Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon HF100 High Definition Camcorder - 12x Optical Zoom With 2.7 inch Widescreen Multi-Angle Vivid LCD

I did quite a bit of research before buying this product and was very encouraged by all of the glowing reviews, all of which seemed to say that this is the best of the bunch of current consumer HD camcorders. My experience with the product has largely confirmed these verdicts. The camera is compact, a joy to handle, and produces pretty good results in almost all circumstances, except low light conditions.

The only significant downside is that the battery life with the standard battery is less than ideal. When fully charged it promises about 60mins of usage, but this is reduced by using the standby facility to more like 40mins or so of active filming. I would recommend the purchase of a second standard or extended life battery if this is going to be an issue.

Another thing to beware of is that although the sound quality from the built-in microphone is generally excellent, it is prone to overloading in a very unpleasant way in the presence of loud sounds (such as near to the stage at WOMAD, which is where I belatedly discovered this problem!). I don't know why it doesn't have some sort of limited to guard against this problem. You can alter the sensitivity of the mic, which should address the problem, but you need to be monitoring the sound with headphones at the time of recording to know that this is necessary.

Editing with iMovie on an Apple MacBook is very straightforward with no issues whatsoever like any Apple product - it just works. As one other reviewer has mentioned, you do get a warning dialog when you first start transferring to the Mac, but this is simply a standard warning for any 1080i video which gives you the option of importing at full or quarter resolution, and warns you that full resolution will use more disk space and take longer (what a surprise!).

A word on the choice between the HF10 and HF100. I would always choose the HF100 (without the built-in flash memory) as the built-in memory is much more expensive than buying a couple of 8GB SD cards (I got mine for about £16 each - make sure you get Class 6 speed). Also, SD cards can be put into a flash card reader and the transfer speed of these (assuming you get a relatively decent one) is much faster than the camera itself via USB2, which is the only way of transferring video from the built-in memory. I personally feel the flexibility of the cards is much better than the built-in memory, and I just can't envisage any reason why the built-in memory might be better.

All in all I am extremely pleased with this product and feel confident that I have chosen well for my camcorder for the next few years. The last one lasted seven years before I felt that things had moved on enough to make it worthwhile changing - I wonder what will be around in another seven years?

Canon HF 100 Camcorder.

Overview......
I have just bought this camcorder and find it excellent - good high definition video and 3 Meg Pix still camera. - Well built, good features - Highly Recommended.

Pros ..........
* Good Price, SDHC cards only (I bought a 16 Gig card SDHC Class 6 - loads cheaper than Sony flash memory),
* No recording moving parts (hard drive / tapes (less to go wrong)),
* Small size but fits palm of hand comfortably.
* Easy set up button works well, 37mm std lens screw to fit filters / lenses etc.,
* Still flash and video LED for low lighting.


Cons ..........
* Steady shot could be a bit better, low light is just about OK except for quite dark subjects - use built in LED and Flash - but this is not an expensive camera,
* Sound requires some care setting up.
* Manual settings require some menu navigation but is generally OK.
* AVCHD files take time to convert - same for all HD cameras. - not like old firewire / tape videos.

Advice .........
* Buy a proper wide angle lens 0.5 to get more into a scene - not a 0.45 lens which requires panning back to remove black outer ring making it pointless over the original lens.
* Third party batteries are cheap (£25 for two 1400mah + home & car charger. They work fine but have no timed display on camera (just make sure they are fully charged).
* Mac users (even G5 machines) can connect via USB2, convert files using Toast Titanium (don't use 16:9 resolution - results in jumpy footage for fast movie scenes), to any required resolution (DVD quality or High Definition if your ready for blue ray and have the hard ware). Edit using imovie (I used v 6) and iDVD to add the titles.
* The camera is compact so a 0.5 wide angle lens casts a shadow from the flash and inbuilt video light onto the subject - so for the small time you need extra lighting either provide by some other means or don't use the lens.
* Consider a shotgun microphone for distant subject in noisy environment.

If you are in the market for an HD camcorder (trust me you are if you tried plugging in your non-HD camcorder into your shiny 42inch+ HDTV and gawped at the shocking image quality) then this one is an abolute corker.

