[daz4590]

Thanks to everyone on these forums who helped with some of my camcorder decision making recently. I chose the Canon FS100 and thought I'd write up a quick review on it to pass along to people like me who were looking into a new camcorder.

The FULL review with pictures and sample videos is at www.daz4590.co.uk

UPDATE:For anyone interested I have uploaded the .MOD raw files if you want to test them on your computer.

if you go to my website www.daz4590.co.uk and scroll down the Canon FS100 review (may click it at the side or search for it depending if I've posted any more stuff) past the youtube sample videos, you will see the .mod files to download.

Happy to help.


Well I’ve had the Canon FS100 for nearly a week now after ordering from UKDigitalCameras.co.uk and I thought I’d dish up a review for anyone out there. Now previously I’d had a Sony SR32 camcorder with a 30gb Hard Disk which I bought last summer for £330 but looking back it was a bad decision. The quality was poor and very pixelated indoors and the hard disk could be noisy at start up (being a bit picky) but didn’t affect recording like a Mini DV tape. So I looked at getting a new one either with a better lens or 3 CCDs and eventually I chose the Canon FS series, I decided against a HD camcorder as not only would my Powerbook struggle but I wanted to buy other things.

So it was between the Canon FS100,FS10 or FS11. As camcorders they are all identical in quality and set up however they differ in memory storage. They all accept SD cards: the FS100 has no in-built memory, the FS10 has 8gb internal and the FS11 has 16gb internal. Now I opted for the the FS100 as it was the cheapest by £100 compared to the latter FS11 model and with this saving it was cheaper to buy a big SD card. My plan is to get a 32gb SD card soon and I’ll update you soon on that.

Anyway back to the camcorder; i was really impressed by its small size and lightweight yet sturdy build. I have shot some test footage in best quality and its included below. However it would be nice to have a dock to connect the camcorder to the computer easily, like my Sony SR32 came with, and this coincides with my biggest gripe with the system. When transferring videos, even with a full battery, you have to plug in the power cable. Now it might just be me but this means more effort,more cables and thus a messier table. Its a shame such a great product has such a flaw that hopefully could be fixed easily with a firmware/software update. Besides this the process is very user friendly and the camcorder uses simple instructions to guide you through uploading.

Regarding actually filming; it is simple point and shoot but if you delve deeper there are some manual options with focus however unless you deeply spend time exploring these you won’t lose anything. If you are a hardcore video film maker you really should be looking at something a bit more customisable and probably HD. On that point this Canon FS100 does feature an external mic port to enhance the sound on the camcorder. Now after playing around with it I found the inbuilt mic pretty good picking up my voice from the opposite side of the room clearly but for those looking for a bit extra its nice to have it there. The rest of the controls are well arranged and make the whole video experience easy with no “where’s that button” moments.

With these new non tape/DVD disc camcorders, the hard disk and flash versions mostly use a .mod format for saving video. Now so far the major video editing suites (Adobe Premiere,Final Cut) do not use this format natively so usually a conversion is required which slightly defies the point of using simple files. I know that Windows Vista plays .mods fine through Windows Media Player however for Mac OS X this is not possible. I think this is the biggest disappointment, not only with this camcorder, but with most on the market and I hope the major editing suites and operating systems improve this within the year. The software which comes with the Canon, Windows only, does edit .mod and work however it is so simple I would stay away from it and use something better. Saying that some new updates have been released and iMovie 8 works with this format and the Canon FS100 - shame it only works on Intel Macs and not on my PowerPC G4 Powerbook…

I’d recommend this camcorder to anyone coming into amateur film making or even to someone who takes it more seriously as it is just so well made, anyone will have fun using it despite the slight problems.

ADVANTAGES:

* Small
* Lightweight
* Good control menu system
* Nice automatic lens cap to protect the lens
* Good quality 37x Optical zoom
* Excellent battery life about 3hrs
* External Mic port
* Nifty battery level indicator without having to actually turn on the camcorder fully

DISADVANTAGES:

* Annoying .mod format. Not very Mac compatible if you are an amateur unless you have iMovie 8
* You have to plug in the power cable to transfer videos through USB
* The added torch is not really that useful at night time.
* Out of the box it has no memory storage and requires an SD card to be bought

That’s it! I would like to thank the people over at AVforums.com with some of my decision making - they are very helpful! Thanks.

[koolpc]

Nice review mate. My father-In-Law is looking for a Camcorder and i see you can get the FS100 for £209 at Pixmania. Has it got a night mode on it?

He is running Vista so he should be able to transfer the videos ok?

