Review: Canon FS100 SD-Video Camcorder


High definition video is hogging the limelight but standard definition isn't bowing out just yet. So, are the low-light images produced by Canon's solid state FS100 letting the side down? Time to investigate.


Image: Canon FS100 SD-Video Camcorder
With all the attention being lavished upon the new generation of high definition camcorders of late you'd be forgiven for assuming that standard definition formats really were on their last legs. To some extent, you'd be right, of course; with solid-state hi-def models like Panasonic's HDC-SD9 now available for sub-GB£400 prices, it makes you wonder why companies are putting any kind of effort into producing standard definition at all.

Canon's 2008 range of solid-state standard definition camcorders consists of three models. These are the Canon FS11 (built-in 16GB flash memory and SD card slot), the Canon FS10 (as the FS11 but with 8GB built-in memory), and this Canon FS100 model which has no built-in flash memory and relies upon an SDHC (high capacity SD card) on which to record movies and photos. It's also the lesser-specified of the three models, but might still be considered a good buy for the casual newbie user.

First impressions


Design and handling are superb. It's relatively small and at 260g is light enough and small enough to tuck into a largish pocket or bag when not in use. Interestingly, it has much the same feel as the afore-mentioned Panasonic HDC-SD9 (whilst not being AVCHD, of course) and this alone will appeal to many new users looking for a stylish and easy-to-use sub GB£300 camcorder who aren't fussed about the lack of HD. And why not?

It's designed in a sort of two tone brushed-aluminium metallic finish, with a main circular control dial, record button and other assorted bits and bobs (zoom lever, photo button and on/off button) on the top rear of the barrel-shaped body form. The 2.7" widescreen LCD houses the menu "FUNC" menu access button and Rec/Play controls along the bottom of the frame.

A mini-joystick is used for menu navigation and selection in addition to providing the means by which manual adjustments which are made during recording and playback, and sits on the left face of the LCD screen. In the LCD recess can be found an "Easy" button (does exactly what it says and ideal for complete newbies!), a Display button (used to select LCD screen data display options, a Mini-B USB 2.0 port for transfer of movie clips and photo clips off the card to a computer or whatever, an AV-out socket to facilitate play out of composite video and stereo audio to a standard TV and/or external recorder.

What's particularly impressive about this model is that there's the facility to connect an external microphone - very handy when you want more directional sound and where you can't rely on the built-in stereo condenser mic. That's very welcome news indeed - and one of two features (the other being the frameside controls) that we'd like to see on Panasonic AVCHD equivalents, it has to be said.

Image: Canon FS100 SD-Video Camcorder

Features


The FS100 hosts enough features and functions to keep most users happy. It employs a single 1/6th inch 1.07 Megapixel CCD to generate effective 16:9 widescreen image resolutions of 690,000 pixels in movie mode and 600,000 pixels in a choice of three stills modes (1152x864, 1152x648 and 640x480 JPEG). The f = 2.6 - 96.2 F/2.0 - 5.2 Canon Video Lens produces what, at first glance, seems to be an impressive basic 37x optical zoom ratio (47 - 1743mm in 16:9; 44.6 - 1650mm in 4:3). However, it should be borne in mind that it's often only smaller CCD image devices that can produce larger optical zoom ratios, usually at the expense of quality in lower light.

The FS100 offers an interesting choice of three zoom modes - Optical, Advanced and Digital. The Optical zoom ratio is 37x, which is impressive enough. The so-called Advanced mode is a bit puzzling, however, because Canon describes it as a mode in which the camcorder processes the maximum optical zoom digitally "without any further deterioration in image quality". Er, fine. That gives us an extension up to 45x zoom as is depicted on the body of the product itself.

There's a digital zoom, too. At 2000x magnification (due to complex electronic processing of the optical image) it's hardly worth a mention. So we won't mention it.

There's a choice of TTL (through-the-lens) Autofocus or manual focus modes (the latter requiring the use of the menu system and the mini-joystick to change values whilst recording) in addition to a simple choice of WB (white balance) modes - Auto WB, Preset WB (Daylight, Tungsten) or Custom White. As is the case with many comparable consumer camcorders, a range of scene recording programs is available to match add additional mood and compatibility to the available lighting in a given scene, and these include Night, Portrait, Fireworks, Sports, Beach and Snow.

