Customer Ratings & Reviews

I've had this camera for a couple of weeks and so far, I'm enjoying it very much. It's light and compact and easy to carry around. The video quality is excellent outdoors, and indoor, lower light quality isn't really that bad. You need to read the manual to learn how to get good video indoors and in low light. The zoom is really outstanding, it doesn't make me feel seasick when I zoom it all the way to 41X. The 3 second feature is also very helpful to make sure you get every second of the scene you want to shoot. The menus are a little hard to follow but with some practice you'll remember what is where, etc. The quick set up guide which comes with the camcorder is ok but it doesn't really get into the menus and features like the Instruction Manual does, but you'll have to download it from the internet and print it out if you need to. This camcorder also has a video light which is a nice feature to have and the bundled software is not great, but it's not that bad either. Transferring the video to your computer from the camcorder is easy, it transfers as an mpg file and it'll open right up in Windows Media Player. So far, I am very pleased with my purchase and if you're looking for a decent SD camcorder for a reasonable price, and pretty good image quality, check this one out. P.S. The color is supposedly "Evening Blue" but it looks more like a charcoal gray color, doesn't really look blue at all, but it wasn't a dealbreaker for me.

This camera provides almost everything one could expect from a standard definition flash memory camcorder at its price range. Video and picture qualities are as good as you can get with about 1 mega-pixel. The color is great in most cases, if you chose the appropriate white balance mode. Great sound. It is ready to record 2 seconds after you turn it on. However, it offers "almost" everything, "almost" means that it records in the odd format of MOD files. The good news is that both WMP and WMM under Windows 7 works with MOD file format. But the Vista and XP version of both software couldn't read the "wide screen" flag, so if you record in wide screen mode you would get a distorted output. To make things worse, the bundled software is TRUE GARBAGE. I have an old cannon dvd camcorder and the software was already pretty bad. But this time its even worse. Maybe its because I'm using Windows 7, but the software runs so slow on my computer that I can notice a time lag between me dragging the window and the window moves. In summary, if you throw away the 4 discs that come with the camcorder, and use Windows 7 (or some software to convert mod file), you'll find it a perfect standard definition camcorder. Otherwise, it is not as perfect as you'd wish.

I was looking for a good quality camcorder that didn't bust the budget. My kids are hitting some lifetime milestons and I wanted to record the events. I had reviewed Consumer Reports and this was recommend as the best buy in a flash memory camcorder. I wanted a flash memory camcorder for the longer battery life. For the price I paid, I did not expect HD quality video. This little baby suits my needs very well. It takes very good video. It doesn't take very good still pictures, but that is not what I bought it for anyway. If you want quality still pictures, you need to use a still camera. Battery life is great, about four hours. I bought a 16Gig Class 6 SDHC card from an eBay foreighn retailer for a third of what Wal-Mart wanted for a Class 4 card. I slipped the card in and away it went, no problem. About four hours recording on a 16Gig in standard setting. I really love the compact size and how the controls are placed exactly where needed for one handed use. It is a pleasure to use. The files play right from the card when I put it in my PC using Windows Media Center, with no file conversion needed.

I have had this camera a week now and I love it! It is super easy-to-use, is lightweight and takes great videos even in the low res. mode. It has a crisp, clear display and an exceptional zoom for the price, size and type of camcorder it is. It takes flash memory which is affordable and makes it easy to carry additional memory for travel. The battery life is longer than most (at least a couple of hours of recording time). Plus, it takes great still pictures on the fly. The downside is that the software that it comes with it is terrible. I have a high-end Intel Quad system with 3gb of memory and the software locked up me over and over again. I uninstalled and re-installed the software four times and then finally gave up. I finally had to purchase a third party video editing and burning software separately which runs great, but it added to the overall cost of what I had planned to spend. The video editing and picture editing software that this camcorder is bundled with is by Pixela Corp. Canon should ditch this company if it expects to sell more camcorders.

When I graduated from College, I wanted to get it on video. Needless to say, my mom, who isn't technically inclined needed an easy camera to use, and I needed something with enough control and image quality to use in the future. The FS200 is incredibly easy to use. Long story short, the camera is great. The software that comes with it is garbage. Not until you open the box do you find out that the enclosed software is not compatible with Mac OS. You will need a minimum of iLife '09 with iMovie '09 to use the FS200. My $330 camera ended up costing nearly $450 before all was said and done between upgrading to iLife '09, an 8 gig SDHC card, and the camera itself, takes away a bit of value. Overall, I love this little camera.

Before I bought this, I did a lot of research on camcorders. I read reviews and visited many Websites looking for not only a really nice camcorder, but one within my price range. That is why I actually gave only 4 stars in a couple of groups. I am sure that some of the more expensive camcorders will do a lot more than this one and have perfect picture quality, but that is not what I was looking for. This was a great deal and it does everything that I want it to and it even works with my tripod. I wanted a camera that I could take anywhere, be able to quickly shoot video,and be able to save them to my computer or to a DVD. This camcorder does all of that. Some of the perks that I wasn't expecting was the long battery life, the flip screen, and the nice software that comes with it to be able to make DVDs without breaks between several different "scenes". This camcorder meets all of my expectations plus some!

