Customer Ratings & Reviews

Be careful who's review you read! I am distraught about all the well intentioned half-truths and misinformation circulating out there. I claim to be no expert, but I did make my living once as a filmmaker/cinematographer for seventeen years and do know a little about the photographic image. This little camcorder is worth every penny and then some. First of all, it is a Canon with the same highly respected Canon optics offered as in their more expensive big brothers generating a sharp image, warm true colors, which leaves competitors wanting. Of primary importance to me are optics and sharpness of lens, focus speed, CPU processing, color that is true and warm which emulates film. This camcorder delivers all of that. All the other bells and whistles I would never use while recording, so no comment. Digital effects and music beds are meant for post production. Also, for still photos I would never use a camcorder at this price level -- that is not what they were designed for, so again no comment. The camcorder is very user friendly - easily programmable for your own personal settings. I have tested it on auto mode, cinema mode, with different shutter speeds. It is recognized by IMovie immediately without the need to load anything into your Mac (just use your power cord). Technical support from Canon is there and they are the most friendly accommodating crew you can hope for. The clicking noise some complain about is minimal and can be overcome by manually controlling audio levels or by using an external mike, which I do. FYI, all small compact camcorders are going to emit some noise (the entire VIXIA line) the built-in mike is so close it is inevitable. The only disadvantage is that it will not take a wide angle lens. I think this camera is the best for the money. Keep in mind there is a big difference between $299 or $1,100

I bought this to make business videos for online use. Very high quality video, image stabilization is excellent, and it seems pretty easy to use. For a video camera it shoots really crisp still images in large format too. One of the coolest features is that you can set it so you can see a graph of the sound levels on the screen as you are taking the video. It does have a headphone jack too so you can monitor the sound as it is being recorded, but the graph is a sure fire way to make sure any external mics are turned on when you are shooting without the headphones on. Has good light and color balancing. The only drawback I see to this camera right now is that you have to have the axillary power cord plugged into the camera and A/C power when you are uploading images to the computer for editing. That means if we hook it up to laptop in the field to download video you will have to be where you have power. So far I haven't found a way around that.

My husband Consumer Reports pretty much everything we buy. So when I told him that I wanted a camcorder he automatically knew what to do. He looked up the ratings, printed them out and we went to the store to take a look at what the options were. The Report gave it about a 51 out of 100. Its a pretty good rating considering that the highest rated on there was about 70. I liked the price on the camera, especially since Best Buy was having a sale on all of their Canon camcorders. When I got the product home I put everything together and charged the battery while I installed the software and read the manual. Yes, I am the person that reads the entire manual. When I was finished with that I made my first video, it was of my husband and I at home. I replayed it on the screen and didn't see anything wrong with it. When I uploaded it onto my Mac and watched it from there. THEN I HEARD IT... the RATTLING noise!! I thought I had a defective device so I got online and Googled it. Apparently the noise is a common thing with the model, its from the auto focus being too close to the mic and the only way to get rid of it was to either use the manual focus OR use separate microphone (also, the camcorder doesn't have anywhere to mount one). That just wasn't going to work for me. My initial reason for getting this camcorder was to do HD/reviews on the internet and to capture our everyday life at our at-home farming business. I can't be holding onto a microphone and a camera AND trying to do another thing at the same time, it's just not possible. The rattling noise was just too much for me. Now I am going to go back to the store, return this product in exchange for the Canon HF-M30. Yes, it's $100 more but there have been no reports on the rattling noise AND it has better features like: Dolby Digital 5.1, flash/light, and touch screen among many others.

I've researched this camera to no end before my purchase yesterday. Although I had read about some noise issues stemming from the MIC or internal hard drive I was somewhat skeptical so I decided to buy it anyway. After tinkering with the camera for about 45 mins looking at all the excellent easy to use features I started to finally record some video. At first I didn't notice the anything at all and was very please with the playback video on the camera itself. I then decided to export the video to my PC and that's when I noticed a very distinct clicking noise (almost like an old school movie camera) coming from the video I recorded. Knowing this might be an issue and after reading a few reviews and setting guides on the net, I adjusted the MIC levels. This still did not help at all. You could faintly hear the clicking on the playback but then almost you can hardly hear any other sounds. This was very disappointing to say the least. This is a great little camcorder for the price. If you can get past the clicking noise then this camera is for you. I'm on my way to return it and hopefully find something else. Good Luck!