Are the videos of a good quality would you say? Ta

[daz4590]

Unfortunately it does not have a night mode like some other camcorders. It has as I said in the review, a bright torch on the front however this is only useful for something within a couple of metres really of you maximum. If you are looking for really good quality especially in low light conditions I don't know how good a non mini dv camcorder would be.

Regarding the quality of the Canon FS100, you can check the blog post with video examples to see some sample footage at www.daz4590.co.uk I am impressed with the footage quality especially some zoomed in stuff and in day light just beats mini dv tape quality in my opinion.

Good luck

[newbie1980]

first of all thank you so much for this in depth review. i am in the exact same boat.

got a powerbook g4 and wanna get a cam to film my 12 week old daughter. wante dan HD cam but seems above budget, especially coz i would need a new mac

did you say you would up some footage?

edit: nevermind, i clicked the link

[daz4590]

yes, if there is any specific footage you would like, just tell me and I might be able to upload it for you.

Was the Youtube footage good enough for you?

[koolpc]

The media cards that the canon take, how long a video can one record on them? I know there are different sizes so what card would i need to record an hours worth of video on it? Ta

[daz4590]

The camcorder takes SD and SD (High Capacity) Cards. I've just bought a 32gb which will give me around 7hours of footage on the highest quality.

If you want an hour on the highest quality you'd be pushing 4gb card. You'd probably want an 8gb card which will record 1hr 50 mins. Thats only £15 on play.com http://www.play.com/Electronics/Elec...d/Product.html

[koolpc]

Waw, thats good info mate. Cheers. Looking great!!

[koolpc]

.mod thing looks a pain. I use windows Vista. Is it going to be a lot of hassle downloading the videos and then transferring them to DVD? Which programs would be able to Capture and then burn to DVD?

[daz4590]

For anyone interested I have uploaded the .MOD raw files if you want to test them on your computer.

if you go to my website www.daz4590.co.uk and scroll down the Canon FS100 review (may click it at the side or search for it depending if I've posted any more stuff) past the youtube sample videos, you will see the .mod files to download.

Happy to help.

[daz4590]

Originally Posted by koolpc

.mod thing looks a pain. I use windows Vista. Is it going to be a lot of hassle downloading the videos and then transferring them to DVD? Which programs would be able to Capture and then burn to DVD?

Well I just uploaded the .Mod files 120mb in total. You can download them and Windows Vista should play them fine. With Vista it is not so bad and I believe you can edit them with windows movie maker and burn them to DVD with other inbuilt Windows software. Sorry I am looking more into the mac stuff. Windows movie maker is ok for the basic editing but if you're looking for something slightly more creative you could look at Sony Vegas or Adobe Premiere although they do cost a bit.

I am writing a post on my website tomorrow on how to convert/edit .mod files so you might be interested as I'll cover Windows and Mac ways. Check it out and it may help. Thanks

[newbie1980]

my quicktime pro will not play the .mod files renamed to .mpg files

i can play it with vlc player though

[daz4590]

Originally Posted by newbie1980

my quicktime pro will not play the .mod files renamed to .mpg files

i can play it with vlc player though

have you only just bought quicktime pro? or if you've had it for a while and upgraded to leopard you will have to reinstall it again. Also as far as I am aware you still need to buy the Mpeg 2 component regardless of whether you have quicktime pro or standard. sorry.

[newbie1980]

Originally Posted by daz4590

have you only just bought quicktime pro? or if you've had it for a while and upgraded to leopard you will have to reinstall it again. Also as far as I am aware you still need to buy the Mpeg 2 component regardless of whether you have quicktime pro or standard. sorry.

ahh i see, it is probably the mpeg 2 problem. thanks

[newbie1980]

got a plug-in now, now i can play them in quicktime. would it be possible to upload some footage shot indoors?

thanks again for this thread and your site, all very useful

[daz4590]

i'll just film some stuff indoors then and upload it as the raw .mod file and as as a slightly edited on youtube. I'll post back when it goes up - approx 20 mins for upload.

glad to know my help is useful.

