Canon VIXIA HF100 Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom  | 
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Brand: Canon
Category: Photography
Buy New: Too low to display
New (20) Used (1)
Avg. Customer Rating:  68 reviews
Sales Rank: 32
Media: Electronics
Batteries Included: No
Floppy Disk Drive: None
Monitor Size: 270
Includes Software: Yes
Optical Zoom: 12
Digital Zoom: 200
Display Size: 2.7
Maximum Focal Length: 57
Minimum Focal Length: 4.8
Maximum Resolution: 2070000
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 5.1 x 2.9 x 2.5
nv:Size: 1/3.2-inch
Image Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Movie Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Storage Media: SD/SDHC Memory Card
Compressed Format: DPOF
Compressed Format: DCF Exif 2.2
Movie File Format: MPEG-4
Movie File Format: AVCHD (HD)
Optical Zoom: 12x
Digital Zoom: 200x
Focal Length: f=4.8-57.6 mm
LCD Monitor: 2.7-inches
LCD Pixels: 211,000 pixels
LCD Coverage: 100%
Maximum Aperture: f 1.8 - 3.0
White Balance Control: Auto
White Balance Control: Daylight
White Balance Control: Cloudy
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: HF100
Model: HF100
UPC: 013803092004
EAN: 0013803092004
ASIN: B00114162K
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Promotion: Save $10.00 when you spend $50.00 or more on qualifying items offered by Amazon.com. Enter code BMLSAVES at checkout. Terms and Conditions
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | Capture high-definition video to flash memory | | • | 12x optical zoom; SuperRange Optical Image Stabilizer | | • | 24p Cinema Mode; 30p Progressive Mode | | • | 2.7-inch widescreen Multi-Angle Vivid LCD | | • | Simultaneous photo capture |
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Product Description
Now that you've upgraded your TV to an HDTV widescreen, doesn't it make sense to consider a Hi-Def Camcorder? The Canon VIXIA HF100 captures videos at 1920x1080 for true 1080i display. There are no tapes or discs to concern yourself with. It has an SD SDHC slot for video storage. So let your videos fill your new TV screen. Use the VIXIA from Canon. DIGIC DV II Image Processor SuperRange Optical Image Stabilization Instant AF (Auto Focus) 2.7 Multi-Angle Vivid Widescreen LCD Superb Shooting Control 24p Cinema Mode / 30p Progressive Mode Stunning Digital Photography Focusing System - Instant AF, Through the Lens/Manual Focusing Possible Auto and Manual exposure modes; Programmed AE - Auto, Program, Av, Tv, CINEMA, Portrait, Sports, Night, Snow, Beach, Sunset, Spotlight, Fireworks Recording Media - SD/SDHC Memory Card (not supplied) Audio - Dolby Digital 2ch (AC-3 2 ch) HDMI Terminal Type C 480i/480p/1080I Format Supported Microphone Terminal - 3.5 mm Stereo Mini-jack Mini HDMI Terminal and Mini Advanced Accessory Shoe Dimensions (WxHxD) 2.9 x 2.5 x 5.1 in (73x64x129mm); Weight (not including lens and battery pack) 13.4 oz (380g)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 63 more reviews...
 Can't go wrong with this one! July 16, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
It works great! Excellent HD picture quality even when shown on my 100" screen. Worthy of note: When zooming in (full zoom) on a subject, there is a slight delay (5 seconds or so) before the auto focus kicks in. Just took this cam and lots of memory cards on an Alaskan cruise. The video is spectacular! The mic is quite susceptible to wind noise but it's no major issue. Be sure to purchase a MINI HDMI cable as it is not included with this camcorder. Expect the following from your SD Cards when set to highest resolution: 4 gig = 30 minutes video. 8 gig = 1 hour video. 16 gig = about 2 hours video. And, this very positive note: You can edit & burn this AVCHD video onto a regular DVD burner. You don't need to have a Blu-Ray burner! Then, the "regular" DVD will play back in 1080 HD on a Blu-Ray player! Is that cool, or what??!!
