Comments about Canon VIXIA HF-S100 Flash Memory Camcorder- 1080p - 8.59 MP - 10X Optical Zoom:

Other camcorders with similar features and performance cost hundreds dollars more.

It's cheaper to buy own flash memory than the built-in one.

Special feature of 1.7x digital zoom without sacrifice image quality.

Comments about Canon VIXIA HF-S100 Flash Memory Camcorder- 1080p - 8.59 MP - 10X Optical Zoom:

This is a great prosumer camcorder. While I wasn't overly impressed with the photos taken, I was very happy with the quality of the video, the main reason to purchase a camcorder. It makes sense to get this over the HFS10 financially unless one really does a lot of lengthy video, in which case the HFS10 and its 32 GB of on-board storage makes sense. A 16 GB class 6 SDHC card gives me around 2.5 hours, and the included battery gives me about an hour and twenty minutes. I went ahead and got the extra capacity battery being sold with this camera, and was glad that I did, as it allowed over 2.5 hours of power. That battery doesn't have a canon chip, so one cannot tell how much time is left but it is still a good deal.
Pros: small size, high quality high-def, fairly easy to fathom menu, Works well with my Mac, both in iMovie 09 or Final Cut Express.
Cons: Mikes are way too sensitive to wind noise (wish Canon would sell a wind protector to fit over mike grates, battery lasts just over an hour and twenty minutes, files are simply huge. No time lapse.

Comments about Canon VIXIA HF-S100 Flash Memory Camcorder- 1080p - 8.59 MP - 10X Optical Zoom:

I went for this product after looking at other HD camcorders at similar price range. This camcorder completely meets my expectations in terms of picture quality and sound.
Camcorder itself is very compact and easy to carry around. Already shot some home videos and all came out pretty nice.
The battery provided along with this camcorder is useless though..Need atleast BP-827 for shooting in HD all the times.

Comments about Canon VIXIA HF-S100 Flash Memory Camcorder- 1080p - 8.59 MP - 10X Optical Zoom:

Picture quality is great. Low light performance is a huge step above a panasonic hdd camcorder I had last year. I didn't use the software, but it is very easy to use with a macbook and imovie 09. (I'm pretty sure you need 09 for it to read the files it makes). Video looks great when camcorder is directly hooked up to flat screen.[...]

Comments about Canon VIXIA HF-S100 Flash Memory Camcorder- 1080p - 8.59 MP - 10X Optical Zoom:

The quality of HD is the best on a market! It is real Canon product! Do not buy extra DVD burner DW-100 - it is useless for 24mb per second recording. The software that comes together with camcoder is enough to create any dvd disk - DVD-R or BD-R( if you have BD-RW drive ).

Comments about Canon VIXIA HF-S100 Flash Memory Camcorder- 1080p - 8.59 MP - 10X Optical Zoom:

Spent the holidays playing with this camera. Had a great time and everyone thought I spent more when they saw the quality.

Comments about Canon VIXIA HF-S100 Flash Memory Camcorder- 1080p - 8.59 MP - 10X Optical Zoom:

Pros:
I got this camera to film my kids. It a camera that produces great video and good quality stills. I've been very happy with the videos. The low-light video is more than adequate. It's key for me was the portability. I don't have to carry around a point-shoot digital camera with this camcorder.

Cons:
The bundled software very unusable. Also consider a new computer to edit the videos as HD video editing require a substantial amount of hardware.

Comments about Canon VIXIA HF-S100 Flash Memory Camcorder- 1080p - 8.59 MP - 10X Optical Zoom:

Its a great camera, excellent video quality and very easy to handle..

Comments about Canon VIXIA HF-S100 Flash Memory Camcorder- 1080p - 8.59 MP - 10X Optical Zoom:

Pros

The Vixia provides excellent quality video and still images. It is laden with features that require one to carefully read the thick user's manual to get the best out of this camcorder. The stills from the 10x lens are good enough to tempt me to sell my Canon Rebel XTi with all of its lenses.

While having the 1080p HD video option is nice, I'm finding that the disk-space conserving 720p is more than adequate for my purposes. There is a tremendous variety of options to help you compose a scene. The functions are numerous and once you get the hang of where they are in the many menus, quickly changing modes is easy.

Cons - these are comparatively trivial. The camcorder is well designed and a delight to use.

Battery life is less than an hour with the stock battery for video and finding the long-live BP-827 is a challenge.

You don't get an eyepiece viewfinder to help you stabilize your shots. Even with image stabilization, because it is so lightweight and you have to use the LCD display, it takes some practice to make a steady video. A tripod is a good idea.