Well, I had a sony DCR-DVD600 before which I lost unfortunately and was looking to buy a replacement. I wanted the FS-100 but I guess cannon replaced the FS100 with FS-200. The picture quality is decent, but I understand that all Standard Definition camcorders around in this price range perform the same. IF you need stunning videos, then HD is the way to go but neither do I have the time nor the infrastructure to edit and view HD video. So SD is enough for me now. That said, the canon picture quality is good in outdoors and so so indoors. Features are pretty good and I grabbed it for abt $190 at BestBuy.com, so I don't have any complaints. Overall, decent camcorder for the price / features.

Very easy to use product, light weight and compact. I love idea of using SD card - you can always carry an extra one so you don't have to worry about filling up a hard drive while out having fun. There is a feature that indicates in minutes how much recording time AND battery life remains - This is a Great feature to avoid running out of battery (of course you could also just buy a backup battery). Downside is the grainy quality for most indoor and low light settings - but I've found this to be the case with most digital camcorders.

Overall this camera was a great buy, and so far is a great product. I really can't say anything bad about it yet. I'm the type that likes to be able to just pick up a product and start using it without having to read through a 100 page instruction manual. For the most part you can do this with this camera. It's pretty simple to figure out by just playing around. However, there were several things I had to consult to the manual for. No big deal though. So, if you're like me, looking for a good quality camera, at a great price, and be able to just start using it without the hassle of reading through a thick manual (and the manual for this isn't all that bad), then this is the camera for you!

My wife and I were looking for a basic camcorder that had some good features, and didn't cost too much. This camera has given us a lot more than we paid for. We like how small it is and how easy it is to use. It has a very good zoom, and the picture quality is pretty good. We wish the battery life was a little better, but if it's fully charged before we go out, we're usually ok. This is an excellent product for those of you that are on a tight budget and yet still wanna get a cool camera.

i bought this camera yesteday-i was going in for a different camcorder but found it was discontinued and sold out-but this one was replacing it and was the same price- I LOVE THIS CAMERA! it uploads very easily which is why i was looking for a new camera in the first place. i needed a camera to use for a daily project im doing on youtube so ill be using it alot and so far i have had no problems with it-i know ive only had it 2 days but believe me its been used quite a bit in these 2 days. if you want to see the quality of the video www.youtube.com/tasteslikepaintnwood anything after 03-28-09 is this camera

I find this camcorder to ba a great value for the money spent. I don't use the software that came with the camera, but here is what I found to be an easy help for you. Find and download the free SDCOPY software on the net. Convert the video files to MPG and make sure widescreen is checked. It is a very quick conversion, and now most editing software can be used and windows media player will play it fine. Great zoom, but like most cameras, if you go out very far your best off with a tripod. All in all it is a great standard definition camera.

We bought this camera for our newborn comming up in May 2010, so we have been trying it and we have loved it so far. It is great to carry everywhere because of its size, and you don't have to carry two cameras since you can take great pictures with it also... We found that it is not so user friendly but once you get a little practice it's pretty simple to use... Great choice!!

I've noticed a few reviews that are not happy with the lowlight quality. Granted ,it is not as good as a canon vixia hv 30, but it is actually better than most camcorders I am familiar with . I recently bought a sony hdr cx 100 and in my opinion the lowlight video is better on the canon fs 200, and that includes a comparison using the sony's highest hd video quality setting.

Simply put, this camera is worth every penny. The picture quality is phenomenal when compared to competitor's products in its price range. Because all the video is stored on a SDHC card, it is ridiculously easy to transfer videos to a pc. I highly recommend this camera to any person who is looking to document his/her life (or your kid's life!) on video!

I love this camera, it is exactly what I was hoping it would be. I love the size. It will fit almost anywhere and light weight. We had a min dvd previously, so I am thrilled with the length of time I can record and the batterly life is nice. I like that I can delete footage if I'm not pleased. It's just a great camera I would recommend it to anyone.

I buy this camcorder for record the wonderful things in my family life. And this item is good and very easy to take, but there is one not good thing. There is no SD storage, and no information of the typy of storage. It will spend some time to find the storage

Good overall camera. No lights on cameras anymore provide actual light. Other cameras have off brand replacement batteries but I have yet to find one for this and $80 is steep.

I purchased the Canon Digital Camcorder to replace a stolen Sony Handycam. The camcorder was purchased primarily for my daughter's birth and I wanted something that was inexpensive and easy to use. The Canon meets the criteria because it provides a good picture in a small package. The video quality is decent, but don't expect to have excellent quality unless you are willing to purchase a higher level camera. This is a good entry level camcorder for someone that wants to just pick up and shoot.

This camera is so easy to use and it's so tiny!! I love it!! I dont have a bad thing to say about it really. Very good camera for the amount that we spent. Only complaint is that I didnt get it sooner :P