[daz4590]

Originally Posted by newbie1980

got a plug-in now, now i can play them in quicktime. would it be possible to upload some footage shot indoors?

thanks again for this thread and your site, all very useful

here we go mate. just go onto my site and its at the bottom of the post. Clip 3. enjoy
http://daz4590.co.uk/wordpress/?p=46

[newbie1980]

Originally Posted by daz4590

here we go mate. just go onto my site and its at the bottom of the post. Clip 3. enjoy
http://daz4590.co.uk/wordpress/?p=46

much appreciated

[koolpc]

Awesome help mate. Looking to get one of these camcorders next week for my father-in-law (He is paying!! )

[koolpc]

Was thinking that a card reader would be a good buy for one of these camcorders. Would this one do?:

Enlight Black 26-in-1 Internal 3.5" Card Reader

With 1x Front USB 2.0 Port

Compatible with the following flash cards

CompactFlash - Type I/II/III

Smart Media

XD - XD-M Type

SD - SD Ultra II

MMC - MMC Reduced/High Speed

Memory Stick - MS Pro/MG/Pro-MG

MicroDrive

Mini SD - Micro SD

MS Duo - MS Duo MG

[arthur sixpence]

Thankyou for the review and posting the MOD clips.

I used an XP pgm called SDcopy (google) it converts MOD to MPG and sets the correct wide screen flag.
Ran your files thru it and they open up in Premiere elements 3 & 4 perfectly and in correct aspect.

Interesting to see from the clips you have a PAL 25fps version, I'd assumed all FS100's had NTSC frame rate from all previous FS100 clips I'd downloaded.
Are there any PAL 25fps version markings on the box/ camera ?

[daz4590]

Originally Posted by koolpc

Was thinking that a card reader would be a good buy for one of these camcorders. Would this one do?:

Enlight Black 26-in-1 Internal 3.5" Card Reader

With 1x Front USB 2.0 Port

Compatible with the following flash cards

CompactFlash - Type I/II/III

Smart Media

XD - XD-M Type

SD - SD Ultra II

MMC - MMC Reduced/High Speed

Memory Stick - MS Pro/MG/Pro-MG

MicroDrive

Mini SD - Micro SD

MS Duo - MS Duo MG

From what you've shown me there it isn't a good idea. If as we discussed you were to go for an 8gb SD HC card then it seems that this reader won't read them. There is a difference between SD and SD HC cards and some readers won't read both. As the information above doesn't not mention SD HC it doesn't guarantee compatibility. Check out my post for more information http://daz4590.co.uk/wordpress/?p=79 If you want an internal one the only decent one i the PEAK all in one reader.

[daz4590]

Originally Posted by arthur sixpence

Thankyou for the review and posting the MOD clips.

I used an XP pgm called SDcopy (google) it converts MOD to MPG and sets the correct wide screen flag.
Ran your files thru it and they open up in Premiere elements 3 & 4 perfectly and in correct aspect.

Interesting to see from the clips you have a PAL 25fps version, I'd assumed all FS100's had NTSC frame rate from all previous FS100 clips I'd downloaded.
Are there any PAL 25fps version markings on the box/ camera ?

Cheers for that info on SDcopy I'll edit my instructions with that. When it comes to PAL and NTSC I don't entirely understand the differences and exact dimensions. I've put the box in the loft but I'm going up their later and I'll check. When I converted the files through Mpeg Streamclip I did use the Apple DV PAL codec so I don't know whether this would have made any difference.

[daz4590]

Originally Posted by daz4590

Cheers for that info on SDcopy I'll edit my instructions with that. When it comes to PAL and NTSC I don't entirely understand the differences and exact dimensions. I've put the box in the loft but I'm going up their later and I'll check. When I converted the files through Mpeg Streamclip I did use the Apple DV PAL codec so I don't know whether this would have made any difference.

right I've just looked at the box and the camcorder and they both just say PAL so I presume that answers your question but it says nothing about fps.

[koolpc]

Originally Posted by daz4590

From what you've shown me there it isn't a good idea. If as we discussed you were to go for an 8gb SD HC card then it seems that this reader won't read them. There is a difference between SD and SD HC cards and some readers won't read both. As the information above doesn't not mention SD HC it doesn't guarantee compatibility. Check out my post for more information http://daz4590.co.uk/wordpress/?p=79 If you want an internal one the only decent one i the PEAK all in one reader.

Is this the one:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/PEAK-all-Int.../dp/B0013B7USU

[daz4590]

yep thats the right one mate.

[koolpc]

How does it connect in the pc? USB only on a USB header?

[daz4590]

i don't actually have one but from what I see is its internal and the connector plugs into suitable USB pins on the motherboard. beyond that sorry can't help any more.

[koolpc]

Thats good enough mate. Will get one next week. Plus some SDHC cards.

[koolpc]

I am thick. Just to clarify. This is the one, at a different site:

http://www.idealcomputing.co.uk/prod...ecnumber=98554

Also, what SDHC card should i get or where is the best to buy one or 2?