Little Camcorder with Big Features

I bought this Canon FS10 camcorder from HSN when they had it on as a Today's Special for $299 and free express shipping. They even threw in a nice carrying case as a bonus.

Storage Media
This is simply an awesome camcorder. It is extremely small and lightweight making it easy to take along anywhere. I love the fact that it uses reusable SD flash cards so there are no tapes or dvds to buy. And with the 8GB internal memory, you can start using this camcorder right out of the box even if you don't have any SD cards. The 8GB capacity can hold about 1hr 50min of video at the highest quality (XP), 2hr 45min in standard play mode (SP), or 5hr 10min in long play mode (LP). 

It is compatible with both SD and SDHC cards. I don't have any SDHC cards yet but I used a Kingston 2GB microSD card (with adaptor) and it works great. The SD card is inserted into the bottom of the camcorder, in the same compartment as the battery.

Battery
The camcorder uses a removable Lithium Ion rechargeable battery. It takes about 195 minutes to recharge the battery in the camcorder by plugging in the power adaptor. Maximum recording time with the battery is about 195min, but actual recording time would probably be less taking into account starting/stopping, zooming, reviewing, etc.

Controls
The camcorder fits comfortably in your right hand. For left handed people, you'll still have to hold it with your right hand since the LCD screen opens from the left side. The layout of the controls is kept clean and simple. There are 3 controls on the top: the zoom toggle, the still photo shutter button, and on/off button. The rear of the camcorder has a large thumbwheel which let's you select from 4 modes: record video, record photo, playback video, and playback photo. In the middle of the thumbwheel is the button to start/stop recording videos. When you swing out the LCD panel, there are two buttons on the camcorder side: an Easy Mode button, and a Display Info button. On the LCD panel there is a mini toggle switch mounted to the left of the screen and 5 buttons below the screen. 

All of the camcorder's settings and advanced features will be access using the controls on the LCD panel. I found it quite easy navigating through the menus to change settings between recording in 16:9 or 4:3 format, and also to select whether to store files on the internal memory or on the SD card. From here, I also set the camcorder not to beep everytime I start or stop recording.

Recording Video
So far I've only used my camcorder to take indoor videos and I'm very happy with the image quality. I've had to play around with the shutter speed settings and exposure control a bit before I got everything just right. There's a built-in LED mini light which helps in close distances.

For those who just want to turn on the camcorder and start shooting, it has an Easy Mode which simplifies the camcorder's functions so that virtually anyone can use it. But for more advanced users, it allows you to manually adjust settings such as shutter speed and aperture. You can even override the autofocus and manually adjust the focus. It's got a few built-in special effect filters such as black and white, sepia, mosaic, and art. There are also settings for specific scenes like fireworks, snow, beach, night, etc. I know there are yet other features that I haven't even begun to look into, the self-timer and remote control for instance.

For such as small camcorder, I am amazed at how powerful the zoom is. Optical zoom is up to 37x. Canon claims it can digitally increase the zoom up to 48x without any deterioration of image quality. This is what they refer to as Advanced Zoom. Additional digital zoom is up to 2000x but image quality suffers. I personally set my camcorder not to zoom digitally. Though the camcorder has Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS), I find that it's very difficult to hold the camcorder steady by hand when zooming all the way in. Thankfully, the camcorder has a tripod socket on it's underside. I like the fact that the tripod socket is metal and not cheap plastic.

Digital Still Photos
The camcorder can also take digital still photos, although the resolution is only about 1MP. But the great thing is that the 37x optical zoom and widescreen features work when taking still photos as well as videos. Those are things my digital still camera can't do. Also, I was very impressed with the extreme closeups you can do with this camcorder as the minimum focusing distance is a mere 1cm. It will automatically go into Macro mode when you're shooting in close range and a flower icon will show on the LCD display.

External Connections
The camcorder connects to your computer via a USB cable which is included in the package. On the camcorder side, it uses the 5 pin mini USB connector. The USB connector is for data transfer only, it does not supply power to the camcorder. There is a separate power port to plug in a power adaptor. The power adaptor is rated at an odd 8.4V DC. To connect the camcorder to your TV, VCR, or DVR, it uses a Stereo Video cable with standard RCA plugs on one end and a 3.5mm plug on the other. This cable is also included. There is also a input jack on the camcorder where you can plug in an external microphone.

File Formats
This camcorder saves photos in .jpg format so there's no compatability issues there. Video files are a bit trickier. It saves videos in .mod format. Each video will also have a second file with a .moi extension. This file contains the date/time info as well as the aspect ratio info. I had problems when trying to play the .mod file in Windows Media Player. The audio plays fine, but the video shows up as just a bunch of squiggly horizontal lines. I even tried renaming the extension to .avi and .mpg as some people have suggested but that didn't work for me. I was able to import the .mod files into Windows Movie Maker (WMM) but videos I took in 16:9 format were all squashed into 4:3 format. This occurs even when I set the WMM option to display in 16:9 ratio. Apparently, this is because the aspect ratio information is stored in that .moi file rather than in the video file itself and so WMM is unable to detect that it's widescreen. To get around these issues, I installed the Pixela ImageMixer 3 software that came with the camcorder. With this software, I can convert the videos from .mod to .mpg format. After the conversion, the videos play fine in Windows Media Player and the widescreen format is correctly recognized by WMM.

Conclusion
This being my first digital camcorder, I had no previous experience, but in less than a day I was importing video clips to my computer and editing my own movies! I now have a flood of movie ideas that I want to do with this camcorder. I am so glad I gave into my impulses and got this camcorder.

Update!
I have tried out the Canon FS10's self-timer feature for still photos. You must go into the setup menu to turn on this feature. Once self-timer is activated and you press the shutter button, you have 10 seconds to jump into the picture and compose yourself. The camcorder will only stay in self-timer mode for that one shot. If you want to take another photo using the self-timer, you have to go back into the setup menu again to turn it on.

There is an even better option. That is, use the remote control. With the remote control, you can compose yourself in the picture first. The LCD display rotates all the way around so you can see yourself from in front of the camcorder. Then, press the shutter button from the remote. The camcorder will take a second or two to autofocus before taking the picture. That gives you time to lower your arm and hide the remote, so you won't be seen in the picture with your arm aiming the remote at the camera.

I have used my Canon FS10 to do stop-motion animation and the remote control is a godsend. To avoid ending up with a very shifty looking scene, it is vitally important that the camera be perfectly still for each shot. Even just pressing the shutter button on the camcorder can cause slight, but noticeable, movements in camera position. With the remote control, I can take each shot without ever having to touch the camcorder.