CameraFly

Camera Reviews from Amazon.com

• February 19, 2010
  This Is A Great Camcorder

  

  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 great for standard definition. I like everything about this product. Easy to use and shoots great 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.

• November 17, 2009
  Very good for what it is.

  

  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 decided to stay with standard definition (for now) for the following reasons:
  
  1. I wanted ease of transfer and an easy 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 think 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 think 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 decided 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 good 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 big 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 love 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 difficult 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 good. 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 good 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 easy as pie and began 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 happy 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 creating 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 big camera bags to lug around. I can fit this in my jacket pocket. Overall very happy with this camrea. I was looking for something that was much more user friendly than my past error-riddled cameras, and I found it.

• October 13, 2009
  Great buy... Solid product

  

  I have used the Canon FS21 to record several soccer matches and a family gathering since I purchased 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 understand. However, that has not prevented me from creating several very satisfactory DVDs of high school soccer tournaments.