anybody used the canon FS11

[rockabilly808]

has anyone used the canon FS11 or FS100? I'm looking at picking one up and I like that they use solid state memory and SDHC cards. I'm totally new to video and can't find any good reviews of these cameras, is there a website similar to DPreview for camcorders?

[bikers1]

I bought an FS100 back in feb, pity canon delayed it's release until may !

I've never owned a video camera, I just wanted something simple without the 8 million tiny moving parts and drudge of tape handling and transfer.

What can I tell you, £249 UK , does exactly what it says on the tin, ok I'm new to camcorders but it takes great movies, I chuck it in my pocket when I'm on a photo shoot and use it to capture background, it starts up and is ready shooting almost instantly, stick the 8Gb SD card in my pc, I'm editiing in moments. Battery life is great too, and it tells you quite accurately the remaining battery life in minutes

For me the canon optics and external mic input (£10 on ebay for a wireless mic) makes all the difference.

Wide screen, looks great on my 37" lcd,

I don't know what you want to shoot but I'm more than happy with it. :D

[rockabilly808]

nice

[avp3]

Yeah! I am using the FS-10 (same as the FS-11, but with only 8GB on-board flash memory). Great little, inexpensive vid-cam. If you get one of the FS series, DON'T bother installing the software. Total junk. I am using a MacBook Pro, late 2006, OSX 10.4.11, and iMovie '08, which was updated mid-summer '08 to handle upload/capture from the FS cameras. I have not been able to get Premier Pro to upload/capture. Don't know about Final Cut Pro/Express, but I don't think they handle the capture either, yet.

I have acquired MPEG StreamClip (free!), which looks like it may be an amazing transcoder. However, I will need to purchase the MPEG-2 playback component from Apple ($20) to work with the FS-series native MOD files. Once transcoded, I am guessing that Premier Pro may work with the files. Haven't gotten that far. Still on the learning curve.

For reviews, try these sites:
http://www.dvinfo.net//
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/
and, of course, your could read the customer reviews at
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/

Cheers! Best of luck on your video journey! :-)

[manipula]

Yeah! I am using the FS-10 (same as the FS-11, but with only 8GB on-board flash memory). Great little, inexpensive vid-cam. If you get one of the FS series, DON'T bother installing the software. Total junk. I am using a MacBook Pro, late 2006, OSX 10.4.11, and iMovie '08, which was updated mid-summer '08 to handle upload/capture from the FS cameras. I have not been able to get Premier Pro to upload/capture. Don't know about Final Cut Pro/Express, but I don't think they handle the capture either, yet.

I have acquired MPEG StreamClip (free!), which looks like it may be an amazing transcoder. However, I will need to purchase the MPEG-2 playback component from Apple ($20) to work with the FS-series native MOD files. Once transcoded, I am guessing that Premier Pro may work with the files. Haven't gotten that far. Still on the learning curve.

Transcoding the footage from one format to another so you can then work on it in Premiere is a bit counter-productive. As you mentioned Apple's iMovie08 and Fincal Cut got the updates earlier this year to work with these cameras (and others that create .mod files). Until recently the only useable PC editing software for these cameras (and the AVCHD ones) was one of the upper two versions of Pinnacle 12. That changed recently when Adobe announced the latest Premiere Elements (7 I think) and now Adobe Premiere CS4. These will work natively with your FS and HF Canon cameras according to the new Adobe spec sheets.

[rockabilly808]

ok I see that there's one fs11 thats PAL and then there's one that isn't, whats the difference?

[manipula]

whats the difference?

As far as I'm aware, a button in the menu. I sold out of them a few days ago, so can't check (and besides it's Xmas now ;)) but on almost any camcorder I care to remember, switching between PAL or NTSC is just a menu option.

[osv]

ok I see that there's one fs11 thats PAL and then there's one that isn't, whats the difference?

i think it's the framerate??? 50i vs. 60i?

you are in the u.s., be sure and get the ntsc version.

i would recommend that you seriously consider passing on the fs series, tho, they are standard resolution cameras that record in the mpeg2 format(??)

consider the hf series of camcorders, particularly the hf11/hg21 lineup, because it's hi-def with nearly 3x the resolution... far better picture quality... on the downside, the optical zoom is a lot less, and it will be harder to edit the avchd footage.

[randomlinh]

i think it's the framerate??? 50i vs. 60i?

you are in the u.s., be sure and get the ntsc version.

i would recommend that you seriously consider passing on the fs series, tho, they are standard resolution cameras that record in the mpeg2 format(??)

consider the hf series of camcorders, particularly the hf11/hg21 lineup, because it's hi-def with nearly 3x the resolution... far better picture quality... on the downside, the optical zoom is a lot less, and it will be harder to edit the avchd footage.
it's also twice the cost isn't it?

[rockabilly808]

thats the thing, the HD cams are considerably more expensive

[manipula]

it's also twice the cost isn't it?

Yes.

consider the hf series of camcorders, particularly the hf11/hg21 lineup, because it's hi-def with nearly 3x the resolution... far better picture quality... on the downside, the optical zoom is a lot less, and it will be harder to edit the avchd footage.

Only relevant if your TV and/or output from editing is viewable in HD. Otherwise, basically a waste of all that info.

[osv]

hg20: ~$575
hf100:~$525
fs11: ~$400

nearly three times the resolution for $125-200 more... how much are your memories worth?

Only relevant if your TV and/or output from editing is viewable in HD. Otherwise, basically a waste of all that info.

i used to wonder about that as well, but all of the encoding that i've done shows that the extra resolution holds up well when it's downsized to, say, a standard definition dvd... while some things, like web video, can look much better than anything i have ever shot with an sd camera... and i paid $3600 for my canon xl1s.

[rockabilly808]

really the camcorder is for making vids of the different things that go on on the ship and at college for me to out up on youtube or my blog for my family so the quality gets degraded quite a bit. I also really like the extremely compact size of the FS11 and not having worry about extra SDHC cards or tapes.