Canon VIXIA HF100 Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom
by Canon
|
List Price: Our Price: $584.00 You Save: $315.99 (35%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $250.00 (click here) Category: Digital Camera See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Canon VIXIA HF100 Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom
Customer Review: Worth every penny!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently purchased the Canon HF10 and wanted to give some thoughts for any perspective buyers.
First off the video quality is excellent. I took some video indoors at low light and then took some outside where it was a sunny day. Both scenes played back with excellent color reproduction and clarity. The outside video was very impressive, the color reproduction and clarity were spot on. Blue skies were a perfect blue and green grass was a vibrant green. The sharpness of the picture was very clean.
The inside pictures were not quite as good, but that is because of the low light in my house. I needed to do some tweaking first, but even at the factory settings the picture was very good.
The auto focus is quick and the image stabilization works like a charm. The 12x zoom really gets you in tight and brings in those distant shots fast. The camera really takes some fantastic video.
The menu is easy to navigate and gives you loads of options. All the controls fit well in my hand, and I would say I have average size hands for a guy. Love the small size and it hardly weighs anything at all.
One thing that really impressed me was the still photos, they are above and beyond what I expected. Now granted this isn't a DSLR, but I think most people would be impressed with these photos, especially considering they are from a camcorder. Honestly for me this is all I need, why carry a separate point & shoot when this camcorder does it all. Very impressive photo quality.
Just to be clear, I am just a novice. I am in no way a camcorder pro. But as far as I am concerned the HF100 is worth every penny. Nothing better than being completely satisfied with a purchase. Awesome camera top to bottom.
Customer Review: Superb Camera
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this camera over a year ago for a trip to Jamaica. I also purchased a 16GB flash memory card to go with. This camera replaced a vhs-c compact recorder that I've had for years and finally went due to battery issues. I am an average user mainly taping my children and family significant events. For this purpose the camera is excellent, there are no tapes, dvds, cd's (did I say tapes?) that you need to purchase once you have initially bought flash memory. During our week in Jamaica the 16 GB card held everything I taped. I recorded at the highest quality setting for the duration. Also of note, I only had to charge the battery once during our vacation as well. So the negative comments on the battery I initially encountered during my research do not really apply to me (1 hour is plenty!). This camera has plenty of recording space and plenty of battery power for the average user. I agree with others though with respect to the low light quality, it is on par with my old vhs-c, no worse no better.
Nice compact design, again partly attributable to the flash memory storage.
I still need to locate some good software for editing, but honestly haven't done much with this. When clips are played back on my plasma, they are absolutely stunning, the audio quality has issues, but again I think this is a software and not a hardware issue. The camera is extremely easy to use and takes decent photo's as well. I have very few negative things to say about this purchase. Highly recommend it to those of you looking to eliminate the "middle man" with respect to recording media, and/or are looking to upgrade to HD in the camcorder relm.
Customer Review: Outstanding Video Quality
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Customer Review: Good camera for the money, looks good on a big screen
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this camera for it's small for factor and convenience of the flash drive. It looks great on my home tv, which is a 42" 1080p LCD. I was using a Sanyo CG6, whose for factor is awesome, but it looked like crap on my big screen as it only records in 640x480. The Canon looks great outside, whether cloudy or sunny, but inside it's just ok. I've seen better low light cameras. It's not unusable, just be sure to turn on some lights. It is a little jittery, as all HD cameras are, just pan slower. The image stabalization does help tremendously. The pictures are awesome. The battery life is medium, about 45-50 minutes @1080p, not as bad as people say. I have played it on my TV connected with the mini-HDMI and just plugging the card directly into my PS3. Navigating the clips works best connecting the camera directly to the TV. Using the PS3, it sees it as just one big AVCHD file with the different cuts being different chapters.
The Pixela software installed fine with my Vista 64-bit system with only one problem. I had installed after market codecs and it was causing problems. I found the video editor WILL NOT work right if you have HAALI codecs installed, usually comes with ffdshow. REPEAT, HAALI codecs are not compatible up the video editor. It has something to do with HAALI trying to make thumbnails of your videos in the uploading stage of the editor. I just un-installed all my codecs and reinstalled them, leaving ffdshow out, problem solved. The video viewer that comes with it is perfect for viewing the files on your PC, don't bother trying anything else.
Customer Review: Impressive video quality
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought the HF100 as a replacement for the 720p Sanyo Xacti HD-1. The Xacti is compact, but has poor video quality indoors, its smallness results in a lot of camera shake, and it required repair after a few months, indicating poor manufacturing quality. The Canon HF100 kind of fits in a jacket pocket or in the side pockets of baggy pants or shorts, but it weighs down your clothing significantly. But the key point is that the video is stunning when viewed on a 24" 1920x1200 computer monitor. The sharpness is incredible, with good sensitivity for indoor movies. Image stabilization is pretty good as I was able to obtain sharp images of craters on the moon at full zoom. I was pleased that iMovie '08 recognized the SD card immediately and I had no problem transferring and playing movies on a high-end desktop (Mac Pro 3.2 GHz). The 24p mode seems like a gimmick given that you have 30p, and the "cinema mode" merely gives you less saturation and the appearance of higher dynamic range, which is useful in sunlit situations. I like the video light, which is quite strong, and I consider an "effect" a la the Blair Witch Project. I wish that these types of camcorders had a better built-in wide angle capability, but the wide screen aspect does give you back some of that in the horizontal direction. Also, a 2-yr old SD card that I had worked fine, but could not record at the very highest data rates (yet the picture was still very sharp). Photos are very good, rivaling a 7 MP Kodak point-and-shoot that I recently bought (V712), which goes to show the benefit of having a good Canon lens.