Canon FS200 user reviews (blue)

1.5 stars

"Good Camera Lousy Software" on November 12, 2009 by thinkermonkey

Pros: The Camera was easy to set up, controls worked well and the video image quality appeared good for what I needed.

Cons: The software from installation to functionality.

Summary: I got this camcorder because I was looking for one that can connect to an external mic at a budget price. I tried shooting in several lighting conditions with various levels of background noise - house, outside and in a club during an open mic. Everything seemed fine until I tried to install the software. All of the discs had to be put into the drive several times before they could be read by the drives (3 computers (1 XP, 1 Vista, 1 Mac), 4 drives all the same problem). Software for the Mac did not transfer the files and there was no MOD to any thing converter for the Mac. This ought to be available out of the box. The video ran smoothly when displayed on the camera... when it was transferred to the PCs using the PIXELA music transfer utility the videos were choppy and noisy (clicks, pops and dead air).
Did I say I was no conversion software for Macs? The mpegs created on the PC did not work in Movie Maker (caused it to lock up) and did not work at all on a Mac. I downloaded some shareware that successfully converted 1/2 of short five minute videos. The video and audio quality was good with these and worked in Movie Maker. Did I say that a commercial product should work at least as good as shareware? Well, it should. I don't want to pay more for software to correct issues that the manufacturer should have taken care of before releasing the product. Its on its way back to the store and I will settle for a camera without and external mic input. I would not recommend buying a Canon camcorder of any type until they can prove the conversion software they provide works.

4.0 stars

"Excellent little camera for the price" on December 17, 2009 by Mad_Mickey099

Pros: I bought this camera just to make little Internet videos. It was important for me to have an external audio input. The camera has a solid feel and its controls are responsive. The videos are more than adequate for viewing on a Web site.

Cons: This camera, like many camcorders I researched prior to buying this one, creates video clip files with a file extension of .MOD. The only work-around I have found is to convert the file to an MPG-2 before editing and viewing.

1.0 stars

"The instructions were terrible." on October 15, 2009 by ronron56

Pros: The camcorder was light & compact.

Cons: The instructions were mixed with 4 models and on small pages that were difficult to read & incomplete. We lost over 1000 pictures of our trip to Europe when we transfered them to the computer.

Summary: We will try to return the camcorder where we bought it. We will never buy another Cannon product again!