Canon Vixia HF11

Pros: Very user friendly, have good low light capability, much better than the Canon mini DV series, and no problems on post usage accumulation of tapes. You simply delete your footages after uploading & back-up, then shoot again.

Cons: Can't turn off power nor disengage USB connection while connected to computer. Concerned about corrupting your built-in drive, you have to restart your computer in order to disconnect the USB connection.

Summary: The Vixia HF11 is so light and handy, no internal moving parts and very user friendly. It takes very good quality video and can shoot decent footages even in low light conditions. You'll need to buy a directional microphone because the built-in mic is very sensitive to sound that it easily pick up various conversations, noise & sounds around you. It has good image stabilization feature but its always better to mount it on a tripod to get steady shots. Battery performance is bad because it drains fast. You have to at least have 1 spare battery, or better, buy a battery unit that performs longer. Uploading your footages on the computer is easy, thanks to its efficient software that comes with the unit. But a warning appear saying you cannot turn the power off or disconnect the USB connection while it it connected to your computer. So one way to go about this is to turn off or restart your computer in order to disconnect the unit from the computer. I do my editing in Adobe Premiere Pro and the video format that Vixia produce is not supported by Adobe, so I have to convert all my footages, using a different software, into AVI files before I can edit them and this is the biggest hazzle. The unit or the software that comes with the unit should have a format convertion option