 Best AVCHD bang for the buck! July 15, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Review of Amazon's Customer Service: I received my HF100 very quickly. It was backordered and shipped out (I assume) the same day that more came into stock. I paid for one day shipping (3.99 with prime), and received my order the day after Amazon got more in stock. Great job at a great price!
Review of HF100: By FAR, this camcorder is the best I have used of any solid state memory camcorder or hard drive-based camcorder. It's not really fair to compare this product to tape or DVD-based camcorders which are in a different (and in my opinion, lower) class of product. The video quality is excellent for the price. There is some noise in low light, but you will never find a camcorder that gives you no low light noise at a consumer price point.
I chose the HF100 over the HF10 for several reasons: 1) I like the silver color better, 2) a 16GB SDHC card is less than one third of the $200-300 premium you pay for 16GB of onboard memory with the HF10, and (MOST IMPORTANT) 3) one of the advantages of using removable memory is that if the camera breaks, you don't lose the stored footage. If you have 3-4 hours of video "trapped" on the HF10's internal memory and have to send the camera in for repair, you can be assured it's gone forever. If everything is always saved to an SDHC card, then you can just pop out the card and send in the camera and wait for the inevitable refurbished replacement unit to arrive.
The camera itself is ridiculously small for a product that produces such high quality results. In fact, I don't think any company could make a smaller camcorder that was actually useful (the exception being the "pistol" shape of the Sanyo Xacti series which are nearly the same size anyway). If you have very large hands, then this size may even be too small, and the button placement will be difficult to get used to. I have average sized hands, and the ergonomics are very good. The zoom and start/stop are in just the right place. The screen frame controls take some getting used to, but considering the number of options/settings Canon overall did a good job of arranging the controls. It would be nice to have a "wheel" type control for the manual focus, but using manual focus is probably going to be a rare occasion for me.
The zoom is virtually silent (and since there is no tape or DVD drive, there is no "whirr" sound in the background either :). Most people don't realize this, but there is a 400x digital zoom on top of the 12x optical zoom. Obviously, if you zoom in digitally 400x, the picture quality is going to be awful, but until you get over 150x, the picture quality is fine and just starts to show lots of grain. It is also nice to be able to take pictures at the same time as video (about 3 megapixel), so you don't have to choose between having a camera or a video camera anymore.
The screen is adequate given the size constraints of the overall size of the camcorder. It does do pretty well in bright sunlight. Some washout occurs as expected, but you can still tell whether or not what you are trying to capture will be in the shot.
Sound quality is also quite good for objects/people close to the camcorder. The wind noise reduction is good but not great, especially on a really windy day. If you're shooting a play or a ballgame and really want to hear what's going on wherever you are zoomed at or if you plan on shooting in the wind a lot, you may want to consider getting the microphone attachment. It's on MY list.
Speaking of add-ons, the two gripes I have are these: 1) there is no HDMI mini cable (these are cheap, cheap, cheap Canon, so there is no reason one shouldn't be included) and more importantly, 2) an external battery charger is not included and they cost $50-75 online. This is a huge oversight, and a charger should be included either with the camera or with the additional battery that YOU WILL end up buying (just put it in the cart now).
If Canon had included the charger, I would have given five stars. The HF100 is truly excellent, and it may be the last camcorder you buy for many years (who really is going to need better than 1080i picture on home movies anytime soon. Anybody?) This is a great product. If you're in the market for a camcorder, get this one.
Excellent Camera! July 14, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is my 1st HD camcorder and it has yet to disappoint. After using the "movie" mode on our point-and-shoot Nikon, this is a breath of fresh HD air! My wife and I just had our first born and we wanted to catch everything our little man does! The HF100 is perfect...small, lightweight and easy to use. My wife is somewhat intimidated my technology(she does not touch my Canon 40D) but she has little issues with this camcorder.
I usually shoot 30P in Program mode with the image stabalizer on. Program mode will give your shot far better color contrast and 30P is much easier to convert for web uploading than 60i. 60i looks good on DVD but most videos I shoot end up in Vimeo for my family to watch, most of which live hours away.
