CameraFly

Camera Reviews from Amazon.com

• April 20, 2010
  I love it!

  

  This is the third camcorder I bought and I am finally happy with this one! The picture quality and clarity is great in a range of lighting. Everyone else has said so much I don't feel like I need to rehash it all so I will keep to some general digital video stuff that I think is catching some people:
  
  1. AVCHD is a high-compression codec, but it is tough to deal with for editing. (A codec is the algorithm, a small program per se, that shrinks the size of the video on disc. Without a codec, this camcorder would probably fill it's video memory in 20 minutes. Codec is short for COder/DECoder).
  
  You may have to convert the video before editing and the conversion can take a long time at HD quality. Adobe Premiere I know deals with AVCHD natively (and does so very well), Final Cut Pro will not. If you just want to playback then you'll be fine. But, this is not like the old video tape camcorders, as far as popping it in a vcr and go. Playing back on your computer can be a challenge to setup for the layman. If you find this part difficult, then you may want to buy the canon DVD recorder accessory and it can convert from the camcorder directly onto DVD. Playing back from the camcorder to the TV is great and simple!
  
  2. AVCHD requires a lot of horsepower. The camera is highly optimized to do just video, your computer is not. You may have to use one of the lower quality recording settings if you want to play back on your computer. (really! the camcorder beats the average desktop computer!) Fortunately, even the lower settings on this Canon provide good quality for most users (it's still HD resolution, but a little color and clarity is lost.) Unless you are like me, you probably wont notice. I mostly record at second from the lowest, and I have a keen eye for bad video quality. Tip: I did a bunch of test videos at all the various quality levels, then played back on the computer to choose the best for me.
  
  3. Oops! Make sure you don't press that manual focus button! You probably wont notice on the LCD if you do until you play it back on your computer or TV! Even better, unless you plan on using manual focus, disable this button through the menus.
  
  4. The wide-angle adapter lens is worth it IMO. But (typically) you can't use zoom with a wide-angle lens adapter. (It all about the optical planes.) The extra lenses distort at zoom and the focus algorithm may also stop working. (I didn't know this and at first thought I bought a crappy wide-angle lens.) Thus, you will be swapping the wide-angle lens depending on what you plan to record - not a big deal.
  
  5. If you have audio/video sync issues on playback it is the playback codec. This is a problem with many codecs including AVCHD. Again, getting the computer properly setup can be a challenge. But once you do, you are golden from then on. (Google's your friend.)

• March 30, 2010
  Absolutely stunning image quality

  

  Previously I was the owner of the Panasonic minDV HD camcorder, which was very good but the tape was a huge limitation, thats why i bought the new cannon. I would never imagine that the consumer level camcorder could take such stunning video like this Cannon. I watch the videos on my Samsung HD led TV and the image is so realistic that you don't believe that you are watching video and not reality. The picture is very sharp and natural, the low light performance is also very good, the camera itself is very easy to use. The camera is worth of every single Penni paid for it

• February 10, 2010
  Great camera

  

  This is the nicest camera HD I've had so far. great features and image quality, the only thing I would say is I thought it was slightly smaller when buying it.