I never need to take the HF100 out of the "Easy mode" and the quality is far better than what I got with all my fiddling on the HV20. (I should note I do all my filming in 60i - so bear that in mind). This is no small quality difference. It's huge.


In the end, for video quality, I'm faced with having to let go of the occasional "wow" factor in higly detailed (and real world - with movement) shots for the much greater quality consistancy under varying lighting conditions. That's not an easy trade-off, but probably tips the scales for me to the HF-100.

If you are a hobbyist or such who can always assure ample lighting - the HV20 probably still reigns for best quality.


EDITING AND CONVENIENCE - another matter entirely. If you want to do a lot of post work, there's still no comparing the tools available. I do not do a lot of post work. I was pleasantly suprised by the packaged (Pixela) software. It's not great, but for scene deletions, trims and rearrangements, it works while doing smart-rendering, which is a big deal for time and quality. So that suggests the HF100 for me.

For distribution, the jury is still out, but it looks like AVCHD will win out. There is some suggestion that Hi-Rez MPEG2 (HDV) can be natively encoded to Blu-Ray disks. I haven't tried that. But I can say that that the AVCHD disks created on DVD from the HF100 play very well on the Play station 3 and several other Blu-ray players I've tried them on. All my connections are via HDMI - and there is no perceptible quality loss to me vs. hooking up the camcorder straight. That's promising.

INTERESTING NOTE
I took my Colorado HV20 footage and encoded to AVCHD (17Mb/s). I used Pinnacle Studio 11 - probably not the best encoder. But the important point is that, even though TWICE compressed with the re-encoding, the resulting footage was, in general, better than the AVCHD from the HF-100 for the highly detailed nature scenes described in point 1. That's really surprising and is good news for the standard. It suggests any quality trade-offs I'm seeing today may be more a function of processor limitations (doing it all in real time) vs. the protocol(s).

I'm still struggling, but in the end, I think the more consistant quality with low light and the distribution convenience probably will make me shift to the HF-100 and AVCHD.

For what it's worth.

Canon VIXIA 3.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with Flash Memory - Silver

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Audigy audio.
(2)The 16GB card holds about 2 hours of recording.
(3)You can make High Definition movies using your powerful computer, a REGULAR DVD burner on DVD-R discs, USING THE SOFTWARE THAT CAME WITH THE CAMERA. Most people who will use this camera have no need for the expensive video editing software that does fancy things. With the software that comes with the camera you can delete scenes, clip scenes, split scenes and add titles. Just follow the steps in the manual included on the software disc. There is a small learning curve. I had a little trouble with adding transitions, but don't care. I have not tried adding extra audio.
(4)You can also burn regular (not HD) DVDs (about 30 minutes per DVD) and export movies in the format for a website or YouTube (instructions in manual).
(5)To view your High Definition movies, you must have a Blu Ray player THAT CAN VIEW AVCHD FORMAT. (Not all Blu Ray players support AVCHD.) We purchased the Panasonic BD30 Panasonic DMP-BD30K 1080p Blu-Ray Disc Player. It is a great player that pairs perfectly with this camera. You can put the SDHC memory cards directly into the player or burn your own, edited HD movies and play them in the player. This player will also play the ones you burn as regular DVDs.
(6)We burned 25 minutes of High Definition video (3.47 GB) onto a DVD. There was room left, so we believe a regular DVD will hold 1/2 hour of HD (4+ GB). (The Panasonic player can play dual layer discs, so a dual layer burner on your computer, and dual layer discs might get you a full hour.)
*Note: Regarding the Panasonic Player, you can make a CD of your JPEG photos from other cameras and play them. That is "CD", not "DVD". The important thing is to NOT include anything but JPEG (no movie clips), or the player will not read the disc.

