The video quality is superb, as is ease of use. Here are a few hints and things I noticed. The battery out of the box will not power-on the camera and needs some minutes of charge to even show 0%. You can operate the camera from the charger but the battery is not being charged, says the manual.There are two 1920x1080 picture quality modes: MXP at 24 mbps and FXP at 17 mbps -and three at 1440x1080: XP+, SP and LP, at 12, 7 and 5 mbs, respectively. I believe it defaults to LP out of the box, which is 1440x1080 at 7 mbps. I suggest you select FXP to get true 1920x1080 resolution. Upping to 24 mbps might be a good idea only if you are going to do a lot of post editing -I can't see an improvement over FXP. Recording times with a 16GB card are 1:25, 2:05, 2:50, 4:45 and 6:05, respectively.
When the camera is OFF, pressing the DISP button (on the camera body) will show battery capacity in minutes and percent. Pressing DISP when ON turns the LCD to max brightness. IOW, you can set the LCD brightness for normal indoor use with the menu and instantly set it bright for outdoor use. Handy.
The CINE mode seems to digitally soften the image; there may some color change but I didn't notice it from the shots I took in a park. The PF30 and PF24 rates show a jerkiness when panning as you would expect from a lower frame rate. I think these rates are simulated because all recording is done at 60i. For example when I played back PF24 stepping one frame at a time I saw the same image for 3 steps, then the next. (The "3 steps" varies with both PF24 and PF30.) OTOH, PF24 is useful in low light situations as it permits the HF200 slow the shutter speed down to 1/6 sec.
Previous Canon users will find the menu system easy and familiar, similar even to their still cameras. The joystick is "big" and has a positive, definite feedback feel to it. Menu navigation seems easier and clearer than earlier Canons I've used. There is even a Large Font choice. Good!
The Power On button is deep in a groove that makes it unlikely to accidentally turn on. But with your right hand in the nice grip you have to use the left to press it On my fingers don't reach. No loss, you need the other hand to open the LCD panel anyway. The zoom lever on top is a middle finger control. The adjacent Photo button is for a trained index finger. Record, at the back, is thumb operated. You can also use an LCD panel button to Record.
The Quick Start feature means you can close the LCD to save power (runs at 1/3 normal) and be ready to shoot in about 1 sec after opening it. Note, if you close the LCD panel while recording it will continue to record -so slamming it shut does not stop the shot.
The still photo features are quite amazing. The resolution is 3 megapixels, but a very good 3mp! You can shoot continuously at 3 or 5 frames/sec. And you can shoot at the same fast frame rates with flash! The flash is actually a high-power white LED, not a xenon tube. There is a separate warm-white LED for video that works OK to 5-6 feet.
There are the usual auto white balance, auto exposure, instant focus features and so on that you can read about above. There's face detection for proper focus. They all work very well. I like the Vivid color setting for most all shooting video and photo. It is a slight pump in saturation that helps if you mainly view using your laptop LCD. Instant AutoFocus is aptly named. There is a fairly large IAF sensor next to the lens for this purpose. The 15x zoom, a first for me, is fully useful all the way out. Impressive.
Battery life (BP-809) takes a definite second place to 16GB storage. I just checked and it indicates 100%, 94 minutes. But you can of course buy larger batteries. (I use the smaller BP-808 battery from my FS100 SD video cam as a backup.) With the Quick Start feature (can be turned off) power is used between shots and this will generally use more juice that actual recording. Figure 3 to 5 times battery vs video: one hour of video needs 3+ hours of battery cap. Unless you buy a charger you must charge in the camera. Only one sample so far, but it seemed to take a little more than an hour to charge from 0%.
The supplied Pixela software is minimal. You can combine up to 99 shots into an M3TS file. It can be played on video players like Popcorn Hour and the WD HD TV player. (I have both and strongly recommend the $99 WD over the $230 PCH. The PCH can connect to Internet servers, its main claim to fame.) These players can also play the MTS format directly copied from the SD card but there is a 1-2 sec delay between each shot. Pixela lets you pick and chose shots, trim a given shot, and add titles and audio. I don't know how to get past the 99 shot limit with Pixela -I made about 170 shots in the park yesterday.
