Canon FS11 Flash Memory Camcorder with 16GB Internal Flash Memory and 48x Optical Zoom | List Price: $599.99
Discount Price: Too low to display
|
Brand: Canon
Binding: Electronics
Warranty: 1 year warranty
Features: - Capture video to 16 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
Warning - Canon FS11 Poor Performer [Posted on 2008-05-31]
Pros
Lightweight
Small
Solid State Flash Drive
Cons
Awful unnatural light performance (worse than my $175 still camera on video mode)
No thread to attach filters
LED light is useless
Do NOT buy this camera if you intend to use it in unnatural light conditions (anything other than sunlight with the exception of maybe studio lighting).
I recently got this camera as a replacement for a Panasonic Mini DV GS-230 that was stolen from me. Although I had not had it long the idea of carrying tapes had started to bug me and I thought this would be a good opportunity to upgrade to something with a HDD. I was offered a few options from my insurer, one of which was the Canon FS11. I must admit the idea of a solid-state flash memory camera excited me as I intended to use it for snowboarding and vibration can trigger HDD cameras to power down to protect the drive. I searched in vain for a review on the FS11 with no luck so I decided to take the gamble and boy was it a bad one. Upon receiving the camera the first thing I did was charge it up to have a play, as it was night time I just did the basic walk around the house filming random stuff. While filming I noticed that in rooms that had light fittings over the globes that the picture looked very grainy with purple and green pixels appearing of which my first assumption was that maybe it was just the quality of the LCD. I copied the footage to my PC and in horror found that it looked just as bad. As I had not had my other camera for long I only had limited footage to compare it to which included some footage shot at night in my study, I decided to replicate the footage as I knew the light would be the same. I shot some footage of me standing in the study and the new footage was awful, I could hardly see the details of my face, I compared it to the footage shot on the GS-230 which looked flawless in comparison. The first thing I did was to call the insurer and organized to exchange it ASAP and fortunately I was able to. To be honest I imagine the FS11 would have probably performed a lot better in daylight but as an amateur/hobbyist I was looking for a good all rounder and the FS11 seemed far from it. I ended up paying an extra $100 and got the Panasonic SDR-H280 and so far I am really impressed with the performance, funnily enough both of the Panasonics I have had are 3CCD cameras which are noted as having excellent colour definition at the expense of poorer quality in low light, from what I have seen they both perform 100 times better than the FS11 did. As an amateur I, like most am restricted to a relatively low budget and as a result cannot expect to have the best of the best however, considering the price I would expect much better performance, Canon should be ashamed and I hope that anyone who buys one still has the ability to exchange/return it.
canon FS11 user friendliness [Posted on 2008-06-02]
I ordered the Canon FS 11 after thoroughly searching for a good tapeless unit. After receiving the camera and charging it promptly, I started taking closeup and wide angle shots both around the house and other places where good videography was possible. I got down to do the video editing. I could not import the clips onto vegas 8.0, since the camera was not recognized with the USB attachment. I installed the Pixela software for windows after some difficulty with the activation part of the software, since the software would not accept the camera serial number. I got the problem solved after calling canon and the software people. I thought it was going to be easy going to be a breeze in creating the DVD. Boy was I wrong, I wasted two or three DVDs getting only aprtial footage and not playable on sand alone DVD player. To my horror, I found that hte software permits only 99 clips, no matter how long the videos are. My video clips were only few seconds long each. I was disappointed at the way the software is designed. It is not user-friendly at all. Also creation of the DVD is not intuitive. I had to go through so many hoops to get the vidoe clips onto a DVD. Finally I got a playable DVD, but with no sound. I strongly recommend the camera for novice users based on quality of images, but the software stinks. The company is not of much help both by phone or on their web site. Hope this helps other future buyers.
FS11: Beware of SD Card memory format [Posted on 2008-06-02]
Nice overall camera but Canon is now using MOD files which are not recognized by most editing/movie making software. For example Movie Maker does not recognize it. Therefore you must convert the MOD files to MPEG/AVI which takes a great deal of time and an extra step. BTW you need to get your own software to convert it.
They took the easy out of using an SD card.
A lot of Camera for the Size!!! [Posted on 2008-06-11]
It is a tiny camcorder. It will easily fit inside cargo, jacket or baggy pockets. Of course with the extremely small size comes some limitations. This camera is not going to have the same picture quality as professional HD camcorders. But that said it is a very nice camera for shooting standard definition home movies. It has an excellent zoom. The battery and built in memory are going to give you about 3 1/2 hours of recording time. As for all the people who are complaining about trying to edit the footage (that is because they are not using Macs.) If you have an up to date Mac it is a breeze.
I have an Intel Mac. I convert the footage with MPEG Streamclip (Which you can download for free at the Apple Web site.) And then it works fine with Final Cut Pro 6. I convert it to Quicktime and then choose the DV setting. It works great. It also works just fine without MPEG Streamclip if you are using iMovie 08'. The whole process is quick and painless. No going through the whole tape to log and capture the footage. So If you are looking for a tiny SD camcorder that you can take anywhere and edit it with newer Intel Macs, this is a great choice. I think you will enjoy this camera.
Canon FS11 Camcorder flash memory/ 16 GB Internal memory [Posted on 2008-08-16]
This camcorder is easy to use and the use of the function buttons right at hand when need to change to a different setting is great. Lighting for indoor settings could be better but over all this camcorder I would rate a 5 star. I love it.
Click here for more details and discount information...
|
){kind=link}