Canon VIXIA 3.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with Flash Memory - Silver

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some along with the camcorder. Get the largest size you can afford, especially if you're not diligent about removing content from your camera.
- I've tested with Final Cut Express ... content is easily imported and manipulated. The video files are HUGE, so I opted to get an external 2TB drive to store video (I really need to back that up, don't I?)
- video quality in indoor, well-lit conditions is superb ... lower light conditions produces slightly grainy results, but still amazing.
- the on-board menu is easy to navigate. I'm sort of a "set it and forget it" kind of guy and I don't plan on messing around with the menu too much, except to change time zone information when traveling. Believe it or not, the camcorder even has an "Easy" button ... it tries to figure out the best settings for your particular shooting conditions.

Overall, I would recommend this product due to it's price, compactness, operability with my existing software, ease-of-use and above and beyond all else, the outstanding 1080p HD video quality. Be aware that you'll need to buy SDHC cards on your own and you may also wish to consider buying: extra batteries, extra charger, and additional external hard drives to store the massive amounts of data you will be generating (for me, to the tune of ~1GB/min of video).

Canon VIXIA 3.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with Flash Memory - Silver

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some along with the camcorder. Get the largest size you can afford, especially if you're not diligent about removing content from your camera.

- I've tested with Final Cut Express ... content is easily imported and manipulated. The video files are HUGE, so I opted to get an external 2TB drive to store video (I really need to back that up, don't I?)

- video quality in indoor, well-lit conditions is superb ... lower light conditions produces slightly grainy results, but still amazing.

- the on-board menu is easy to navigate. I'm sort of a "set it and forget it" kind of guy and I don't plan on messing around with the menu too much, except to change time zone information when traveling. Believe it or not, the camcorder even has an "Easy" button ... it tries to figure out the best settings for your particular shooting conditions.



Overall, I would recommend this product due to it's price, compactness, operability with my existing software, ease-of-use and above and beyond all else, the outstanding 1080p HD video quality. Be aware that you'll need to buy SDHC cards on your own and you may also wish to consider buying: extra batteries, extra charger, and additional external hard drives to store the massive amounts of data you will be generating (for me, to the tune of ~1GB/min of video).

Canon VIXIA 3.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with Flash Memory - Silver

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or you risk having videos that look more like earthquakes. Also important to get a very good tripod. This camera takes exceptional full HD video. Nature shots will require this as well as using this for a good pan shot. It's difficult to hold this camera steady so a Tripod helps. I was surprised at the lack of latency reading and writing to the SDHC card and I am assuming there is a small buffer zone that assists with this.
Most of my initial tests were in the "Cinama Mode" where it moderately degrades the video ever so lightly to give it a Film look. I thought that was outstanding. The color response on the default settings is a bit high, but it can be adjusted. The controls are intuitive. I really only looked through the book only for non basic settings. I also recommend Canon's external directional microphone especially if you are interviewing someone among a crowd. The internal mic's are great but very sensitive to a larger radius of sound. The only negative I have is that the battery doesn't fit as snug as I would like and I hope this doesn't introduce any noise. Photo quality is ok. Glad to have it, but more impressed with the video. Also, this camera does not have an infrared or nightshot type mode. (My Sony had this. It proved useful many times). Since the video in the HF-100 is far superior, I can forget that completly.

Exporting files is pretty painless. Use the Image Mixer software to transfer files to your PC. The additional software is useless. Just get a decent editor such as Sony Vegas Pro 8 (Discussed earlier).

I recommend this camera for those who are above the average person who wants to do serious video in HD but not want to spend a fortune. In the right hands, this camera can produce anything your collective conscience can think about.

Canon VIXIA 3.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with Flash Memory - Silver

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review on the HF10 in www.camcorderinfo.com, I was sold on the camcorder.

I bought the HF-100 instead of the HF-10 as I like the gun metal grey look and also with the price difference, you can buy a couple of 16G Class 6 SDHC Transend cards. I also do not like the glossy black of HF10 as it is a figure print magnet. Although I am residing in a country where the TV system is PAL, I do not mind the NTSC model from Amazon as it is much cheaper than what I get back home (about USD500 price difference) and nowadays most people own a multisystem LCD or plasma panel anyway. The only drawback is that there are certain pull down issues for NTSC models (which do not bother an amateur like me) and that the warranty is only valid in the US which I do not reside.

