 This Is A Fantastic Camcorder |
| Review Date: February 19, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Charles Rinehart, Sarasota Florida |
| I was finally able to buy the Canon FS21 in December 09. I did my research with reviews and watching test videos from other users. The quality and color is fantastic for standard definition. I like everything about this product. Simple to use and shoots fantastic video. Unlike what a reviewer said, the battery CAN be charged when attached to the camcorder. This is a quality product. I would highly recommend the FS21. And I will be buying another Canon model soon. |
Very excellent for what it is.
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| Review Date: November 17, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Uncle Dubs, Chicago, IL |
First off, let's be clear, this is a standard definition camera. Even thought Cannon's high-definition camcorders (HF) series are within about $100 of the price of this camera, I chose to stay with standard definition (for now) for the following reasons:
1. I wanted ease of transfer and an simple ability to edit and burn DVD's of my videos without having to upgrade my whole set up to handle the HD recording format.
2. Video editing times for HD video are ridiculously, painflully long. I have a quad core with 8 GB of ram and the time to compile a video project was crazy. I simply reckon the HD video has outpaced current home computing power. Maybe in another couple years computers will catch up.
3. Most of the software that I've tried that have the capability of editing and burning hi-def video are very unstable. Again, I just reckon that the home editing technology hasn't caught up withthe video technology yet. there seems to be a lot of compatibility issues with the MPEG4-AVC / H.264 high definition media format.
So I chose to stick with a standard definition camera (for now). I chose this camera because:
1. Dual flash drive memory format. I'm so sick of dealing with direct to DVD or DV video cameras, and all of the issues of transfering and converting that information to the computer. I wanted something that got recorded directly to solid state...no more read errors or disc errors. This fits the bill wonderfully! Video gets recorded directly to camera's internal memory, plug it into the computer and it downloads quickly and painlessly to and MPEG format. No more dealing with .VOB DVD files! Two thumbs up here.
2. Cannon optical zoom. Very excellent zoom. Maintains quality throughout the zoom range. Prior to this camera, the most zoom I ever had in a cam corder was 10 time optical. Having this much zoom is a huge bonus.
3. Built in light and mike jack. Although the built in video light isn't tremendously powerful, it is better than no light at all. And I like the external mike jack. I can record performaces of friends bands with an audio line out directly from the PA console. Makes for super sound quality in otherwise hard audio conditions. Most cameras at this price point don't have either option.
4. Cannon name. I've always gone back and forth between Cannon, Nikon, and Panasonic for camera/video products. Althought this is a generalization, Cannon always seems to have the most accurate colors. Especially in the blues...Cannon seems to have the "bluest" blues and the competitors always seem to have a purplish tint to their blues.
My experience has been excellent. I confess I have been a bit disappointed with the video quality, but i have to keep reminding myself this is a standard definition camera. It looks as excellent if not slightly better than my past video cameras. I was hoping the video quality would be significantly better, but perhaps that was just an unrealistic expectation on my part.
I've had no problems with the included softare. Everything installed simple as pie and started downloading test videos without any error. The resulting files downloaded to the computer are MPeg files, which are able to be played by a host of media players (Windows Media Player, Real Player, VLC Media player, etc.) as well as the bundled software. I e-mailed some files to family and they were able to open in WMP by double clicking on the attachment. I'm so pleased with the ease of downloading, sharing, and editing files that I wish I bought a camera like this years ago.
I will say that the included video editing software is OK, but if you want to do anything other than the most basic trimming and joining of clips for burning to a DVD, you will need third party software. I could get by with what's included, by as I've gotten better and more practice at making and editing home movies, I'm enjoying a lot of the flashy feature of my third party video editing software. But for basic DVD creation, the software is adequate.
Finally, the camera is very compact and lightweight. No more huge camera bags to lug around. I can fit this in my jacket pocket. Overall very pleased with this camrea. I was looking for something that was much more user friendly than my past error-riddled cameras, and I found it. |
Perfect for family vacations
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| Review Date: September 25, 2009 |
| Reviewer: srinivas kucherla, san diego |
I got this camera in an emergency for my disney family vacation. Not sure until i recieved this puppy. Once I saw it out of the box. I was impressed with size and ease of use. video quality is excellent. but photo quality is not that fantastic unless u have a very excellent light. all in acceptable. I did not do a huge research yet with software and all.But copied all the vidoes to my sdhc card and downloaded to usb drive and uploaded to youtube with no problem.
I hope this helps
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Fantastic buy... Solid product
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| Review Date: October 13, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Billy Tucker, St. Louis, Missouri |
| I have used the Canon FS21 to record several soccer matches and a family gathering since I bought it several weeks ago. I have not been disappointed with any aspect of this camera. The manual was quickly read, and if I were to be honest with myself I would have to admit that there are features on this camera that I have not yet used or know. But, that has not prevented me from making several very satisfactory DVDs of high school soccer tournaments. |
Disappointed
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| Review Date: September 18, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Dr. Frank R. Birmingham, MN |
I've been very disappointed with my Canon FS21. The drivers are still not up on their web site and I have not been able to find any articles. Specifically, it has just been a huge chore to download the video files (pictures work just fine) to my Vista machine. I do some IT work, so I set up an XP machine and thought I'd be done with it, but it is still a hassle.
Working with the software is most of my problem. There are several editing programs (video and audio) that came with the camcorder. That means I keep having to try the various programs when I tweak something to try to get it to work. I really with there was one program and then more importantly some help on the Canon (or the software vendor's) web site.
The picture for the videos is not as excellent as I expected either. I knew that its weakness was in low light from other reviews, but it is pretty unusable if it is even kind of dark (there is a small light, but it isn't enough to overcome the weaknesses). Also, it is just kind of pixelated in its highest def. I bought a Canon FS21 in December for $300 less that is just a better camcorder.
Amazon was fantastic, I needed it straight away and paid for the improved shipping and it came when it was supposed to.
My final complaint is that I went to the Canon web site and made a review just like this one (back then I gave it 2 stars overall) and they took it down. I promise I didn't swear or anything! That disappointed me a lot because I had used their site to choose it and I guess now I know why I finished up bummed about my buy and their support of it. |
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November 30th, 2009 | 
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