Canon FS10 Flash Memory Camcorder with 8GB Internal Flash Memory and 48x Advanced Zoom
Product Description
From Canon’s long history of optical excellence, advanced image processing, superb performance and technological innovation in photographic and broadcast television cameras comes the latest in high definition camcorders.Now, with the light, compact Canon FS10, you can have stunning video with the ease and numerous benefits of Flash Memory, at an affordable price. Flash Memory is used in some of the world’s most innovative electronic products such as laptop computers… More >>
- Capture video to 8 GB hard drive or SDHC cards
- 48x Advanced Zoom; image stabilizer
- Widescreen HR recording
- 2.7-inch widescreen LCD
- USB 2.0 compatible for fast file transfer
Canon FS10 Flash Memory Camcorder with 8GB Internal Flash Memory and 48x Advanced Zoom
Tagged with: Advanced • Camcorder • Canon • Flash • FS10 • Internal • Memory • Zoom
Filed under: Video Pocket Camera
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I get abused by my wife for over-analyzing every purchase, but after playing around with this camera a little, I’ve earned a stay of execution. The camera is amazingly small and light. The low-light performance is on par with this class of camcorder (none are great) but I found tweaking the settings a little make the noise much less noticeable. The battery life is between 2-3 hours and it charges fairly quickly. I prefer the optical anti-shake of higher end camcorders, but it looks like Canon has the digital version working pretty well now. The “auto-shutter” to protect the lens is really nice since my past camcorders always had finger smudges regardless of how often I cleaned the lens and kept the cap on.
The functions are fairly intuitive and I only needed the manual to figure out I had to push the photo button down a littler further to actually take a picture. It definitely isn’t going to replace my real camera for photos and it’ll be used 99% of the time for video only, but the photo quality was good enough to work in a pinch.
As usual, throw away the provided software and use the movie editing software on your computer. For me, that meant iMovie 08 for the Mac. There’s some nuances with iMovie and this camera, but if you turn off Time Machine and set the camera USB port to always connect to “PC” (not sure why it doesn’t default to this anyway), you shouldn’t have any issues. iMovie 08 is the only Mac software that recognizes the camera without requiring additional software (ugh – not the fault of the camera though).
The only difference between the FS100, FS10, and FS11 is the amount of internal flash. With the battery life and the availability of an SD/SDHC slot capable of supporting up to 32Gb cards, the FS10 looked like the “sweet spot” of the 3 versions with the best balance of price and memory.
If I really needed a view finder, hot shoe, great low-light performance, HD video, etc… I would’ve just bought a much more expensive camera. For what this camera is designed to do, you can’t go wrong.
Rating: 5 / 5
I bought this as a replacement for my Sony MiniDV camcorder. The video quality is roughly the same using the default settings. However, because I can adjust many more settings on this, I end up shooting better video than I could have with the Sony.
I also like the smaller size (you have to see this to believe it) and the flash memory (no moving parts equals faster response and longer battery life).
I mostly use the camcorder for filming my kids and then uploading it for my parents to watch (they live overseas). It’s perfect for that. I download the video to my MacBook Pro, edit in iMovie 08, and then publish to my MobileMe Gallery. It’s a very fast and easy process.
Oh, and finally, I loved the price! All this for only $385.00.
I’ve owned this camcorder for 6 weeks and taken quite a few hours of video and so far can’t think of anything I don’t like about it.
Rating: 5 / 5
I like the size of the camera, fits nicely in my hand. The basic controls are easy to find and use. The LCD panel is bright and easy to see on a sunny day. The battery seems to have a reasonably long charge, I used it for about an hour straight last night on a fresh charge on new batteries and it still had power to go. The flash memory means no moving parts except for the lens. Also its fast to start and shutdown. I like being able to have some removable media – the removable SD card. It uses a USB connection to the computer, which is ok. THE BAD IS.. the movies are saved natively in a unique file format forcing you to use the “imagemixer” bundled software to download to the computer. Once you successfully do this, then try to load these files (mpg) into MS MovieMaker you get a green screen for previews! I’ve got a support request in for this problem. No resolution yet. It did come bundled with it’s own movie editor, but for those of us who are used to MS Moviemaker this is a problem. BTW the mpgs play nicely in the MS Media Player, it just MS MovieMaker that has the problem.
