I have finally made the camcorder purchase! I've been waiting years but every time I looked, the prices were in the $1000 range which was much more than I could justify. My mother and dad.....who NEVER buy electronics purchased a video camera for their vacation and said that it only cost them $350. "WHAT? You can get them that cheap!"

I thought that since it was so inexpensive that it probably would be poor quality. I did a little research and found that this product would be fine for us. I found out that Hi-8 is old technology now and the MiniDV is the latest and greatest technology. However, you can get much better quality in a Hi-8 than a cheaper MiniDV. So we decided on the Hi-8 by Canon and went out the next day and got this camcorder at Walmart for $297.00. Realize with such an inexpensive camera you're not going to get technologies best! To give you a comparison, the 8400V has a 22x zoom (which is already 22 times better than your eye). A $1,500 digital camcorder would have a 120x zoom. I however, don't need to zoom 120 times to the couch so I'm cashing out with the inexpensive camcorder.

We chose the Canon because the price was right for us, it had the minimum features that we were looking for, and they sold it at Walmart which has a 90 day no-fuss return policy which can't be beat anywhere around town for electronics! I believe this model came out February 2002. There is a very comparable Sony for the same price, but this has a little better zoom, a light, and I personally prefer Canon over Sony.

I can't really compare this to the use of other camcorders. The only other camcorder that I actually used was the family camcorder from 20 years ago....you know, the 50 pound brick that you put on your shoulder. The biggest improvement is the sound.

Will This Meet Your Needs?
My needs are simple, I have 2 growing children that I'd like to remember being sweet and innocent, and one on the way. Most of the relatives live out of state so we send out a lot of pictures so they can see them grow. I wanted the attached light so I could film in the evenings too. One of the things I quickly noticed is that the battery doesn't last very long AT ALL! If you're going on vacation you may need an additional battery! Since I won't be traveling with the camcorder, size wasn't a factor to me. One thing I did consider was the compatibility with my computer. With the proper software, I can transfer the videos to my computer which is the way I will share the videos with relatives and store them as we've pretty much phased out our VCR.

Here are the Specs:
Price: Around $300
Size: 1.8 pounds, considered compact
Battery included? Yes
Battery Life:
Included Accessories: Rechargeable battery pack, AV Cable, Power Adapter, Shoulder Strap, Lens Cap, and Lithium Button Battery.
Still Image Capability: Yes
Additional Features: Stereo microphone, Titling functions
Video Formats: 8mm, Hi8
Optical Zoom: 22.0 X
Image Stabilization: Electronic
Color Viewscreen: 2.5 in
Digital Zoom Boost: 800.0 X
Stereo Microphone: Yes
Number of CCDs 1.0
Progressive scan CCD: Yes
Digital Special Effects 11.0

Additional Accessories SOLD SEPARATELY
Hi8 tapes
Carrying Case
Wrist strap
Additional battery packs
Car battery adapter
dual battery charger/holder
Tele-converter
Lens filters (several styles)
Battery video light
Tripod

here's the link to the canon store to buy accessories: http://www.canoncompanystore.com/cgi-bin/annex.storefront

Before You Get Started
DON'T FORGET to buy the Hi-8 tapes when you buy the camcorder. You can not tape without the Hi-8 tape and it doesn't come with any. You can find the tapes anywhere that sells camcorders. They are around $4.00 per tape. You may also want to get blank VCR tapes. You can either store your videos on Hi8 tapes, transfer them to VCR tapes, or transfer them to your computer (with special software).

The battery should be 1/2 charged when you buy it. Before you can use the camcorder at all, you will need to fully charge it. The book will walk you through the steps.

Batteries
This comes with a Lithium Battery pack. Unlike old rechargeable batteries, this can be recharged whenever you feel like it, it does not need to be completely dead.

The batteries will drain themselves as they sit so check them or charge them up before a special day. To milk the batteries for more time, use the viewfinder instead of the LCD and turn the camcorder off instead of on pause between recordings. (There is also a little round backup battery that keeps the date/time settings that you may need to replace someday.)

The battery that comes with this camcorder is the BP-911K. It requires 3 hours for a full charge. The maximum recording time is 1 hour 30 min if using the LCD Screen, 2 hours 5 min. if using the viewfinder.

Canon also sells 3 other battery options separately with 4 hours 55 min (LCD screen)/6 hours 25 mn (viewfinder) being the longest. The batteries cost $60-$150.

LCD Screen
Most camcorders now have a LCD screen, this is an excellent feature! The screen allows you to look at what your filming and not be oblivious to what's going on around you. It also makes it easier for you to talk to others while you're filming them. The LCD panel will rotate up to 180 degrees which gives you a lot of options for recording (especially when it's on a tripod!)

Microphone
This has a built in microphone. You don't hear a lot of noise in the background. I was impressed that there wasn't a wind sound from recording outside. The voice of the recorder isn't over powering either.