I do a lot of "semi-pro" video editing, but on a limited budget. I upgraded to the Canon after reviewing some recent years' video work and realizing I needed better quality video to work with. Also, I used my old camcorder for live streaming of concerts on the internet, and found the overall quality to be poor, so it seemed a good time to upgrade. Though the Vixia provided excellent quality video, the video format was not compatible with my editing software, even though my software was HD compatible (I would have looked for a converter if this had been the only issue). Also, I discovered that the Canon would not allow me to stream video, and in fact I could not work with live video at all. I expected that a new camcorder would expand and enhance what I was already doing with an older model miniDV camcorder. It was disappointing to discover that the new camcorders don't have nearly the features of the older models. I ended up returning the camcorder, and will be using my old one a while longer since none of the new models will do what my old one does.

Picture quality is very good and the small size is very nice for vacations: was able to keep it in my pocket or wife's purse on our honeymoon. It was originally purchased to take our wedding video and bring on our honeymoon. Worked great on both accounts. We were surprised on how good the audio was from the ceremony. Did not/have not had the low-light problems people have complained about. The menu is large with many available functions that take some time getting familiar with. After an hour or so with the camera it becomes easy to use. Great camera for amateur home videos of sports, vacations, birthdays, or special events.

We purchased this camera in anticipation of the birth of our first child. We've been playing with it for several weeks, and have found that this was a wise choice. Originally we had purchased a Sony Bloggie, but returned it a few days after purchase due to the quality of picture and sound and the overall features. If you're looking to make professional movies, then go with a higher end model. If you're looking to make high quality home videos, then this is the camera for you! The only downside to this camera is that it only has an 8GB built in hard drive which does require the purchase of additional SD cards if you're going to record more than 3 - 4 hours of video before being able to transfer to a PC (i.e. vacations), but SD memory cards are coming down in price and are available up to 32GB already.

I got the camera on clearance for under $300. So, that being said, I am extremely happy with it. However I have several complaints. I had a JVC Everio Standard definition before this, so I'm basing my comparison only to that. I have not owned or used any other Hi Def cameras, so I don't know if these issues are common with all cameras or just the JVC. In day time, outdoors it takes amazing Hi Def video. My last vacation to disney world looks amazing on my big screen! However, 1. The stability feature sucks! It's worthless, It makes the video look blurry, and doesnt help that much with the shaking. 2. The camera is too zoomed in. You have to stand very far away or pan up and down too much to capture something. This was not an issue with the SD camera I had before. When I point the camera at myself, it's like a closeup all the time. 3. The camera is useless at night, or in dim indoor lighting. You can not see anything, and what you can see in low light is super grainy and looks horrible. The low light features arent' very helpful either. and the camera doenst have a light either. My old SD camera was able to record in better quality and better resolution at night than this one. And again, they are both JVC EVerios. Overall since I paid so little for it, and I usually only use it to record vacation vidoeo during the day, I am extremely happy, but will be upgrading sometime in the future to something better.

I bought this for use at our office to film classes, meetings etc. and to check it out to see if I want one for family use Have been pleased with the picture quality for indoor scenes in relatively low light. Had read reviews re clicking noise when recording in quiet rooms, so made adjustments to the microphone before using. Despite that, the clicking is still VERY noticeable even when the room is not extremely quiet--a major disappointment for a Canon product! We will correct at office by using an external mic, but I will not be buying this model for family use!