All in all, I luves it.
The sensor of HF200 is the biggest one among these three, 1 /4" (1/5" for CX100, 1/6" for TM20R). It guaranteed best resolution, 2.99 Megapixels ( 2.3 M for cx100, 1.14M for TM20R) and in my experience larger sensor also helps lower the noise in dark environment. Indeed, minimal illumination condition for HF200 is 0.4 lux, much better than thre other two. I took a couple of sample shots in local stores and the picture from HF200 for dark environment is acceptable. Sony cx100 is barely acceptable and Panasonic TM20R is total crap, not even as good as my webcam.
After I finally bought HF200, I never regretted! The video quality is just superb. For the 1920x1080 quality videos, it has two modes: MXP(24Mbps) and FXP(17Mbps). To be honest I can't tell the quality difference between these two. I guess unless you are gonna do massive editing, FXP is good enough for daily usage. So on a 16GB sd memory card, I can record 135 minutes 1080p HD video.
The still image shot quality is quite good too, and it's powered by the 15x optical lens(35mm equivalent: 39.5 592.5mm). It gives you a very handy telephoto camera and the image stabilization works very well on the long focus end too. Last weekend with this camera, I easily took some nice pictures of two bears far far away from me. Most of other HD camcorders only have 10x lens.
All the button and menu are well designed. It's very easy to use and I don't even need to read the manual. LCD panel is in good size too.
Canon Face Detection is also a very nice feature. The same high quality Face Detection technology used in Canon digital cameras is now available in Canon High Definition camcorders. Up to 35 faces can be detected automatically, and 9 detection frames can be displayed at one time. Face Detection ensures razor-sharp focus and natural, accurate exposure of the chosen subjects.
Okay, let me also mention some cons. First, like one of the other reviewer said, the software coming with it sucks! It can only edit the original format from the camcorder and output to same format instead of other more popular formats. Thanks god the newest windows media player support the video files directly from the camcorder. You can just use the usb cable or pop the sd memory card into a card reader and copy all the .mts file into your computer and rename them into .m2ts, then by double clicking it windows media player opens it right away. However, windows movie maker can't handle them, and you can upload .m2ts file to youtube.com but the sound of the video will be cut off after a couple of seconds. So if you want to edit your videos and share your videos, probably you need buy a converting software like total video converter
One thing I forgot to mention, Its twin brother canon HF20 has exactly all the same configuration as HF200 except with 32GB interal memory. However HF20 is almost 200 bucks more expensive than HF200. Now the SD memory card is so cheap. I suggest you to buy HF200 with a 16GB or 32GB SD card. Just don't forget to use class 4 or up SD card.
To summarize, overall it's the best entry level HD camcorder. With the price drop alert subscription from I got it from amazon.com for only $560.5. It is worth every penny.
Buy Canon VIXIA HF200 HD Flash Memory Camcorder w/15x Optical Zoom Now
Great camcorder, but get a bigger battery such as the BP-827, the default one makes a nice backup.The software provided sucks, and you have to figure out by yourself which program does what: The main interface can upload videos, but not play or edit them, as it does for photos. It also creates a clutter of Start menu shortcuts in Windows that you don't need since these programs are called by the main program, ZoomBrowser. About the Pixela video editing software provided, well, let's just say that it's better forgotten...
Only 15 music tracks in wave format are provided to use as soundtrack.
There is also a Canon online photo storage offer that you probably don't need if you already have a blog or email provider.
The good thing is that the AVCHD format of this camcorder is supported by Windows Media Player 11 (at least on my Vista Ultimate machine). Not sure if it's native to Windows or if it came with other software I installed. The MTS file extension was not supported, though, you need to add it manually: Open a MTS file from Windows Explorer, choose "Select an installed program", select Windows Media Player and the checkbox to remember it.