Uploading is a breeze with the flash drive. I purchased a cheap flash drive reader off an auction site. For whatever reason you have to have the camera plugged in when uploading movies to your computer. That is a lot of cords. A memory card reader is cheap and a major life saver.
I have both a Mac and a PC so I have some experience with both platforms when viewing video. One major complaint is that AVCHD is somewhat difficult to view on a computer. You do have to convert it to another format to view your movies on a Mac and even to edit them. I use Toast 9 along with Quicktime Pro to convert my video to a format easily uploaded to Vimeo(H.264 - 1280X720 HD). The quality is astounding!
In its RAW format, AVCHD looks excellent. The bundled video software(Windows only...dang) does a great job with unconverted AVCHD playback and some editing. I wish they would make a Mac version of this software. I have even made a DVD with the software and it looks really great on my Plasma. For bare bones editing, and DVD creation...the bundled software does work, and works well. One thing I have noticed when converting AVCHD to a more friendly video editing format such as HDV with TMPGEnc 4.0 Express is some stuttering when panning video is being played. This does not happen when viewing in AVCHD format. My suggestion, unless you really have to, try not to convert the video unless necessary. SONY Vegas video software lets you edit in AVCHD, no conversion is necessary. If you are on a Mac...well as far as I know a program does not exist that allows editing in AVCHD...you have to convert the file to something else (video codecs are numerous).
Eventually AVCHD will be the format of choice as tapes will inevitably be phased out (some will argue this, but this is my personal belief). In my opinion you cannot go wrong with this camera. Hard drives fail, tape drives fall apart and RW-DVDs are a pain. Flash memory is the future.
One issue I have is the lack of a stand alone plug in for the battery. You have to plug the camera in to charge your camera's battery unless you shell out around $60 for a separate plug in charger. In my opinion this should have been included with the camera.
Just what I was wanting... July 14, 2008
First off, I love the size of the camera. Like it was mentioned, the comparison of a soda can is pretty good. It fits well in the hand, and the buttons are placed very well for easy access.
Also, I like how it does not have a hard drive built in (moving parts... if it falls, it could be a goner) and there's no tape to work with. Just record onto an SD card. You might want to invest in a larger card. The 16GB card I bought holds over two hours of video footage in FXP mode.
The camera still does shake and vibrate a little bit when in your hand, but I would expect this from anyone holding a camcorder. Again, without something to compare it to, I couldn't tell you if this is better or worse than others.
The resolution of FXP (HD) mode is wonderful. It looks great on an HD TV. The downer is, and perhaps this is true with all consumer HD camcorders, is that the picture quality is MUCH better in natural light outside than indoors. Good lighting indoors help a bunch, but you can notice the quality difference for sure.
Now for something that I can comment on a bit more: Editing. I use my Mac Pro, 3.0gHz quad core processor with 4GB RAM. Naturally, if you don't have a powerhouse computer, editing will be tiresome, or just not possible at all. I know that when I'm converting the video from the SD card to the computer via iMovie 08, all four processors are used at around 97% until it's completed. Unfortunately though, iMovie can't use the native video files from the SD card so it is converted to .mov, which is around twice as large. You'll need storage space on your computer. I have an extra 500GB drive just for large video that the camera will be making. iMovie 08 is a GREAT choice for this camcorder if you have the machine with good specs.
Overall, I'd recommend this more than the other like models out there, based on review and research.
 Almost perfect, except for full HD (FXP) mode July 13, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Bought HF100 from Amazon based on the review. Also bought the Transcend 16GB SDHC Class 6 for HF100.
I don't want to repeat all the good comments about HF100 which I agree with them all. I'm really upset by one big problem I discovered, not sure whether it's because I have a bad copy of HF100 or else.
In short, HF100 works great when you do not pan-shoot, or only do very slow motion pan-shoot, otherwise in FXP mode at 30P frame rate, the video becomes very "jerky", "jumpy" and make me feel motion-sick watching the video. The problem become less visible when you shoot in XP+ mode at 30P frame rate. This means although H100 is design to support Full HD, it's really not capable of handling Full HD when at least doing pan shoot.
I'm thinking about return it to Amazon, but trying to get some feedbacks from other users before I do so.
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