I bought this to capture the kids' sporting events. Better than average performance in low-lighting scenarios (Gym, Low Lit room). It has an intuitive touch screen. Because it doesn't have a hard drive it's as light as a feather; feels like this type of technology should be more massive, but it's really comfortable. Audio's pretty good too; no background noise and minimal wind noise when shooting outside. Only negative is that there's no record button on the top for your index finger. It's a little awkward to hold it and control the record button with your thumb butted against the end of it. BUT, you can also use the touch screen to record and pause, so it's a small criticism

I am not much of an expert on cameras or video, but the camera was pretty inutitive in figuring out how to use it and take pretty good videos without much skill on my part. Easy to use. Easy to download to my PC. I bought it in the Northridge Best Buy and the sales rep was very knowledgeable and very helpful.

this camera is so difficult to use. pictures were dark and grainy. i youtubed it and it helped a bit. its too much of a hastle trying to move all the features around. and it doesnt have a remote! it too a long time to focus and the rattle noise did get on my nerves after a while... i really wanted a jvc which are cheaper. so i will be returning this and getting the camera i wanted in the first place. outside/daytime recording was great but i need more than that.

Ok, so..... I read a few riviews and I recorded a lil video and downloaded to my laptop before I bought it and I have to say I did hear that you could here some sounds but here's what people should know. Most Hi definition camera's have a very sensitive microphone even if you buy a more expensive one a friend of mine bought a professional one he does comercial and I don't but the video is very close so ok when it comes to the sound you can't turn the volume that loud because if you do it sounds distorded and this microphone is very sensitive period so with just turning it up have way you would get an amazing sound and I turned it to half way and the video and picture was truly amazing and I have to say. I'm truly happy that I bought this camera I could of spent more but that's why there's memory cards and make sure you get one with a class 4 or higher or the memory card won't work it's the little number on the memory card just a thought. A lot of people do not know and I don't want them to buy a memory card that doesn't work and if you don't know ask the guys at best buy and tell them you need a class 4 memory card but this camera is truly amazing and mess with it and you won't find a flaw especially for this prize. Hi definition cameras are very expensive and this one does what a more expensive one would excpet for the bigger hard drive a more expensive one cost but every thing else is the same graphics and microphone so for the prize and what this video camera offers it's truly amazing and I know a lot about technology and I always keep up with everything new that comes out. This camera is actually very easy to operate as well, I might just be good with technology I never have to read any manuals so I was truly satisfied with everything.

This is the first camcorder I've owned, so my experience is somewhat limited. However, for the price we paid, I couldn't be happier. The device is very easy to use, incredibly compact, and produces high quality video. If you're inexperienced, as I am, and don't want to pay through the roof, I recommend this device.

I purchased this camera thinking that since it’s a Canon and it uses a CMOS image sensor instead of CCD technology that the quality of the video would at least be decent. I wasn’t expecting the pristine quality that you would get from a high-end professional level camera, but that I would at least have video quality that was fairly clean. What I found is that the image quality from this camera is horrid. The video is grainy and has discoloration, blurry edges, and white specs that frequently appear throughout the video. The image looks great on the small attached LCD screen, but when the video is transferred to a computer you can really see the how poor the video quality actually is. This image frame, which was captured using the camera’s highest quality settings, shows what the quality of a decently lit video looks like when viewed at full resolution, http://oi54.tinypic.com/2moqtj8.jpg. While the features of the camera are decent and I like how easy the camera is to use, I’m giving it a rating of ‘poor’ as the quality of the image is the most important aspect of any camera. If the image quality is poor then the camera isn’t worth the money.

I purchased the camera for a family vacation and it worked fine. The problem is with the software that comes with the camera. I have it loaded onto my computer and can't get it to transfer the video onto a dvd. I googled the problem and it seems I am not the only one with this problem. If I am unable to solve the problem, I will return the camera.

The camcorder is very light weight and easy to move around with. It has easy functions on it although I still cant figure out how turn the light on. The one thing I do not like it the picture quality. This camcorder would be near perfect if the picture quality was more crisp. I bought it on sale so it was a great price for it.

bought this camera on sale one weekend and started using right away. conected it to the tv to see the image quality and started hearing a very anoying ratling noise. changed the mic setting to manual and the noise went down but you could still hear a faint ratling sound when recording was silent. Then I tried transfering to my macbook and the software that came with the camera is for windows. The computer was able to recognize that the camera had files but was unable to open them or convert. I went to the canon website and it does state that this camera does not offer Mac compatability.

This camera has the battery life of your average cheap cellphone. The options are difficult to use until you take several days of playing with the device. This camera could be more user friendly.

My main reason for buying this camera was because they it records at night but it does not. Other than that is a great camera perfect picture resolution. I recommended