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I would not buy this again if I had the choice. That means one of two things: Either you need to buy a Firewire cable (if you don't have one) and connect the camcorder to your computer via Firewire OR, if you are like me and you have the MacBook that came out in October of 2008 without Firewire, there is NO WAY to get the video from this camcorder to your computer.
The video on the camcorder is quite clear and it seems to be a good enough camcorder, but the hassle of trying to figure out how to get it to work with my Mac computer has made it completely un-worth it. I wish I would have bought a cheaper, but easier to use camera.
Canon should be more clear about the compatibility of this camcorder with Mac computers. I have scoured hundreds of forums trying to figure this out and it is the same everywhere - it will not recognize your camcorder with a USB connection.
MAC USERS PAY ATTENTION HERE - I will say what Canon should clearly say but doesn't. Your Mac computer will not recognize this camcorder if you try to hook the camcorder up via the included USB cable.
This should be made clear by Canon and it is not which, no matter how good the camera is, makes using it very difficult. It hasn't been worth the hassle of figuring all this out.
Read this quickly and order one of these RIGHT NOW before they are extinct. The picture quality is as fine as his pro 3 chip camera, in his opinion. Nothing bad ever happened, but the strap is your only connection to your camcorder and it is disconcerting. We were leaving on an expensive vacation and I intended to take lots of scenic footage of the countryside in Norway. The motor operated iris lenscap is 10X better than a cap dangling from a string. He said if you drop your hard drive camcorder at the end of your trip you may lose everything. My neighbor is a professional videographer who advised me to go with TAPE and not get sucked into the hard drive craze. If I had a gripe, I would say the handgrip and strap are connected to the tape access door and feels just a tiny bit insecure because there is some play in the latch system.
Your tape cassettes are safe in your luggage and you can pry the last one out of the camcorder wreckage and most likely salvage those images too. Tape is a long-proven technology so don't be too quick to dismiss it. I am going to attach a neck or wrist strap to augment the hand strap next trip. A great buy.
The zoom lever, and manual focus adjuster are tiny and it feels like the whole thing must be very fragile. This is a great little (very) video camera that has a cult following that makes it very easy to get all kinds of tips and tricks for giving it even greater capabilities.The image quality is amazing, and 10 years ago I would have never expected to get such quality from a camera in this price range. I have friends using these for shooting tv commercials and travelogue shows with great results.The cons: it is tiny and all the little buttons are tiny. The covers for the hotshoe and cables are tethered and cannot be removed with out cutting the tethering. and they are annoying.Other than that I love it.
Like any camera, you have to learn its functions and capabilities and then make adjustments to those configurations. Some have complained about the joystick location. The color fidelity is fantastic, the image stabilization works very well. It finds focus incredibly fast.
Get yourself a decent editing system and you will be surprised at what you can get out of this camera. While file-based acquisition will be the way to go in the future, for now, this little baby gives me just what I'm looking for - a fantastic HDV acquisition with tape-based backup. The accessory shoe is a nice touch, allowing anyone to add a higher quality shotgun mic to the unit for better sound. (if you are so inclined) Seriously, you can get GREAT closeups of flowers, insects, you name it. Is it perfect.
While the manual focus could be a little quicker (I would love it if the camera had the ability to pull focus more quickly) the automatic mode works very well. I'm just beginning to play with the cinema mode to see how closely it emulates a film-look. If you do your own editing, the bandwidth of the HDV video is well within the capabilities of most PC's and Macs. I am very impressed with the macro focusing capabilities of this camera. No.
But it is very functional and you should have no problem living with it. With proper stabilization and a little imagination you can create your own Discovery insects show. For the price and the features I am well pleased with this camera.
And it's got a price point that's hard to say no to. It also has a mic input, and a viewfinder (which a lot of models are dropping nowadays).
Even with its base settings it gives a gorgeous, clear picture, with great color. I have been incredibly happy with this camera.
It has component, and HDMI outputs, alongside the standard AV, and firewire jacks. On top of that it has plenty of custom settings to tweak your image.
I've had it for weeks and I still haven't figured out how to get the most out of it. The LCD does it job, but when you're outside the viewfinder is invaluable.I've been using this thing a lot and I'm constantly impressed by the way it captures an image.
I know this isn't a very technical review but all I can say for a fact is that this thing is more then any home user will ever need, and great for a entry level videomaker.
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