Others say...

"Important thing for me was ease of making DVD's"
Okay, I have had this camcorder 4 months, I couldn't tell you the zoom range, the memory it has, it's battery life or anything very technical about it. I got it on am impulse before a Disney vacation as I was looking for something simple, small and cheap. It wins in all three categories.
My big thing was can I record my own DVD's without a lot of hassle?
Glory be, yes you can!!! I decided I wanted to send my mom a DVD of the kids and sat down to try and figure it all out. Using only the downloaded software that came with the camera, it took me about 20 minutes to figure it out and get a DVD made. Albeit I had already downloaded the discs and some video, I just had no idea how or if I could make a disc myself. But if I could do it, I am sure 99% of you can. I can't edit, no fading, no fancy stuff for me.
The only not so great thing about this camera is the lack of image stabilizer. Yikes, my kids take video as they walk and talk and you would think there was an earthquake going on. But I knew it didn't have that feature when I bought it.

"Almost perfect one of the better products available now....."
My friend wanted a digital camera, he was looking at still units but after he starting talking more about movies than stills I talked him into a video camera over a still camera. This "type" of product has been out for awhile but most of them have been primitive, needed tons of light and the videos were of generally low quality.

I have Canon SLR units, their digital sensors are some of the best in my opinion so I started checking out this camera. Most consumer sites have glowing review after glowing review on the FS100. We've had this unit about three months, we've used it quite a lot under mostly daylight conditions. Where these units most often fall down is in the amount of light they need to get good pictures. My old tape camcorder can easily get good video in candle light, this one is not quite that good but it's dang close. Most often with these units low light means unacceptably grainy images...this unit does pretty well with that from what I've seen (at least in middle quality mode). The book states minimum light something like 100 lux which is around dim room light. After I got this I took it to the Target parking lot at night and shot some video under just the parking lot mercury lamps...I was looking for two things...grainy images and color shifts caused by the non-daylight colored lamps in the parking area lighting. I happened to catch a guy riding across the parking lot on his bike at a pretty good clip and tested the camera by tracking him across the lot and zooming in and out all the while....the image was a bit grainy, but it was acceptable and surprisingly good for a camera of this variety at night and under non daylight colored light...i.e. Canon's sensor is pretty darn good.

My first canon SLR is pretty brain dead when it comes to mixed lighting situations but they seem to have straightened up their act in later products in that regard (white balance logic). There is a competing product of this type made by Samsung, the price is generally a bit lower than the canon, I've looked at that unit but not had a chance to use one; on that unit folks are saying the buttons are too flimsy (another reason I went with this one).

We use this camera to shoot a lot of fast action (SCA heavy fighting) I find that the default (AUTO) setting does not result in a fast enough shutter speed to catch very fast action, this unit has a mode that allows you to choose the shutter speed while the camera chooses the aperature...I fixed the blurred action by setting the camera shutter speed to 1/250 or faster and that has cured that issue completely. I have not shot in full quality mode...really don't need it...middle quality mode is pretty darn good even displayed on a large flat panel although I'm sure a true HD video snob would sniff indignantly at it. This camera supports SDHD so you are not limited to 2 gig memory cards. The 16 gig cards are currently out (like 3+ hours in middle quality mode) and 32 gig cards are also available but still too expensive.

If you get this camera I suggest you buy an image bank (handheld self-powered device with notebook hard drive in it) so you can clean off your cards and reuse them. This camera doesn't have touch screen, I really don't miss that at all, the joystick is very serviceable, I find the menus easy to navigate and the camera has a good variety of settings. If I didn't mention it before the camera can also take still images that are very acceptable.

