Talk about MAJOR disappointment.

We have a 3 month old that we wanted to capture, and started taking videos inside with all the lights on and windows open. We played them back on my 1080p plasma TV. I had better results with my MiniDV HD JVC camera that was like a couple years old. I Love the memory stick idea, but the camera stinks!

The images were grainy, and blotchy on the 50″ TV. This alone should be the reason why you don’t buy this camera.

Doesn’t shoot in 1080P.

The lens doesn’t have a low enough aperture! So the images are dark indoors.

The white balance on the camera just isn’t up to Canon expected quality (makes images look dull), unless you define/set it in custom mode.

Canon didn’t include a HDMI cable.

Canon didn’t include a battery charger. You have to charge with the Camera or buy a seperate charger.

If you shoot in the highest video quality mode, you can’t use Canon’s burner to create DVD’s.

So i have this $600 camera, that i’m using as a camcorder, a video player, and charging station. That was a great idea! (going to the S100 doesn’t fix any of these problems either, but you get better image quality).

To be honest, i don’t even feel like listing all my complaints because i’m so disappointed with Canon. This is the worst camera I have ever bought. My uncle just recently bought a $300 Sony and the images were far superior.

Nobody cares for a video camera that can play MP3’s, and add stupid effects. Thats why we have computers for. However, the videos from this camera are so bad you won’t even want to edit on your computer.

This is a straight step forward to 1985 video quality.

In short, stick to Canon’s for digital cameras and Sony’s for Digital Video Cameras.

I returned this camera and bought the HFS100, which is approx $300-$400 more and although much better than this camera, it’s still not “awesome”. I didn’t go with the Sony myself ONLY cause i don’t want to deal with their proprietary memory system

I just posted pictures, so you can see the difference between the HFS100 and this garbage camera.
Rating: 1 / 5

* I am a male standard size, the places of the buttons are wrong, very hard to use, you’ll get finger-ache.

* Ergonomy 2/10

* LCD display 6/10

* Record quality 5/10

My unit broke after 5 mins of recording. (I think this is a very important point, it broke NOT immediately.)

If you want to buy this unit, first begin recording and wait at least 10 mins.

Because i am a international customer, Canon and Vanns were upset(!?) And they did NOT help me. Just pointing out their sadness and giving meaningless suggestions.

I thought myself the meaning of the word that U.S. discovered: “Globalization”. Globalization my a.. .
Rating: 1 / 5

Canon Exec 1:

-Chad, I’ve got a great idea.

Canon Exec 2:

-Really Chester? What’s that?

Canon Exec 1:

-Let’s take our winning formula of blowing the market away cameras that are years ahead of our competitors, make them worse, and charge more!

Canon Exec 2:

-I don’t follow.

Canon Exec 1:

-You see the economy’s bad, people are looking for ways to save money. They want the newest and best, but they don’t want to spend a lot of money. So we’ll downgrade last years model.

Canon Exec 2:

-And charge more…

Canon Exec 1:

-…

Canon Exec 2:

-…

Canon Exec 1:

-Synergy.

Canon Exec 2:

-Oh, Synergy. Sounds good.

-The End-

Buy the hf100/hf10, or hell, save some money and get the Sanyo VPC-HD2000

Canon… c’mon. And yes, I expect you to use the HF S200 to make up for this and it better have native progressive or you’re going to watch Sanyo and Panny take over your house and haz all your cheezburgerz.
Rating: 2 / 5