Canon FS10

Canon FS10 Overview - It took several evenings of searching review sites before I chose a Canon FS10. I've never owned a camcorder before, and I was after a simple budget camcorder that wasn't restricted to just 30 - 60 minutes of footage, which you're restricted to on the mini-DVD or Mini-DV formats. It also has a long battery life of 2 - 3 hours; enough for any situation in my experience. You can record upto 1hr50 mins on the highest quality setting, and 2hrs45mins on the standard quality footage (the standard quality has slightly subdued colours and less sharpness to the picture - almost like it's slightly out of focus - but in bright sunlight the difference isn't as big as you'd think). The Low quality setting gives 5hrs of footage but you'd only want this for really basic shots in good outdoor light. This camcorder also has the added bonus of allowing an external microphone input, and space to expand the memory using a SDHC card at a later date when prices for SDHC have come down.

First Impressions - The camera is tiny, light and good quality. I have an IXUS 40 digital camera so I trusted the Canon quality and I'm not disappointed by the FS10. The little screen on the side gives an excellent picture, and the menu system is easy to use with a tiny joystick to the left of the screen to navigate around the system. The zoom has to be seen to be believed - very impressive for such a small camcorder. The Canon also comes with a remote control which is an excellent feature - you can set it up on a tripod and then stand back and use the remote to zoom in & out and change settings (all without needing to touch the camera, so you don't get any camera wobble or noise from putting your hand on the camera).

Video Quality - In outdoor situations (whether sunny or not) the video footage is very good, really pleased. In sunlight the footage is especially crisp with no grainy-ness or pixelation. It can shoot in Widescreen or old format, so you can set it up accordingly & achieve the correct format on the TV screen when you play it back. The only downside is that it only has one small CCD lense ( 1/6" ), so it needs plenty of light to get satisfactory video quality - indoors the quality does suffer badly under dim lighting (a very grainy, blocky look to the video) - you'll need to have the lights up to get satisfactory quality from this camera. This is the only downside of buying a small budget camcorder such as this. But if you're after one of the cheaper, small, light cameras for capturing your family then this is all you'll need. I'd recommend it for those who are on a budget, and simply want to capture the essence of a moment, and transfer it easily onto a PC for burning to DVD later. My advice is that if the quality of the footage in all light conditions is the most important thing for you, take a good look at the 3CCD-lense camcorders that use Mini-DV tapes (the Panasonics seem very good). These get consistently excellent reviews for all-round video quality.

Sound Quality - The option to plug in an external microphone is potentially very useful. I bought a small microphone, which I will use when I'm filming in very quiet locations and need more subdued sound (by using the external microphone you don't get any of the little 'clicks' and 'knocks' that the internal mic picks up. It gives a significantly cleaner and quieter sound quality - e.g. without the background noise of cars & roads. It really makes a difference to the overall quality of the video footage when you're watching it back on TV. Some will think this is unnecessary, but I would recommend trying it if you find the sound too noisy & 'harsh' when you play it back on TV). But having said all that, the built-in stereo mic is very good, it works very well.

From Camcorder to DVD Player - I use the supplied Imagemixer software to download the footage from the camcorder onto a PC, through the USB port. The camcorder will always need to be plugged into the mains to do this (this avoids the battery dying halfway through a transfer and damaging the Camcorder/SDHC card). So the whole transfer process is easy. I use a separate DVD creation software (Sonic/Roxio MyDVD on a Dell PC) to create the DVD's which play as normal in a DVD player, so I'm unable to comment on the quality of the Imagemixer editing software. - - - I needed a v-small, easy to use camcorder with long battery life, had plenty of space on the memory to record footage, and was easy & quick to transfer to a PC. The FS10 meets all these requirements, but comes with the bonus of a great remote control and the external mic option.