Transferring the videos using the software provided is very cumbersome (cantbearsome really): You need both the USB and power cables, and clicking your way through a few screens on the camcorder before the transfer can start. I could start the photo transfer from either the camcorder or the computer, but only from the computer for videos.
My suggestion: Don't install any of the software, it's easier to just copy the files from a card reader to your hard disk using Windows Explorer. You can get a multi 23-in-1 card reader for about $20, finally get rid of this useless floppy drive, and add a front USB port to your PC!
The camcorder in this offer does not ship with any card, you need to buy one separately. 16GB is good enough for medium quality. If you need higher quality or continuous shooting, you should probably get two cards, like a 32GB card for long capacity and a smaller one as a backup while uploading the videos from the first card. Transcend SDHC Class 6 cards are from a good brand at decent prices.
The default BP-809 battery provided is good for 1 hour of recording, I suggest you match your battery model to the duration of your memory card. For instance, if you have a 32GB card that can store 3 hours of video (at highest quality), get the BP-827 battery that provides 3 hours of battery life.
One more thing: This camcorder is VERY small and light, and its true HD resolution means that it is hard to shoot without making jumpy videos, you need to hold it with 2 hands or more. The built-in stabilizer can only help so much, and will not save you from the butterfly effect: A wing beat on the other side of the planet WILL shake your video. On the other hand, nobody can see the difference if you shot your video drunk or sober, so enjoy the beer. I found a tripod helpful (when shooting from a static location is OK), any tripod should do because the camcorder is so light.
If you need a bag, the Lowepro Edit 110 is just the right size and fits the camcorder with the largest battery, an extra battery, the power adapter, the remote and as many SDHC cards as you need. The camcorder manual also fits in, but it's a pity it's so thick, as it includes 3 languages (English, French, Spanish). There are 23 languages on the camcorder's menus. Cables won't fit. BTW, the camcorder ships without a HDMI cable, you need to get your own if you have a AVCHD-compatible TV and you want to playback on TV directly from the camcorder. Not necessary if your TV has a card reader or is connected to your computer.
Lastly, check your computer rig, you may need an extra large disk (1-2 TB) to store these videos, and more than one if you need to keep the original AVCHD videos for post-production: DVD backups just won't do for this kind of files, unless you have a Blu-ray writer. If you don't need to keep the AVCHD files, burning DVDs is the best way to archive your movies. Just remember that even in HD, DVDs are highly compressed (meaning losing a lot of the quality of your original AVCHD files.) $13 will get you a very basic USB IDE/SATA external adapter, a cheap way to use obsolete hard disks to archive your videos.
Windows 7 update (01/26/2010): While you still need to install the driver tools in Vista Ultimate for MTS playback, none of this is required for Windows 7 Ultimate, it can play the MTS files natively and the Import Wizard will start automatically as soon as you insert the SD card in your computer's card reader.
Read Best Reviews of Canon VIXIA HF200 HD Flash Memory Camcorder w/15x Optical Zoom Here
I Believe this camera is great. It's just above your average models. I've used for a week now filming basic family stuff, kids sports and it works great. It shows great video through a the HDMI cable on my HD TV as well (cable does not come with camera).The problem I have now is trying to get my computer to read the files. My memory is full and need put on DVD now. After doing some research I found out that camera requires new software and for whatever reason Canon does not provide the proper software to do this with the camera. The files that you will be dealing with, will be CPI or MTS files. I'm not very savvy about this stuff, but I understand now that I have to buy a new program that will read these files and because they are fairly new files, there isn't that many programs out there yet. The programs range from $75 and up, so now you can add this to your cost. After my research every new HD camcorder brand is pretty much having similiar problems.I just stumbled across this. I hope you have a new, big, powerful computer to operate this camcorder as well, if not, your looking at another $1000 for a computer to handle this thing. This camcorder is ahead of it's time right now. Pc's and software are trying to keep up with them.
To look for software, google video editing software, to get a good idea what you're up against.
