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Canon FS10 Flash Memory Camcorder with 8GB Internal Flash Memory and 48x Advanced Zoom |
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| Best basic home movie camcorder out there today |
I get abused by my wife for over-analyzing every purchase, but after playing around with this camera a little, I've earned a stay of execution. The camera is amazingly small and light. The low-light performance is on par with this class of camcorder (none are great) but I found tweaking the settings a little make the noise much less noticeable. The battery life is between 2-3 hours and it charges fairly quickly. I prefer the optical anti-shake of higher end camcorders, but it looks like Canon has the digital version working pretty well now. The "auto-shutter" to protect the lens is really nice since my past camcorders always had finger smudges regardless of how often I cleaned the lens and kept the cap on.
The functions are fairly intuitive and I only needed the manual to figure out I had to push the photo button down a littler further to actually take a picture. It definitely isn't going to replace my real camera for photos and it'll be used 99% of the time for video only, but the photo quality was good enough to work in a pinch.
As usual, throw away the provided software and use the movie editing software on your computer. For me, that meant iMovie 08 for the Mac. There's some nuances with iMovie and this camera, but if you turn off Time Machine and set the camera USB port to always connect to "PC" (not sure why it doesn't default to this anyway), you shouldn't have any issues. iMovie 08 is the only Mac software that recognizes the camera without requiring additional software (ugh - not the fault of the camera though).
The only difference between the FS100, FS10, and FS11 is the amount of internal flash. With the battery life and the availability of an SD/SDHC slot capable of supporting up to 32Gb cards, the FS10 looked like the "sweet spot" of the 3 versions with the best balance of price and memory.
If I really needed a view finder, hot shoe, great low-light performance, HD video, etc... I would've just bought a much more expensive camera. For what this camera is designed to do, you can't go wrong. |
| Nov 20, 2008 |
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| Excellent camcorder for the money! |
| Don't be fooled by some of these other reviews. People just need to realize that your computer from 2004 just does not cut it anymore. I have a circa 2007 HP slimline computer and everything was 100% compatible. I took the HDSC card out of the camera...plugged it directly into the computer and it played instantly on my Windows Media Player. The zoom is great. Battery life is as expected. The size is perfect for travel. I recommend this item to anyone. As always, Amazon had great pricing and if you are not a Prime member yet...have your head examined!!! I paid $3 and it was here the next day! |
| Oct 31, 2008 |
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| excellent camera. easy to use. no instruction necessary. |
| We used this camera for our wedding and it worked out beautifully. We just passed it around to whomever was interested in taping for a while. No one had any problems figuring out how to use it, and it had enough internal memory to capture the whole day. Only complaint would be the battery life. The battery life indicator is a little mis-leading, as it goes from 2 hours left down to 10 minutes left in about 40 minutes. Overall, this is a great product. |
| Oct 24, 2008 |
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| An Amazing Product |
This is truly an amazing camera. It is very small; easy to carry. Video picture quality is excellent. As are individual snap shots. Has fantastic telephoto (48x Advanced Zoom) BUT, I find I need help on holding Camera steady when shooting high levels of telephoto. I plan on getting a monopod rather than a tripod simply to have the advantage of a more compact, easier to carry unit.
If you are looking for a sub-compact size video - the Canon FS 10 with 8GB internal memory - is the one. |
| Oct 19, 2008 |
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| Great product |
| Finally a digital camcorder that won't break your bank but is not skimping on the features. I tried other digital camcorders in the past, from the cheaper $100 range, and they all have two major flaws: lack of image stability control and poor performance in low light. This one overcomes both and I'm very happy with it. It also takes decent pictures, although it doesn't match current cameras resolution. |
| Oct 18, 2008 |
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