The enclosed Pixela video capture and editing software is basic; invest in Premiere CS4 if you can to take advantage of what you can do with this camcorder.

The shutter makes a brief but quite audible sound when closing that shouldn't be there for an otherwise-silently operating camera.

Summary
I've owned video camera/recorders from Beta to VHS to Digital 8mm, and this one by far tops them all. It is a great prosumer device. I'd give it five stars if the minor cons weren't there.

Comments about Canon VIXIA HF-S100 Flash Memory Camcorder- 1080p - 8.59 MP - 10X Optical Zoom:

Very good travel unit - light weight, compact. If you stay with the default settings it is great for beginners - can get very complicated when you choose to use the custom settings.

After buying and using this unit, I would like to see a second memory card slot, but this in no way takes away from my pleasure in using this equipment.

Comments about Canon VIXIA HF-S100 Flash Memory Camcorder- 1080p - 8.59 MP - 10X Optical Zoom:

I bought this camera to my mom, and I had chance to play with it. I think i made good choice because, controls on the camera is easy to use, super day light and color performance. Simple as point and shoot but also this camera offers variety of manual controls.

As down side at low light video is little bit noisy and software which comes with camera is weak.

Comments about Canon VIXIA HF-S100 Flash Memory Camcorder- 1080p - 8.59 MP - 10X Optical Zoom:

I have not had alot of time to use the camera however it has done great when I used it. I am having problems getting the files onto the computer....but the camera is great. I recorded in very low light at a bar and the video turned out great. Other recordings have been rodeos and dressage lessons and all have worked well with great audio too!

Comments about Canon VIXIA HF-S100 Flash Memory Camcorder- 1080p - 8.59 MP - 10X Optical Zoom:

Simply put, this camera is great for the video quality - I wont go too much into that as there are plenty of other reviewers touting the benefits. I'll concentrate on some of the annoying quirks:- Short battery life: expect about an hour for normal use- No shoulder strap included: minor complaint, but you'll wish they included one- Software is sub-par; useless is a better word. You'll want to use Vegas or Pinnacle or some other package. Very limited for Mac - FinalCutExpress could not finish any imports- Photo button on top is clumsy to operate. There is also a delay of about a half second between pressing the button and the shutter closing.- [...]-Picture and photo quality is top-notch.

Comments about Canon VIXIA HF-S100 Flash Memory Camcorder- 1080p - 8.59 MP - 10X Optical Zoom:

Abe's got the best price. Great picture quality even at low light. No regrets. Still in awe!

Comments about Canon VIXIA HF-S100 Flash Memory Camcorder- 1080p - 8.59 MP - 10X Optical Zoom:

Loads of useful features but I have it set to "Auto" and let it choose the appropriate settings. A view finder would be very helpful for bright sunny days on the beach or when shooting in a confined space.At 10X optical zoom, it is a bit on the short end but that's the sacrifice for a larger Image Sensor.Overall, I notice a better picture quality than my previous HF10. It's worth the extra $$$. [...]

Comments about Canon VIXIA HF-S100 Flash Memory Camcorder- 1080p - 8.59 MP - 10X Optical Zoom:

I am very confortable with this camcorder

Comments about Canon VIXIA HF-S100 Flash Memory Camcorder- 1080p - 8.59 MP - 10X Optical Zoom:

I studied the new 2009 HD cameras and finally decided on the Canon Vixia HF S100. I purchased like the 2nd week of April 2009. The Vixia HF S100 is a great camera and has great image quality. I was bummed the video on the SD card was a wierd format and I had to upgrade to Adobe Premiere CS4 to edit the video. Works great with CS4, though. The software that comes with it is not great. I have not missed the internal flash of the S10 vs. the S100 as the removeable flash of the S100 works great. Indoor video and phots seems really good to me. It took better video and photos at an indoor swim meet than my Nikon D200 SLR (photos on D200). I don't really like the positioning of the photo button on top of the camera, though. Kind of hard to reach. When trying to take a photo while videoing this can cause you to jiggle the camera trying to reach the button. Photos while videoing work well in good light, though some I've taken were not great when the video looked good. Camera takes better photos in photo only mode it seems, but I have taken good photos while videoing in good light. It's also hard to keep the camera steady because of its size. I also don't like the video playback on the camera. The menu and functionality of the menus could be better. Hard to navigate through the menus in the manner I would like. Overall though, I am very happy with the camera. Everything I mentioned is minor and I mentioned them only as consideration for potential buyers. None would deter me from buy this camera.