In keeping with many other Canon video and stills cameras, it's possible to shoot under P (Program AE) or Tv (Shutter priority) modes - essentially you can elect to have the exposure automatically adjust itself to the selected electronic shutter speed or vice versa. Using the mini-joystick and the appropriate menu selection it's possible to manually control the Exposure and Focus of a sequence whilst recording. It's a bit of a fiddle but with patience and practice some users will consider it a worthwhile utility. Minimum focal distance achievable is 1m, though this comes down to a macro capability of 1cm when zoomed out to full wide.

In order to keep selling prices low, Canon has compromised on some features. The image stabilisation is electronic (EIS) rather than the superior optical variety (OIS), but in general this appears not to be a major sacrifice. There's an Automatic Backlight Correction mode too, so you won't have to put up with the shot of a person appearing in silhouette in front of a bright window (the "church window syndrome"). Backlight Correction will force the foreground object to expose correctly even if the background light is over-exposed.

Because you're recording to SD or SDHC (high capacity SD) cards with current capacities up to 32GB, it's as easy to find and play individual video clips as it is to search for photos on a stills camera - just use the joystick to scroll through the thumbnails and click Play where required. You can delete clips, move them around or set up a Playlist of clips for playing out via the AV connector cable (supplied) to a regular TV or video recorder. It's very easy - much easier than spooling through tapes like MiniDV.

Performance


In optimum light, such as outdoors on a bright sunny day, the FS100 produces lovely, well-resolved video and stills pictures. The stereo sound separation from its built-in Electret Condenser Microphone is also as good as to be expected from a budget-priced camcorder. Handling and general operation are very good and the camcorder's compactness and lightness will find favour with many users - especially those who may have previously experienced the use of larger, tape-based camcorder formats. The 37x optical zoom ratio is great for getting a big close up shot of a distant object very quickly (the zoom control itself is very fast and responsive) and despite the fact that it's a bit of a fiddle having to dig into the menu system in order to make manual adjustments to exposure, focus and the like, it's something that you'll get used to. Of course, it's possible that many people will simply leave the camcorder in its "easy" mode and be done with it.

Image: Canon FS100 Frontal View
Where we do have an issue, however, is in the quality of images when shooting in less-than-optimum lighting. We're not talking black holes or even darkish corners here, either; even in moderately lit daytime interiors the image takes on a graininess that's instantly noticeable - even on a smallish screen. The other, related, issue is that a fully-zoomed-in shot of outdoor objects will also appear slightly grainy; is this due to the resolution of the 1/6th inch CCD or some degree of inferior image processing? Whatever the cause, the effects are clear to see on a 28" CRT widescreen TV.

Although the overall contrast ratio of images (where light objects and darker elements share the same frame) is pretty good, you'll see speckly grain on the picture as soon as you bring it indoors. It's not as good as we'd like to see - even on a sub-£300 camcorder.

Even more noticeable is the lack of overall definition on properly-lit, outdoor shots. The image resolution really doesn't come up to Canon's normally high standard and the jagginess and picture noise actually resembles a much more basic, low-cost MPEG4 camcorder than one from a premium brand like Canon. It's more noticeable on a larger LCD computer monitor (in our case an Apple iMac 24" display) than when being played out via the supplied AV composite video connections to a regular TV, but it's there all the same. That's disappointing, because as we've already said the camcorder itself is really nice to use.

Equivalent (those lesser specified) products like Panasonic's tiny SDR-S7 or SDR-SW20 perform marginally better in the same situations (we know this because we've compared standard test image files in Apple iMovie 08).

Thanks to ever-increasing SD memory card capacities, it's now possible to take advantage of 32GB SDHC cards in cameras such as this. In practice, users might find lesser capacities such as 4GB more practical and economical (not to mention less of a risk if a filled-up card is lost!). Though there's no SDHC card supplied with the camcorder (at the time of writing), Canon does give performance figures based on the use of a 4GB card.

