[doggyworld]

So there haven't been much talk about the Canon FS100 as most people generally want the HF100, but I figured since the HF100 really wasn't in my budget to get the FS100 anyways. I knew about the low light problems it had, but I still thought it would do better than it actually ended up in low light. Here's my little mini-review and test video for those of you looking into this camera.


Here are the good points I've noticed so far:

* Very small, light, and easy to carry around

* No moving tape or hard drive

* Almost instantly able to record after power-on

* External Microphone Jack

* Easy to use menus and manual controls

* Takes great videos in GOOD light

* Pretty decent sound quality

* Decent motion stabilization

* Great Zoom

* Battery life is about 3 hours

* Can fit almost 2 hours of highest quality video on an 8gb SDHC card

* Already saves in MPEG-2 format so it's easy for me to convert to DVD (Some have trouble, but it's not that complicated.)


Now the bad:

* Really bad grainy video if the lighting is less than optimal

* Regular photo pictures are only in one megapixel size and not good quality


Overall, I like the camera for what I'm probably going to use it for. It's cheap and very easy to use. I will rarely be filming inside a dimly lit room, so the bad low light condition isn't as big a deal for me. The next step up to the HF100 which I was considering would have cost about double the overall cost since the HF100 would need an extra battery and also bigger memory to store. I wasn't quite ready for that big of a spending so the FS100 will work fine for me. The FS100 cost me $320, and the 8gb memory card cost $30, so about $350 total for the set. I may upgrade to the HF100 in the future if I find myself taking more videos in low light, but for right now, I'm happy with my purchase.


Here is a sample video I put online since there's very few test videos which show the quality of the FS100 and most are compressed so much for the web it's really hard to see. If you download this video, it's compressed in XVid from about a 1 gig file in total to under 100 mb. The online flash version is much more compressed than the downloaded version.

files.filefront.com/FS100+TestFootageavi/;10848024;/fileinfo.html


To view the file, you may need to get the XVid codec or just get ffdshow which also works.


Also, since I'm too new to post a URL, can someone put that in a URL link for me? Thanks.

 

[Swurgen]

Exactly how low is low light? My first son was born 2 days ago so procrastinator dad needs to get a cam ASAP. I've settled on Flash and had good experience with Canon before so I like the idea of this cam but the low light issue worries me when I'm going to be shooting vid of a baby who isn't going to always be in ideal lighting.


Our living room isn't super bright lit and I don't want to be shoving spotlights up in his grill in order to capture some vid. How dim can the room be before the shot isn't even worth taking???


Also, would this cam be ok for sporting events where you're shooting guys moving around very quickly?


Thanks in advance.