Cool Features
Titles
Under the menu "Title Select" you are able to add your own title to the video. (Happy birthday, Congratulations, Vacation, Happy Easter, Merry Christmas, Happy chanukah, Thanksgiving, Party Time, Wedding, The end). This isn't really a necessities as you can say what it is at any time besides it's pretty easy to distinguish a wedding from a birthday party.

You can also change the background color of the time/date stamp

Fading
Once you start getting good at recording you can add a little zest to your movies with fade in and fade out. the sound fades with the image also.

Recording
Auto recording - point and shoot
Flexizone recording - frame floats on screen
Sports - high speed scenes in bright light
Portrait - for outdoors, close ups, still images
Spotlight - stage, automatically adjusts for glare
Sand and Show - for extremely bright backgrounds

Effects
Art - solarized
Black and White
Sepia - monochrome with sepia tent
Negative-positive conversion - color negative of image
Mirror - image will be seen as a mirror
Mosaic - enlarges various pixels
16:9 - for widescreen tv's
Cinema -picture in a rectangle with black above and below
Strobe - like slow motion
Ghost - blurs around moving subject

Ease of Use
Is this easy to use? Not for me! I had to read the directions a few times, and practice a lot. I could not just pick up the camera and use it to its full potential because there are a lot of different settings that I didn't know what they did. It came a lot easier for my husband (at least he didn't film with the cap on like I did!) but still took a lot of practice before the taping was good enough to keep. One of the hardest things to do is to keep the recorder still. Although you can hold it in just one hand, it's really necessary to use both hands so the movie isn't shaky. I really like how you can start and stop recording at any point and not have blank spaces between where you stopped and started. There is also a saftey feature on the Hi-8 tapes that you can enable so that you don't accidently record over your wedding or something important.

Storing
The camcorder has been sitting on our entertainment center since day 2 because there's not a really good place to put it.

First of all, it does not come with a camcorder bag so you will have to buy one separately. We bought one the day we got the camcorder but after we got home decided we didn't like the bag and still haven't found the appropriate one even though we often look. Canon carrying case model numbers recommended in the instructions are SC-10000 ($70) and SC-A20 ($35). Bags at the store range at the local stores from $15 - $160 (the more expensive ones are leather).

Secondly, every time we use it, it requires charging so on top of the entertainment center where the kids can't reach is its charging home. Once it's there, it remains.

Third and rather obvious is that whenever we're done filming we usually watch what we recorded....which is on the TV!

Finally, when you have something great to film, time doesn't allow hunting down the camcorder and getting it set up. It only takes a second to retrieve the camcorder from the entertainment center (even though I don't like it there).

Roadtrip!
Our first outing with the video recorder was a disaster! We went to Bush Gardens with the relatives and chose to take the camcorder instead of the camera. We justified the camcorder over the camera because objects would be moving and we wanted to record the kids reactions. Well the camcorder stays home when we go to theme parks forever more! Although it is somewhat light and compact, it's a big burden when you're walking for 10 hours through a theme park (and 8 months pregnant to boot!)

One of the very obvious things is that you can see much farther through the viewfinder than you can with the naked eye! That's pretty cool.

As luck would have it, it drizzled the whole day so we didn't get to take much footage as we would have if it were a rain-free day.

Drawbacks
One of the drawbacks is the onboard lighting. It seems cheesy to me and really doesn't help if there's already light in the room. It's so bright that it annoys the folks you're taping. It's like they strapped a flash light to the top.

I also found the picture to be a lot better inside than outside. When recording outside there's like a black line around the people. Perhaps I should try a different recording setting while outdoors, that may correct the problem.

Although compact, it's still fairly heavy and large. If I were planning on recording for a long period of time or using it a lot outdoors I would not be very happy with this camera. I have a tripod so that helps for longer recordings at home.

This has image stabilizer which is suppose to reduce/eliminate the shaky effect. I hate to see what it would look like without this feature! There is also a time base corrector that can compensate for the shakies after it is recorded.

Finally is my own disappointment. I wanted a camcorder for so long and now that I have it I rarely use it. The things I want to record are so brief it sometimes seems ridiculous to get the camcorder out for such a brief moment. I still use my digital camera every day. I think the picture quality is better on it and it captures the mood best, and is easiest to show the relatives through online photo albums. This may change once I find the software to transfer the video to my computer.
(http://www.epinions.com/content_50201333380). I know some people hope they can find a camcorder that will do both movies and sill photos, but this is not it. Even though this has a Photo Mode it is not designed nor will it print as a 4x6 photo.

Overall
Overall I'm happy with the camcorder, it does what it was marketed to do. I'm sure that it will be easy to get your $300 worth out of it. At only $300 you can feel comfortable taking this out at parks and walking around and not be paranoid of dropping or losing it. I think if you have no intent but to have a good time with your recordings, this would be a great buy. If you do an extensive amount of recording, or professional by any means, this may not be the best choice.











Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 297.46