I have the opportunity to try out the camcorder and my initial thoughts are that it is very user friendly. In fact, I tried thre various functions of the camcorder without much of a quick glance at the user manual. I tried the Easy mode and was happy to find that even with this mode, the video turned out nice and sharp without any editing. I like this mode as it enables my wife and friends to use the camcorder easily. For the same reasons, I normally have the set my DSLR to auto mode before I get someone to take a picture of me when I travel.

I decided to turn off the Easy mode and played with the 3 different recording modes - 60i, 24p and 30p. In a bright environment, there is not much difference. The colours in 60i do however seem to look more saturated. In a lighted environment, the 24p and 30p showed their usefulness as the videos captured are brighter than the 60i, contributed no doubt by the slower frame rates. Colours as a whole are rich and tend towards slightly on the cooler side. I do not usually use the Cine mode together with one of the 3 aforementioned mode as I prefer brighter & saturated colours and shoot landscape very often. Cine modes do give you a slightly smoother and less saturated colour range means that it probably handles skin colours better. In any event, you can make whatever adjustments which suit your taste. The camcorder is certainly customisable to your needs. However, in an environment where the lightings are a tad dim, I noticed grains on the video which suggest that this is not a videocam which you want to use in dark indoors. I cannopt fault the camcorder too much as it only costs USD700 and you cannot expect capabilities like those of a professional camcorder. Given the proper lightings, it will not disappoint you.

My only criticism is that the stabilisation is not too effective. Maybe it is due to the light weight of the camcorder, which ironically is one of the reason why I bought it. To reduce vibration, I tried not to zoom in when I pan the shots. Although the autofocus is fast, be careful when you pan the scenes too fast as the speed may cause the autofocus to hunt and you will find that your videos will not be appear to be well focused as the camera moves. You can overcome this by using the camera at its widest settings and pan only in a slow and smooth motion. Further vibrations can be eliminated when you mount your camcorder to a tripod.

The camcorder can also take pictures at 3MP. The picture quality is acceptable although you cannot compare with a mid range PNS or digital DSLR camera.

As for the batter life, try to get an extended battery which allows at least twice the shooting time. The extended battery offered by Canon does not flush well with the camera and is in black. So aesthetically, it does not go well with the body colour and shape of the camcorder.

I also like the camcorder for having an automatic lens cover. However I bought UV filters as an additional protection for the lens although it may not be necessary. However I do shoot in windy conditions and byt he sea and do not want the dust or sea water to settle on the lens.

As for editing, so far I have yet to do very extensive editing. I tried the software provided by Canon and it is essentially only good for viewing the recorded materials. I invested in a Corel Ulead Studio 11.5 as it is cheap and I wanted something simple to use before I progress to sometime more advance in future. So far the software runs fine on my PC which is a 4GB Quadcore machine.

As a whole, I do like the camcorder very much taking into consideration the low price. I would summarise my likes & dislikes for the camcorder as follows:-

Likes
Affordable
Light weight
Comes with 24p and 30p
Uses flash memory
Hand strap not very comfortable
Sharp pictures in brightly lighted environment

Dislikes
Only stereo and not 5.1
Flash card can only record 1 hr of video
Rocker switcher for zooming feels loose and cheap
Location of flash not ideal if using convertors
AVCHD editing still not too stable.
Lousy software provided
No mini HDMI cable provided
Grainy video quality in dimly lighted environment

I give it five stars despite some shortcomings as it is a very good value for money camcorder.

