I considered a high-def camcorder, but then decided at more than twice the price, it's not worth it for me. Not yet. In a couple years or so, I'm sure prices will have fallen enough to make a high-def camera a no-brainer. The FS100 is a standard-def camcorder that still yields fantastic video quality, in widescreen (16x9) format if you choose, which looked great on my 37" and 50" plasma TVs. It's very light and small, and I haven't felt any hand fatigue while using it to shoot due to weight or awkward design. The FS100 is nearly identical to Canon's FS11 and FS10 in the FS camcorder family. The latter two have memory built-in (16GB and 8GB, respectively), and the FS100 does not have internal memory, nor does it include any SD memory. I picked up two 16GB SDHC memory cards, which can hold about two hours of video each, at the highest quality setting. SD cards are fantastic methods for storing video, in that the cards are silent (no tape drive noise!), very small, have high storage capacities and have dropped in price significantly over the past few months. I wanted to stay away from tapes, hard drive models and DVD camcorders. For movies with the family and kids, the FS100 delivers great quality audio and video, connects to your TV with a single cable for VCR-ish playback, transfers to PCs and Macs quickly and is easy to use.
How easy? One button easy! There's an "EASY" button on the flip-out display, that when activated, provides for simple operation. Turn on your FS100 and hit "record". That's it. During the day, outdoors and in well-lit areas, the EASY mode is a good way to go for quick recording in good quality. If you'd like to deviate from EASY mode, you can easily change options to fit your event, lighting conditions or style. There are several special scene settings you can choose, such as night, sports and sunset. You can also control the shutter speed (Tv mode), change the white balance and apply effects when shooting, such as fade in (when recording starts) or vivid color mode.
I've seen other reviews that criticize the FS100 for poor performance in low-light conditions. Don't most if not all cameras and camcorders have this issue when there's a lack of light? I'm satisfied with the options Canon has included to make your movies look good, even in dimly-lit places. You can turn on the LED light for starters, choose a different shooting mode like "night" or increase the exposure a tick or two using the joystick controller. While testing the camcorder, I shot some scenes indoors at night, and by turning on lights, or using any of the methods described above, was able to get very good-looking results. I also tried setting the camcorder to the Tv setting (shutter priority), and setting the shutter speed to 1/30 or 1/15 to help when lighting is poor. Scenes shot outdoors or in bright light were vivid, crisp and had very accurate color. I don't use the FS100 much for still photos, but it seems to do about as good a job as average point-and-shoot digital camera.
The FS100 is offered in three external colors (moonstone silver, sapphire blue and garnet wine), and comes with cables and a wireless remote. It's currently available for $299 at Best Buy, $279 on Amazon.com and can probably be found even cheaper if you look hard enough. Detailed information and specs can be found on Canon's website. In January 2009, Canon announced a new camcorder lineup, where the FS100 will be replaced by the FS200. Other than being even smaller than the FS100, I don't see significant improvements in the new model, so even better deals might out there for the FS100.
The FS100 is offered in three external colors (moonstone silver, sapphire blue and garnet wine), and comes with cables and a wireless remote. It's currently available for $299 at Best Buy, $279 on Amazon.com and can probably be found even cheaper if you look hard enough. Detailed information and specs can be found on Canon's website. In January 2009, Canon announced a new camcorder lineup, where the FS100 will be replaced by the FS200. Other than being even smaller than the FS100, I don't see significant improvements in the new model, so even better deals might out there for the FS100.
For family videos to be shared (after editing) on DVD or YouTube, the FS100 is a perfect fit for me. It's designed well, small, lightweight, has great video quality, is easy to use and is from a well-known manufacturer known for quality in its imaging products. Recommended.
My original FS100 images are below.
In writing this review, I compared the Canon FS100 to the Canon ZR900 (and other comparable units) and have not owned a camcorder since about 2004.
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