Overall what I think about it:
I like the camera, I think if it was up to me I'd redesign the zoom lever, yes it's under your fingers as you hold the camera....but I find it a little bit awkward, especially when zooming in (higher magnifications). I'd prefer to have the zoom on the back where I can hit it with my thumb. Canon does their usual thing of monopolizing batteries and accessories for this camera by not releasing tech specs so other companies can make products that work with it. Batteries are outrageous at 80 bucks plus each, you can find them on amazon for around 60 but that is still outrageous in my book. You can find knock off batteries on ebay that power the camera but they do not have the internal electronics and thus the camera cannot detect the charge and they will not charge on the camera. One of your first purchases should be two 16 gig sdhc cards, they're not too high if you shop around, 4 gig cards will suffice to start but get the biggest ones you can get and stick with a quality manufacturer as well, I didn't pick "high speed" cards for this camera I have not noticed "lag" caused because the camera buffers were full and could not write to the card fast enough...at least not in mid quality mode...high quality may be another issue (what I'm saying is I don't know if investing in the high speed memory cards is worth it for this item like it is for my professional slrs). This is a great unit especially around the price that amazon has it for, it's great to not have to digitize your movie you just pop out the card and play it with windows media player. This unit also doesn't use any kind of custom format like some of the other cameras do, it's stock mpeg2 right off the camera so you don't have to translate it before windows can play it or roxio can burn it onto a cd/dvd. Yes, I'd buy this again.

"A great, compact camera"
Canon FS100 Flash Memory Camcorder with 48x Advanced Zoom (Silver)
Canon FS100 Flash Memory Camcorder with 48x Optical Zoom (Garnet Wine)
Canon FS100 Flash Memory Camcorder with 48x Optical Zoom (Blue)

It records H.264 video (the new standard) to a flash card, so you can put it on sites like YouTube without trouble, instead of converting it from a MiniDV tape or the like.

I'm recording family stuff and video podcasts with it and it performs very nicely, the onboard mics work pretty well, actually (mic in port is there for your use), the autofocus is quick and intelligent and picks up motion without artifacting (or blocking if you will).

My single complaint so far is the memory card has to be formatted FAT32, which for your purposes means that it'll only hold 4 gigabyte files maximum. I recorded on high quality and I got my video in 1 hour, 2 minute, 39 second chunks. For most people, recording on medium or even low quality should be sufficient for what you want, so you might assume upward of a 3 hour recording within a single file.

I looked for about 6 weeks before settling on this particular brand and model. There are also 2 other cameras in the FS line, but the only thing they add is internal storage. Save yourself the money and pick up a 16 gig SDHC card (no more than $30) and a card reader ($10ish - you will get the video off faster using the reader). The battery life only lasts for 90 minutes or thereabouts, so I hope it doesn't die on me for my friend's wedding. I may pick up an extra one ($60) just to make sure I get everything, but we'll see.

In reviews, I have seen some people complain about the lack of stability control (shaky video) but for less than $1,000, I don't think you can complain much. Some also complain about poor indoor conditions and I haven't had a problem with it. (I haven't used it outside yet, but if it works indoors, outdoors should be just fine.) You can see the podcast episode at [..] if you want to take a look at the quality of it... it'll be episode 50. That'll give you a reference for the quality of the camera... don't pay attention to the performance of the bald guy with glasses... if may leave you wanting for actual talent. :)

Overall, I'm very pleased with this camera. Its small size (5 x 2.5 x 2.25 [add another inch if you leave the strap on] inches) allows me to stow it in a pants pocket and not look like a tourist.

"Good camera. I got a solution for these .mod files"
Let me start out by saying I am a novice to video editing. I read about the problems with .mod files before I bought this camera, but purchased it anyway. The files were driving me nuts. I tried everything I read on reviews and nothing seemed to work real well. I was using a pretty old version of Adobe Premiere Elements. I read some reviews on this web site http://video-editing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/. I downloaded a trial version of the two top rated which were CyberLink PowerDirector 7 and Corel Video Studio X2. I used the software that came with the camera to put the video files on my hard drive. The were saved as .mpg file (not .mod files). Using either of these applications, I was able to edit the files and make perfect DVDs in both 4:3 and widescreen. I preferred Corel Video Studio and purchase it. It is so easy to use. So now I don't have any problems with this Canon .mod files at all. Of course I had to buy new software, but my Adobe version was pretty old anyway.

In regards to the camera, I really like it because it is small and convenient. What I don't like is that it is not good in low light and is very shaky when using the zoom. But for the price I really like this camera

"Good camcorder"
Overall, this is a great value camcorder. Focus could be faster under low light condition. Hard to focus when you try to follow the subject. Very shaky compare to the older DV model. You must have a steady hand to capture good video. Video file has "mod" file format which may not be recognizable by some player.