Canon VIXIA 3.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with Flash Memory - Silver

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by Chris C. Topolovich "Chris" above, Vegas Platinum doesn't write AVCHD, and only reads it for (time-consuming) recoding. Hopefully they update the output formats in the future. I've been outputting to windows media and mpeg2. I watch the AVCHD clips on a computer (haven't made the HD TV plunge quite yet) The clips chug a little on my 2.4GHz AMD Opteron from time-to-time... it really is CPU intensive.

I haven't used the included software for anything other than quick playback. Perfectly functional on Win XP SP2 (32bit).

The photos are fine (Using the photo button to take pictures while recording was off by default however), and it's very handy to only carry one camera.

Summary: I love the camera, the software (which hopefully gets better in time) and low-light perf are the only things that come close to an issue. Debating whether to take off half a star, but I do really like the small size, flash memory, and other features.

Canon VIXIA 3.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with Flash Memory - Silver

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by Chris C. Topolovich "Chris" above, Vegas Platinum doesn't write AVCHD, and only reads it for (time-consuming) recoding. Hopefully they update the output formats in the future. I've been outputting to windows media and mpeg2. I watch the AVCHD clips on a computer (haven't made the HD TV plunge quite yet) The clips chug a little on my 2.4GHz AMD Opteron from time-to-time... it really is CPU intensive.



I haven't used the included software for anything other than quick playback. Perfectly functional on Win XP SP2 (32bit).



The photos are fine (Using the photo button to take pictures while recording was off by default however), and it's very handy to only carry one camera.



Summary: I love the camera, the software (which hopefully gets better in time) and low-light perf are the only things that come close to an issue. Debating whether to take off half a star, but I do really like the small size, flash memory, and other features.

Canon VIXIA 3.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with Flash Memory - Silver

...

which is useful in sunlit situations. I like the video light, which is quite strong, and I consider an "effect" a la the Blair Witch Project. I wish that these types of camcorders had a better built-in wide angle capability, but the wide screen aspect does give you back some of that in the horizontal direction. Also, a 2-yr old SD card that I had worked fine, but could not record at the very highest data rates (yet the picture was still very sharp). Photos are very good, rivaling a 7 MP Kodak point-and-shoot that I recently bought (V712), which goes to show the benefit of having a good Canon lens.

Canon VIXIA 3.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with Flash Memory - Silver

...

of using a higher speed SDHC card. For 2/3 megapixel snapshots, the photos look decent, better than one would expect if you took a screencapture of the video, but not really good enough to make enlarged prints. The autofocus works as advertised, superfast.

CONS: Doesn't include mini-HDMI cable, only component and RCA. Most important, I was not pleased with the video shot in indoor lamp light (around 200 watts incandescent lighting for a 20'x15'room). There was a lot of noise, which suprised me because most reviewers gave this camera above average low-light performance. The low-light video looked a little better when you changed the default settings -- decreasing the sharpening or using cine mode. Also, I'm a video amateur so I can't explain why, but the low light video quality was less noisy in 30p mode versus 60i mode (I thought this setting would only affect fast motion scenes). Ergonomically, I wish it had some rubber on the grip for comfort, and that some of the functions which require the joystick could be accessed using the same hand holding the camera.

I haven't played around with the bundled software so I can't comment; but I was perfectly willing to shell out the extra cash for Pinnacle or Sony Vegas software to handle the AVCHD format.

For me, the poor low light performance is a dealbreaker, so I'm sending this puppy back. I don't see the point of having a high-def camera which produces a lot of noise/grain on the video. I'll wait for the next gen AVCHD camcorders, and will make do with a standard def HDD camcorder for less than half the price for now.

4 stars because everything else besides low-light video was great, the price isn't too outrageous for new technology, and the audio input flexibility is welcome.

UPDATE 5/2/08: After mulling over this overnight, I've decided to keep this camcorder as the pluses outweigh the minuses for me. If you're considering buying this model, I would STRONGLY suggest you go to a bricks-and-mortar retailer and test drive this camcorder yourself, not in the well-lit camera display but in a darker section of the store, like the home theater section. You will be able to see the noise even on the small 2.7" LCD, and you can judge for yourself whether you find it acceptable.