Like I said, so far the camcorder itself works great. I see a bunch of people complaining about the low light filming being grainy, but if you have ever owned a camcorder, you will know that they all do that. unless you spend over $2000-$2500 for a one.
I gave this 3 stars only because I'm not happy that Canon didn't provide the proper software in the box in the first place.
If any of you ever had any problems with this or found a better solution, please let me know or leave comments.
Want Canon VIXIA HF200 HD Flash Memory Camcorder w/15x Optical Zoom Discount?
After reading many of the earlier reviews I took the plunge and purchased the Canon VIXIA HF200 flash memory camcorder. I upgraded from a Canon mini-DV camcorder because I had purchased my first HDTV from Amazon last Christmas. Of course, I needed an HD camcorder with my new HD television!I use a Sonnet 21-in-1 multimedia reader&writer Express Card/34 and pop the SD card in to transfer the video clips to my MacBook Pro. Using iMovie '09, this works great. iMovie '09 recognizes it without flaw, and with this software I can choose the clips I want to download from the SD card to my laptop. I use iMovie '09 to organize my videos, and I make the initial selections of clips that I want in each project using iMovie '09. Then, I export to Apple's Intermediate Codec and open this export file in iMovie HD. I prefer the timeline in Apple's older version of iMovie. I also purchased Final Cut Express 4, but haven't cracked that product yet, as it's much more complicated than what I'm used to in iMovie. So, for now, I'm bringing video clips in with the latest version of iMovie, then downconverting and editing in iMovie HD; this works great. I'll eventually learn Final Cut Express and move forward in my video editing hobby. I share all of this because I didn't realize until I read in David Pogue's Missing Manual book (iMovie '09 and iDVD) that I could still use iMovie HD with a flash memory video camera and the AVCHD codec. I'm glad to have discovered this.
As others have said, getting AVCHD encoded video clips into a computer takes LONGER than real-time because of the converting that must take place. My mode of operation with a Canon mini-DV camcorder was to fill a 60-minute tape, then transfer it to the laptop when convenient. I would get it started and come back 60 minutes later to 60-minutes of video ready to edit. Now, I come back 90 minutes later instead. Transfer seems to take about 1.5 times the length of the clips, give or take. For me, this is not a problem when I use my usual transfer and edit process.
If you're looking for instantaneous transfer of files in useable form, though, flash memory won't give it to you -at least with this camera. Others have stated, and I found directions in David Pogue's book stating that it's possible to transfer the files to the computer's hard drive for LATER conversion to useable form for editing. I haven't done this yet, and I would be nervous about deleting the clips from my flash memory card until I had them converted, could see them, and had them backed up on another hard drive. That's when I clear the flash card and re-use it for new video clips. I've had too many lost data situations in the past and I guess I'm a bit overly cautious when I have once-in-a-lifetime video that I don't want to lose. I believe in multiple copies of precious data, video data included. I get around this limitation by having two 16 Gb flash memory cards which, in best mode on this camera, gives me about 1.5 hours of video per card. I have yet to fill one before transferring video.
I also have multiple firewire and/or USB hard drives which I use for backing up video. If I take a long trip I'll just buy a handful of SD chips, along with the two batteries I already own, and shoot away. Each evening it's my practice to download to hard drive anyway, back that up to an external drive, and this seems to work for most situations. It's less expensive to do this with mini-DV tapes (which provide one backup source), but when precious video is involved I don't mind paying for a few extra 16 Gb chips. They're pretty inexpensive on Amazon.com.
I recommend this camera if your habits fit mine, or if you're looking for great-looking video on an HDTV. I have a lot to learn about this camera to get the most out of it, including the editing process. It will serve me for many years to come, as did my Canon mini-DV standard-definition camera.
APRIL 10, 2010 UPDATE:
I've received many nice comments and questions via Amazon, so many that I decided it might be helpful to create a video to show how I move video from a memory chip to my MacBook Pro laptop. If you're a Mac user you might find this helpful. I use iMovie 9 and this tutorial explains the process using that software.
Video (be sure to click on the full screen button):
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