Quote:
Originally Posted by
WCoast02 
I have a canon vixia HF100. It's a bit over 3 years old and I use it for family videos. Have there been any major advances in video cameras in the last 3 years?
It was one of the best 4 years ago, and still is a very good one. It has higher pixel count and therefore higher resolution than modern Canon camcorders, but the pixel count is not too high to hurt sensitivity. Its stabilizer was not the best even for its time but it is decent and better than on some professional cameras like JVC HM100/HM150. It can shoot 24 frames per second, but you need proper software to de-telecine it. It cannot shoot 60p, but this format is not officially supported by Blu-ray player spec yet. You can derive decent-looking 720p60 from 1080i, or you can shoot in PF30, which is pretty much the same as 30p, only in interlaced container.
In short, your camcorder is leaps and bounds better than any old-school DV camcorder, or extremely crappy JVC Everio standard definition camcorder. Anything else that happened in the last 4 years is incremental change. Also, it works with cheap third-party batteries and its power adapter socket is a standard round one.
Here, read a comparison to a professional XDCAM EX camera:
http://provideocoalition.com/awilt/story/review_canon_vixia_hf11_avchd_camcorder/ The reviewed camcorder model was the HF11, which has 24 Mbit/s mode, but even in 17 Mbit/s mode the HF100/10/11 is better than an HDV camcorder and about as good as a 35 Mbit/s XDCAM EX camcorder. You have a very capable camcorders, which will stay relevant for years to come.