The FS100's three recording options make it possible to record up to 2 hours 35 mins of MPEG2 video onto a single 4GB SDHC card in "LP" mode. At the slightly higher quality (but more space-demanding) "SP" mode you'll get 1 hour 20 mins of record time, and at the top "XP" mode you'll get 55 minutes. We tested the camcorder in XP mode almost exclusively since the two lesser modes really didn't look that good, it has to be said.

Using the supplied BP-808 Li-ion battery pack, you can expect to get a maximum recording time of 185 minutes when shooting in XP mode (190 mins in SP and LP), with a typical record time of 95 minutes in all three modes. Playback time will extend to a respectable 275, 280 and 280 minutes respectively for the three modes.

Importing and Editing clips using Apple Intel Mac OSX computers, Windows/Vista and Canon's DW-100 USB DVD Burner


With the camcorder comes a Pixela ImageMixer 3SE software CD designed to make it easy to import the clips from the card via USB 2.0 (cable supplied) into a Windows XP or Vista PC for simple editing and archiving, or onward onto DVD disc using third party software. There's also a version of the software for Mac users, although in reality anybody with a recent-model Mac running iMovie 08 on OSX Leopard or above will be able to rely on Apple's native video applications to efficiently import and work on the FS100's MPEG2-based clip files. Due to time and resource constraints, we weren't able to install and test our FS100 clips with ImageMixer, but importing and editing in iMovie 08 on the Intel Mac was quick, easy and efficient.

Image: Canon DW-100 USB Host DVD Burner
What many users will find useful, however, is Canon's own optional DW-100 USB DVD burner (pictured left). This is a standalone DVD burner and player that connects directly to the camcorder via USB 2.0 (cable supplied with the burner) in order that a specific set of menu controls within the camcorder can then help users to determine which clips are to be burned to standard DVD and in which order.

Furthermore, and with the DW-100 still connected, the playback can be simultaneously output via the AV-output cable (supplied) to a TV display for viewing, and using the camcorder's remote control to control the DVD. Once finalised in the burner, standard DVD discs can then be viewed on any mainstream DVD player.

Conclusion


There's much to commend the FS100 - not least its typical retail price here in the UK. If you're new to this whole camcorder thing and you're a bit bewildered by the choice yet you like the idea of recording to, and playing back from, a memory card similar to the sort you have in your stills camera, then you'll no doubt find the FS100 a very attractive option. It's beautifully designed, it handles well and all the controls are in the right place. The fact that it has its essential operating controls positioned around the generously-sized LCD frame is a bonus.

It offers fully automatic operation which, for the vast majority of users who just seek to switch on, point and record, will be the default method of operation. That's fair enough. As soon as the urge to control things manually arises, there's the potential to take charge of all the basic functions accordingly. That makes the FS100 a great and economical choice for lots of people.

We're sceptical about the so-called Advanced Zoom at 45x ratio. However, it seems to work OK even though the images are a bit grainy. In contrast, we're perplexed by Canon's inclusion of a 2000x digital zoom ratio - at its fullest extent there's nothing to see but squares. Why bother? It's something that your average Saturday salesman can use as leverage to get an innocent customer to part with his or her cash, but to anybody else it's a complete nonsense. Don't fall for it!

What is more worrying is its inability to produce even reasonable pictures in conditions of medium-to-low light. As you know, we're always criticising those reviewers and users who want absolutely perfect low-light-no-light performance from low-cost consumer products (that's just plain stupid), but in this case the graininess of the images really are apparent as soon as you come out of the bright light. Frankly, that's not good enough.

However, to be fair, the Canon FS100 will - despite the shortcomings mentioned above - attract a lot of new and upgrading camcorder users who are looking for a well-designed, hassle-free camcorder that offers the convenience of solid-state memory card recording at a pretty respectable price, so we shouldn't knock it too much. In general, it's a good product which we'll openly recommend to its target market - but just don't expect great pictures indoors.

On the other hand, if you're thinking of taking the high definition route, then take a look at its AVCHD equivalent model - the Canon HF100 - instead.


Reviewed by: CB. June 2008. Canon FS100 images courtesy of Canon UK.

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