I've spent the last 3 months researching this, and the canon won hands down compared with items from Sony, Panasonic, and Sanyo. My needs include being light weight (so HDD is out).

Initially I loved the Sanyo Xacti VPC1000, small, light, cheap but no optical stabiliser which for recording sports (Wakeboarding, windsurfing, etc...) is vital. Video quality was appalling.

Then Panasonic ?SD5 / SD9 came along, but felt cheap in terms of build quality - also the colours were too vivid and not lifelike.

The sony's were nice, but you have to pay a lot for optical stabilisation - don't go for one with only the digital (i.e. not supersteadyshot) I think. Also the 8GB or 16GB sticks are v expensive for the Sony's are are memory stick rather than SDHC. I purchased two 8gb sticks for £15 each off amazon - enough for 1 hr recording at max full HD.

Finally the canon - brilliant in every respect - right weight, feels tough enough but not overengineered, £560 from Dixons on-line, PAL version (not sure whether the NTSC version which can be bought cheaper on ebay would playback as well although did consider this as-well)

Picture quality, image stabiliser, manual controls all brilliant.

All I need now is Pinnacle 12 and a decent desktop computer to edit the footage. Until that happens I'll just buy cheap HDSC cards, and delete rubbish footage scene by scene.

Enough said. Buy one. Now.....You will not be disappointed.

I spent a long time researching which HD camcorder to buy. I looked at ones that record to hard disk but these have a major disadvantage in that you can not use them at high altitude / low pressure because the hard disc will fail. Not great if you want to film on a skiing holiday.

I therefore choose the SD card format (SDHC). These cards are cheap now, 8gb costing 15 to 20 and giving an hours recording on the highest / best quality setting (HF100).

I looked at professional / technical reviews and found Canons in general were rated over say Sony or Panasonic and HF100 had a great review. And yes I am very pleased.

Small, light weight, easy to use. Excellent picture quality. Make sure you buy a HDMI cable, mini one end, full size the other to plug into your HD tv. I found a cable for 10 and it does the job.

Still pictures are very good, and at 3mp and includes a fairly decent flash. Stills captured from film are also very good (wide screen only). The built in video light is very useful and a nice touch.

Haven't tried the software yet, but it says you will need a very powerful PC for editing. My 18mth old desk ain't up to the job so the manual says.

You will need a spare battery. The manual warns against buying non Canon ones as they won't charge on the Camcorder (you have to buy another charger I think) and the genuine ones are supposed to show minute by minute charge left. I went for a genuine additional battery. good but more expensive obviously.

So overall, highly recommended. Canon are doing 50 cash back as well. I looked at the HF10 model with built in 16gb memory, but two 8gb cards are a max of 40, paying another 150 for the HF10 over the HF100 didn't seem worthwhile.

Finally took the plunge and bought this having looked at similar models from Sony and Panasonic. This is an early review as I've only had the camera for a week. So far found it to be really excellent with a few minor areas that could be improved.

Pros

Great build quality as you'd expect from Canon.
Very small and light - easily fitted into my coat pocket and sits nicely in the hand
Great zoom lens, very quick autofocus, very quick start up, even from power off mode.
Quality of images are unbelievable, especially if camera is hooked up directly to HD screen
Easy to take still shots, has built in flash and v.quick autofocus.
I downloaded data from SD card directly into my MacBook Pro using USB lead. Download was very straightforward into IMovie '08. (see cons below). Best to leave it to download and do something else as downloads appear to be in real time - circa 50 mins for 5gb of data.

Cons

Not fantastic is low light
Would have prefered a wider angle lens
When downloading into IMovie 08 a warning message came up recommending that the data be converted to a lower resolution than full HD. It said that the file size would be significantly smaller without a noticeable loss of image quality. Seems pointless recording in HD in the first place! Further investigation required.
Image processor is CMOS which doesn't appear to handle moving images as well as CCD. As a consequence image gets slightly blurred with quick panning shots - I try to avoid these anyway so probably not a big issue.
Software discs are PC only so forget them if you are a Mac User - just use IMovie '08. Just out of interest loaded the bundled software onto Bootcamp partition (Winodws XP) and found it to be really clunky - glad to be using a Mac!

Generally really excellent and highly recommended.