» Canon VIXIA HF100 Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom

Canon VIXIA HF100 Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Video Quality
Comment: This camcorder is a joy to use. The video quality is really amazing especially for the price. This was my 2nd HD camcorder. The first was a convenience, impulse purchase of a Panasonic HD-9 from Costco. Took it back-the video wasn't very good and image stabilization didn't work.
Then I did a lot of research and concluded HF100 was for me. No HV30 because of tape issues and microphone picks up hi-pitch tape noise. No HF10 because SD cards are so cheap anyway.
This camera is easy to operate, though you will want practice if you plan to navigate through the plethora of very useful custom settings. The screen brightness is great, it's useable in even the brightest outdoor settings. The image stabilization is really terrific. If you have somewhat of a steady hand you can take great video while hand held even with significant zoom.
I was a little apprehensive about the joystick control on the viewfinder but I find it is quite comfortable to use.
I use a Mac and it was no problem at all getting the video off the camera. If you have a 16 Gb card and it's pretty full of video it can take several minutes for the computer to go into import mode-seems it has to read the whole card first. So, be patient-it's working.
Though I've read some negatives about battery life, tri-pod mount and some about connector placement and such I don't share any of those as negatives. As for battery, we all have so many gadgets that need charging or syncing these days you just develop the habit of making sure they are fully charged. To me the amazing compact size and light weight advantages of the camcorder far outweighs connector or port placement issues.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great camcorder, poor battery life, terrible software!
Comment: I made a deep research. My goal from the beginning was Flash and especially SD camcorder. I think this is the future of this product - at least in the next 3-4 years.
I found HF100 the best in its class and answering perfect my needs - quality of picture; quality of sound, good variable speed zoom and all this - in an almost pocket size, easy to cary product. Despite the original bag was part of the deal, I found a small, "photo camera" bag. Now I'm carring the camera on my belt, having hands free during my trips. Amazing!
In addition to other pros:
- High picture quality;
- very good sound;
- very good zoom;
- easy and intuitive operation;
- small, compact size;
I like very much the function "power save mode" which lets you having your camera ready in half a second. You will not miss the moment, waiting the camera to start and load the tape...
I'm using A-Data 16G SDHC card for 2 hours of best quality HD pictures. It's fast and on quite attractive price. Then, it takes about 1G/minute to transfer the records to PC - via third party card reader. Fast and easy...
If there was option to give this camera 6 stars, I'll give it. But...
Poor battery life. If switching HF100 often on - power safe and playing with zoom, it takes less than 20 minutes of real recording per battery. Very often in one trip day both batteries I own are going empty. Then, it takes 2 hours and 15 minutes to fully charge one battery.
It will be great, if the power supply will be charger too. This way one can charge two batteries at a time or charge one battery, while using the camcorder with the other - without carrying extra stuff.
Now - the worst thing - the video editing software. I know it's not Canon product - it's Pixela, but it comes with the camera and definitelly decrease the perfect impression of this really great product.
The software comes without help.
It takes a huge eforts to register it. It seems the registration is the ONLY important thing for Pixela. They have special site only to help you to register the product. There are a lot of promises in this site, but once properly registered (at the end!), you find no any help. Having in mind the software is not intuitive at all, it's practically unusual.
The bad software lead me to give only 3 stars to this great camera.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Almost perfect
Comment: This is my first HD camcoder and first Canon brand after working with SD Panasonic. I am very happy with this camcorder, it is very easy to operate, the footage is excellent quality, it is small and easy to handle. I took 1 star off because of few things I think could be improved
1. It takes long time to switch between capturing photo and video. It often takes 15-20 seconds, which sometimes leads to lost opportunities.
2. The bundled battery lasts only about an hour and the supplied charger doesn't allow to charge it outside of camcorder.
3. I wish the captured photograhs had higher resolution, but even this way, I am very happy with them.
4. I wish there is a software for Linux to import and play (not necessarily edit) the footage. As of now the only way to import is to directly copy the .mts files and I haven't found a way how to play them on Linux (I used SageTV and HD 100 media extender to play them on TV with excellent results)

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Canon Vixia HF100 - Solid performance - Value for money
Comment: You got to hand it to Canon to make a subcompact camera with all the bells and whistles of a much more expensive/bigger model. Even better - the performance of this camera is amongst the best I've seen.

Pros:
* Excellent HD recording performance in different resolution - You can change the mode based on space you have left.
* Fairly decent audio recording with decent ambient noise cancellation.
* Easy to use controls and modes(I never had to read the manual to figure out different operations..!)

Cons:
* Recording in SD cards is both a bane and a blessing - I recommend buying atleast a 16GB card with an external card reader - Transcend has a fairly decent one.

* Copying a 1GB movie(about 30 minutes in XP+ HD mode) takes a few minutes to convert into AVI or MPEG, after copying over the movie from the camera - I recommend backing up the movies often as SD cards are prone to failure

OVERALL: HIGHLY RECOMMEND! Search for a good price before buying it - Bought this camera after a lot of research - very pleased with performance

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Customer Rating:
Summary: very bad service from amozon and tigerdirect
Comment: we cancelled are order. steel we haven't got refund yet.after three weeks we called tigerdirect and amozon. they hangup phone.then we called are amx credit card now they are going to investgateing.

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