Canon VIXIA HF200 HD Flash Memory Camcorder with 15x Optical Zoom

13 comments

1. 

   Gisela on July 18, 2009 at 5:11 pm

   4.0 out of 5 stars
   Camera Great! Software sucks!
   Great camera with an absolutely horrible Pixella software. With a fresh Windows Vista 32-bit install and installing the Pixela software that comes with Canon, the software refuses…

2. 

   Zaila on July 18, 2009 at 5:15 pm

   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 1920×1080 picture quality modes: MXP at 24 mbps and FXP at 17 mbps — and three at 1440×1080: XP+, SP and LP, at 12, 7 and 5 mbs, respectively. I believe it defaults to LP out of the box, which is 1440×1080 at 7 mbps. I suggest you select FXP to get true 1920×1080 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.

3. 

   Othniel on July 18, 2009 at 7:08 pm

   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: 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. 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 far, 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 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. 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.

4. 

   Ivi on July 18, 2009 at 7:31 pm

   5.0 out of 5 stars
   Great Camera!
   I love this camera. It is small, which makes it convenient in so many ways. It fits in a first class airline toiletry bag, easily. It take great pictures and video.

5. 

   Padgett on July 18, 2009 at 7:44 pm

   4.0 out of 5 stars
   Canan VIXIA HF200 HD
   The product is all that it is advertised to be. I have not had full opportunity to learn to use all of the options but the features that I really wanted are there.

6. 

   Iduia on July 18, 2009 at 9:17 pm

   3.0 out of 5 stars
   Just Beware
   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.

7. 

   Josie on July 18, 2009 at 9:24 pm

   4.0 out of 5 stars
   This works for me…!
   Canon HF200 is what I bought for Vegas trip as a primary documenting device replacing my bulky Nikon D300.

8. 

   Dwight on July 18, 2009 at 10:00 pm

   This camera has a lot going for it. It’s really small and easily fits in a jacket pocket. It has an incredible number of controls and adjustments if you’re the type that wants to tinker with the settings. While it has shutter priority and aperture priority modes, unfortunately there’s no full manual mode. This isn’t so bad for an inexpensive consumer camcorder. I was worried for a minute that this camera didn’t have any form of manual focus. It is there in the menus, but it would be much better if it had a dedicated dial. For the folks looking for info on the different frame rate modes and not finding much information, I have good news. I was able to get true 24 frame footage from this camera. It’s confusing as the specs say 24 frames recorded at 60i. The footage I recorded in 24p mode imported into iMovie at 29. 97. But I was able to take that footage into After Effects and when I told it to guess the 3:2 pulldown pattern, it successfully interpreted the footage at 23. 976 fps (essentially 24) and there were no interlace issues, just 24 whole frames a second. I’m assuming other software can handle this conversion too, maybe even iMovie? The image quality is really fantastic, especially for footage shot outdoors. I would be thrilled with this camera if it weren’t for one issue. Areas with fine detail (like trees and greenery) tend to strobe or pulse, especially in a wide shot. It usually looks fine when I zoom in closer. It can be very distracting. It shows up on all 3 frame rate modes. It seems a little less pronounced with the low sharpening mode turned on, but of course this makes the image clarity softer. In some shots it’s not apparent at all, but in others it practically ruins the shot for my taste. (I’m very picky!) It’s not too bad when the camcorder is on a tripod, but handheld shots tend to have this strobing problem. Is anyone else noticing this issue and have you found a solution? I might just be expecting too much. Also, people like to complain about the low light ability of this camera, but I find it perfectly acceptable. Yeah, it’s not amazing, but for the price of this camera, I think it’s pretty good.

9. 

   Zuzana on July 18, 2009 at 11:38 pm

   5.0 out of 5 stars
   Great little thing.
   I used the HF200 on a recent trip out of the country and loved the quality, both the build quality as well as the video I recorded.

10. 

    Durriyah on July 19, 2009 at 1:06 am

    4.0 out of 5 stars
    Great Buy
    After 2 months of research this was what I bought. I was looking for a camera to video wildlife and sports mostly. I didnt want to drop a grand and also wanted HD.

11. 

    Utah on July 19, 2009 at 3:54 am

    5.0 out of 5 stars
    Solid choice!
    Hands down, very happy with the purchase. I came from an older canon mini-DV unit that performed great over a 10 year period. I didn’t read the directions…

12. 

    Xanti on July 19, 2009 at 4:55 am

    4.0 out of 5 stars
    Great with iMovie 09
    Video imports fine into iMovie 09. I copy the files from SDHC Card to
    hard disk and them import from there.

13. 

    Anonymous on July 19, 2009 at 7:45 am

    5.0 out of 5 stars
    AWESOME CAMCORDER FOR THE MONEY !!!
    This is such a great camcorder and i love it! I have seen some bad reviews about this camera and i just don’t know why!