Canon VIXIA HF200 HD Flash Memory Camcorder with 15x Optical Zoom

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review




Consider the audio too..., November 26, 2009
By Rod Daynes (Wenham, MA USA)
This is a fine camcorder, one could really call it a "prosumer" level camera. You certainly can get great quality for a reasonably low price. The video quality is what one would expect from a company like Canon, excellent, so I'd like to "focus" my review on the audio portion of this camcorder, which is often overlooked. The built-in stereo mic is designed to pick up just about every sound, i.e., ambience, noises all around, noises that you make while recording, in addition to the audio that you want to capture, that is, cacophony. To remedy this, the HF200 includes a "mini" shoe for an optional directional shotgun mic, such as the Canon DM-100, which is what they recommend, obviously. However, while Canon may be a great company when it comes to video, this particular mic leaves something to be desired in my opinion (read reviews elsewhere). Still, if you want to capture decent directional audio, in addition to video, you should consider a shotgun mic. I like the Rode VideoMic ([...] ). Rode mics are universally recognized among audio engineers as among the best in the business, and the VideoMic is no exception. The good news is it's really inexpensive, under $200 US (they also make a stereo VideoMic for under $250), and the quality and versatility is unsurpassed, including a wind screen and an innovative shock mount, both designed to reduce ambience. The not so good news is that the shoe mount itself doesn't fit on the HF200's "mini" shoe, you have to sand it down a bit, or you could simply get an extra cable and hold it while shooting (not that difficult), or mount it on a tripod. To many, this will be a turn off, because they'll want a nice fit on top of the camera, and I don't blame them, but really, good audio is equally important to good video. If you're thinking of shelling out the bucks for the HF 200, think also about the audio, and how you'd like to be able to control it, just like the video.



Interesting Little Beast, November 24, 2009
By Robert F. Reynolds (Middletown, CT)
Without a doubt, this camera is well put together for its price tag.

Pros:

Amongst the things that I like are: design, good stability for it's size, easy to find controls and features, convenient mini joy stick for fast scrolling and navigation, clean and sharp LCD screen .

When it comes to performance, I was pretty impressed with this little monster as well, since it offers many different recording options and frame rates, pretty much you can mix and match features and still come out with a high quality picture.

Cons:

Talking about features, the CINEMAMODE option grabbed my attention when I first saw this camera, however, my idea of CINEMAMODE differs quite a bit from Canon's interpretation of such. For some odd reason I allowed my self to believe that this option would provide a true LIKE-FILM LOOK, as you would get when you change the lens in your camera, sadly I was wrong. Instead, I this option creates pale video, almost as pale as the one my 10 year old sony mini-dv cam creates, and this regardless of light conditions.

Software and added features? Expect none. I was very surprised with the trashy software that Canon provided for this camera. Seriously, it would've been less insulting to the customer if Canon didn't provide software at all... Bad Canon, Very Bad!!!
Since all videos are produced in MTS format, your best bet is getting a hefty memory card where you can store all your work and/or inserted directly to your computer (making the assumption that your computer has a memory card entrance). Also if you want to edit, not many editing products out there edit avchd/mts, so make sure your software does support this format.

Although the build in microphone is pretty decent, I wanted to attach my Rode shotgun mic for better sound capture, but wait, I had nothing to mount it on! Canon once again skimped out on us and did not include a MINI ADVANCED SHOE so you can attaché your mic, or lights... why? And to make matters worst, they don't sell the adapter, you either need to get a mic sold by canon that can attach to the camera or a light, not both. Eventually I was able to find a place that actually sells this adapter for $50 dollars a piece, overpriced if you ask me but at lest now I can attach anything I want on the camera.

Finally, no built in memory.

In a nutshell

This camera is pretty decent, don't regret getting it, if you have minimal creativity, you can make wonderful projects with this bad boy. A few negatives as mentioned, but overall is a good cam and certainly priced low for what it offers.




A tale of 2 camcorders, November 22, 2009
By P. Wieselquist (Boston, MA)
I'm no videographer by any stretch, just looking for a good quality HD cam for family events. I've no complaints about the usability, menus, battery, file format, or anything else. It's all fine. I just want the best possible video quality without going broke.

Outdoors and under optimal lighting, the footage from the HF200 looks spectacular.

Indoors under less than optimal lighting, the quality is just not acceptable. It's inferior to even many SD cameras costing way less.

I fear that HD video takes CPU resources to encode/compress the footage, and there's less money left over to put into the optics and sensor. I'm now questioning whether my $500 be better spent on crystal clear SD versus grainy & noisy HD.

I absolutely love the outdoor footage I've taken so far. But with so many events indoors (parties, holidays), this camera just won't cut it.



speechless, November 22, 2009
By SRINIVAS JADUGALA
When I insert battery into camcorder it displayed message "unable to communicate with battery" I called up Amazon helpline requested for replacement, I have received new package and returned old item. After using couple of days, again it is displaying message as "unable to communicate with battery".



Not ready for prime time..., November 22, 2009
By Wayne Mah (Huntngton Beach, CA)
Bought the HF200 because of Canon's reputation and highly spec'd features. I wanted to capture several upcoming one time events, events that aren't repeatable. Did test recordings to get acquainted with operation and quality of recordings.

Started recording the event. About halfway through, Buffer Overflow message flashed on the display and the camera locked up with the Access light flashing. The HF200 wouldn't respond to any of the buttons including the power off. Access light just kept flashing. The Access light finally stopped flashing when the battery was depleted. (I didn't remove the battery just in case the camera was really writing to the SDHC flash memory.) Everything on the SDHC card was trashed. No recovery possible. With the old tape storage technology, if the camera electronics died, at least you'd have the recordings up to the point of failure. So much for advancing technology.

1 star because I can't give it a 0 star. Without RELIABILITY, sll the functions/features are worthless. My advice... Always carry a backup.