«Good Deal»

If it only had a higher pixel level for pictures and a little better performance at night I could easily gave it 5 stars. I still have no regrets on purchasing this camcorder.

[Wednesday, January 07, 2009]

«Excellent AVCHD Camcorder»

Having deliberated over different HD camcorders and HD camcorder formats, I decided upon and purchased the Canon HF100 a couple of weeks ago, and, with one exception, am absolutely delighted with the video performance of this camcorder. It small, lightweight and very easy to use (particularly in "Easy" mode). Shot taken outdoors in bright light are absolutely stunning, and look fantastic on a HD television. Watching home video is like watching the discovery channel; it is simply that good. The exception would be low light performance, which I found very disappointing. In a well lit room, it is barely acceptable, but in a dimly lit room, there is a considerable amount of noise and motion artifacts. I haven't had it long enough to determine whether there are settings that might improve the low light performance, but it is not much better (and in some cases worse) than my standard definition camcorder in low light.
But for outdoor shots in bright light, it is amazing.
The SD card format is extremely easy to use, and I have not even had to use the mini-HDMI cable I bought. You can watch video instantly simply by taking the card out (I am using the Transcend SDHC 16 GB card and card reader sold on Amazon for $40 as a package, and it works great), and inserting the card in my PS3, which instantly reads and plays the AVCHD video. I have also used the included software in my 3 year old computer to transfer video and burn standard DVDs for playback in Blu-ray players (including the PS3), which is also very easy and works great. The image quality is the same as playing back directly from the card. I don't have much experience with video editing software, nor the time to spend editing lots of video, but the included software gets the job done and is very easy to use.
All in all, a great product and highly recommended. I wish that the low light performance was better, but from what I have read, most consumer level HD camcorders have the same problem (including the Sony).

[Monday, January 05, 2009]

«Good cam overall»

I used the HF100 with a 16GB Class 6 HCSD. Generally speaking, the color is very good, HD quality video is very clear, the pictures are very nice, all of which you may read from other reviewers. I just want to point out a couple of things which may be improved over time:
1) It takes "quite a long time" (5 - 10 seconds?) to start or to change between video mode and camera mode. This is annoying.
2) The small size of the camcorder has its side effect as well: harder to hold steady
3) When used in camera mode, the fastest speed I could get is 1/120s. Not too good in a very bright environment. I do not know if you can make it higher.

[Monday, January 05, 2009]

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