Canon VIXIA 3.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with Flash Memory - Silver

...

of using a higher speed SDHC card. For 2/3 megapixel snapshots, the photos look decent, better than one would expect if you took a screencapture of the video, but not really good enough to make enlarged prints. The autofocus works as advertised, superfast.



CONS: Doesn't include mini-HDMI cable, only component and RCA. Most important, I was not pleased with the video shot in indoor lamp light (around 200 watts incandescent lighting for a 20'x15'room). There was a lot of noise, which suprised me because most reviewers gave this camera above average low-light performance. The low-light video looked a little better when you changed the default settings -- decreasing the sharpening or using cine mode. Also, I'm a video amateur so I can't explain why, but the low light video quality was less noisy in 30p mode versus 60i mode (I thought this setting would only affect fast motion scenes). Ergonomically, I wish it had some rubber on the grip for comfort, and that some of the functions which require the joystick could be accessed using the same hand holding the camera.



I haven't played around with the bundled software so I can't comment; but I was perfectly willing to shell out the extra cash for Pinnacle or Sony Vegas software to handle the AVCHD format.



For me, the poor low light performance is a dealbreaker, so I'm sending this puppy back. I don't see the point of having a high-def camera which produces a lot of noise/grain on the video. I'll wait for the next gen AVCHD camcorders, and will make do with a standard def HDD camcorder for less than half the price for now.



4 stars because everything else besides low-light video was great, the price isn't too outrageous for new technology, and the audio input flexibility is welcome.



UPDATE 5/2/08: After mulling over this overnight, I've decided to keep this camcorder as the pluses outweigh the minuses for me. If you're considering buying this model, I would STRONGLY suggest you go to a bricks-and-mortar retailer and test drive this camcorder yourself, not in the well-lit camera display but in a darker section of the store, like the home theater section. You will be able to see the noise even on the small 2.7" LCD, and you can judge for yourself whether you find it acceptable.

Canon VIXIA 3.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with Flash Memory - Silver

...

of using a higher speed SDHC card. For 2/3 megapixel snapshots, the photos look decent, better than one would expect if you took a screencapture of the video, but not really good enough to make enlarged prints. The autofocus works as advertised, superfast.





CONS: Doesn't include mini-HDMI cable, only component and RCA. Most important, I was not pleased with the video shot in indoor lamp light (around 200 watts incandescent lighting for a 20'x15'room). There was a lot of noise, which suprised me because most reviewers gave this camera above average low-light performance. The low-light video looked a little better when you changed the default settings -- decreasing the sharpening or using cine mode. Also, I'm a video amateur so I can't explain why, but the low light video quality was less noisy in 30p mode versus 60i mode (I thought this setting would only affect fast motion scenes). Ergonomically, I wish it had some rubber on the grip for comfort, and that some of the functions which require the joystick could be accessed using the same hand holding the camera.





I haven't played around with the bundled software so I can't comment; but I was perfectly willing to shell out the extra cash for Pinnacle or Sony Vegas software to handle the AVCHD format.





For me, the poor low light performance is a dealbreaker, so I'm sending this puppy back. I don't see the point of having a high-def camera which produces a lot of noise/grain on the video. I'll wait for the next gen AVCHD camcorders, and will make do with a standard def HDD camcorder for less than half the price for now.





4 stars because everything else besides low-light video was great, the price isn't too outrageous for new technology, and the audio input flexibility is welcome.





UPDATE 5/2/08: After mulling over this overnight, I've decided to keep this camcorder as the pluses outweigh the minuses for me. If you're considering buying this model, I would STRONGLY suggest you go to a bricks-and-mortar retailer and test drive this camcorder yourself, not in the well-lit camera display but in a darker section of the store, like the home theater section. You will be able to see the noise even on the small 2.7" LCD, and you can judge for yourself whether you find it acceptable.

Canon VIXIA 3.3MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with Flash Memory - Silver