Rating: 3 / 5
First of all let me state that i spent 2 weeks researching camcorders before buying this one. Many mixed reviews on many different sites.
What sold me on it was the fact that there’s no tapes, dvd’s, or other moving mechanisms to wear out, other than the zoom. No moving parts means batteries last longer. The mic input was a big plus as well as being compact.
Upon arrival i was amazed at the size and weight. After trying it out there were a few downsides that could be fixed.
1.The biggy for me was no lens threads for adding filters for effects or for keeping mist and dust off the lens while shooting. I found a few universal lens adapters but the were too bulky for the cameras small frame. I decided to try something. The barrel of the lens measured at 34mm so i found a 34mm to 37mm silver metal step up ring on ebay for $2. Now i used hot glue on the threads of the step ring and quickly placed it into cameras the barrel. Fit perfectly and looks as if it was always there and if i want to remove it, why, who knows, the glue will just peel off the inside of the barrel leaving no marks. Now i can attach uv filters, wide angle lenses…etc.
2. No hot shoe. Ebay once again…found a cold shoe handle that attaches to the camera and gives me a place to attach a led spotlight and an external mic…cost-under $15
3. $80 for a replacement battery?!? You gotta like China. You can get exact knockoffs that work just as good as the original with a wall charger for $15 – ebay
4. Kind of grainy in low light. First of all it’s not a night vision camera so you should have some sort of light source to begin with. Even in Hollywood they use lighting. Think people before you complain! Attached a led spotlight and it does the trick for me.
5. Saves as an .mod file but pc or editor won’t recognize it. There’s a free program called sdcopy that converts the files to usable/editable files in seconds.
Outdoor video is awesome! Bright, crisp colors. Indoor is great as well with the right lighting. This camera is great! Battery life is incredible! I fit 2 hours of footage in the highest quality filming mode on a 4 gig card. Footage is easy to edit and looks great on dvd. I highly recommend it! The only reason i didn’t give it a perfect score was i had to invent a lens adapter…but it can be done quick and easy!
Rating: 4 / 5
Upon opening the box, I was amazed by the FS10! It fits in the palm of your hand (about the size of a can of pop) and feels like a finely crafted piece of equipment. I started video taping two minutes later! Let’s forgo the technical jargon and skip directly to the picture quality … amazing! I was video taping in my store and instantly was impressed with how well the camera compensated for light shining through my windows. A quick scan around and I ask myself “how is this thing focusing so quickly?” Focus is instant and accurate. Now for the really cool thing – when out of zoom mode, you can focus on the hair of a fly! Well, I didn’t try a fly, but I could literally get within 1/2″ of an object and still have instant focus. How do they do it? No having set it for macro focus, it acts like the human eye. OK, how about zooming you ask. Well we had a Comcast guy working on a telephone pole about 200′ from my office. I was videoing through my window. The camera still had no problem focusing, and the anti-shake feature of the camera worked incredibly. I’ve seen other anti-shake cameras and didn’t like the digital blurring that occured. The FS10 somehow has eliminated the blurring. I actually zoomed in on the tool belt of the Comcast guy and could read the brand name! No exaggeration. OK, now for the real test … transferring the video to my computer. Previously, I hooked my audio/video cables up to my video capture card and then went through a long process of capturing and then coverting and then putting the video on dvd. With the FS10, I loaded the software, plugged in the usb cable, selected my video from a thumbnail explorer type of program, and 1 minute later was watching my video with Windows media player. The file is MPEG straight out of the camcorder! REMEMBER, this camcorder has no tape, so all you are really doing is transferring a file from the camcorder to your harddrive. Burning a DVD from there is a no brainer. What else? Well, no moving parts to wear out. Yea, you do have a zoom, but that’s about it. I did think the zoom button had a cheap feel, but not bad. One last thing. I videoed in a dimmly lit room last night. The picture was grainy. Not real impressed with that, but maybe there is a setting for low light. I did turn on the video light and that helped a great deal. Canon uses an LED light – so minimal battery consumption when using the light. All in all, very impressive!
Rating: 5 / 5