Canon VIXIA HF100 Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom

You got to hand it to Canon to make a subcompact camera with all the bells and whistles of a much more expensive/bigger model. Even better - the performance of this camera is amongst the best I've seen.

Pros:
* Excellent HD recording performance in different resolution - You can change the mode based on space you have left.
* Fairly decent audio recording with decent ambient noise cancellation.
* Easy to use controls and modes(I never had to read the manual to figure out different operations..!)

Cons:
* Recording in SD cards is both a bane and a blessing - I recommend buying atleast a 16GB card with an external card reader - Transcend has a fairly decent one.

* Copying a 1GB movie(about 30 minutes in XP+ HD mode) takes a few minutes to convert into AVI or MPEG, after copying over the movie from the camera - I recommend backing up the movies often as SD cards are prone to failure

OVERALL: HIGHLY RECOMMEND! Search for a good price before buying it - Bought this camera after a lot of research - very pleased with performance

we cancelled are order. steel we haven't got refund yet.after three weeks we called tigerdirect and amozon. they hangup phone.then we called are amx credit card now they are going to investgateing.

A company I work for bought this camera to be able to use in our training division. The idea was to get a camera that could take some good still pictures, good video footage, be small and compact, and easy to use. We really liked the idea of no clunky video tapes since all the footage goes on a small SD card that you can pop in most any newer computer. For the record I would consider myself an fairly advanced user of digital media and editing software. No genius for sure, but I've spent many hours in front of a screen editing pictures and video and puting together many training videos. After using the camera for the past two months, many hundreds of pictures and several hours of video clips later, here is what I found.

The camera itself is awesome. The still pictures it takes are great quality and it's about as simple to take pictures on as a regular digital still camera. The video operation is similar to other video cameras and the quality of the video is stunning. The quality and ease of use in capturing the media you want just can't be beat. Anyone can operate this camera without any problems at all, regardless of your technical "know how".

Now for the reason I rated this camera so low... Once you have that stunning video inside the camera, there is no simple, easy, user friendly way to get it back out onto something you can pop in your 2 year old DVD player and show the family. The software that Canon packages with the camera to install on your computer is absolute junk. It's software that is comparable to what you'd find in a Dollar Store somewhere. The user interface is so poor that even advanced users will be pulling their hair out to get the thing to work what little features it has. No problem you say (like I did), you'll just use one of the easy programs like Windows Movie Maker to make your video....Sorry, Movie Maker isn't able to work with the format of video that the camera records. And that is the root of the problem. The AVCHD format that the camera uses has very, very, very few programs that will work with it and they all cost a hundred bucks or more to buy.

So, in conclusion, from an average guy that is pretty tech savy...stay away from this camera and any like it that use some special wiz-bang format to record with (specifically like AVCHD). The technology is good but the software to work with it still has a few years to go. Go with a good quality Mini-DV camera that you can actually use to make videos on with your home computer....and you'll save pulling your hair out!

This was an experiment for me as I had never played with a flash memory video camera. But I have used several tape based cameras, including professional equipment. The size is perfect it just fits in you hand and the unit is light. In fact it is so light you have to remember that it is there and avoid moving the camera too fast. A couple of minutes practice and I could smoothly and slowly zoom the 12x lens. Far better than any other tape camera I have used other than a $50K PROFESSIONAL SONY camera.

The camera comes on quickly.
A 16 GB SDHC class six card gives over 4 hours of video. Need more switch to another card.
The standard battery last 80-90 minutes. You may want a spare or a larger battery.

That "usability" which is great is still not the best feature. The actual video is stunning. I transcode the video into Final Cut Express for editing and I can create beautiful HD videos. I haven't played with the PC video software yet but when I get time I will write another review. Meanwhile, I rate this camera A for Amazing.

I must admit, this is my first HD camcorder, but I have not ceased to be impressed since it was first purchased. On the "Pros" side, the video quality is amazing (actually looks better than some of the lower quality HD-DVDs I have seen, and low light performance is the best I've personally seen), the ergonomics are great, and the removable SDHC card is very convenient and never an inconvenience. Also, the navigation of the controls and settings screens are intuitive. The only "Con" is the battery; for a camera in this price range, I'd like a battery that can last more than an hour on the highest quality setting. However, I do understand the power consumption at such high data transfer rates.
Overall, I'd recommend this camera to anyone. I'd also recommend one of the higher capacity batteries :)