Canon FS100

The FS100 is one of the first brand name camcorders to fill a slot formerly done by low end devices, namely a lightweight camcorder using flash memory.

I've waited years for something like this to come along, and haven't been disappointed. Me and tape have never gotten along well. It was a real pain to capture from tape, and two of my three early camcorders died from problems with the tape cartridge either perpetually ejecting or jamming the mechanism.

The FS100 does away with all that, and records directly onto SDHC cards.

Records in 16:9 aspect ratio.

Cheap and gets the job done.

External microphone jack

A 16GB card will give 3 1/2 hours of recording time at the highest quality setting. If that's not enough, access the old memory bank and remember VHS-C tapes that were good for half an hour.

Lithium ion battery.

Has the same controls and format as all later Canon camcorders, and is simple enough for novices to figure out.

A range of video effects (wipes, transitions, etc.) and color settings are available in the menus.

Very small and lightweight.

The clips are recorded as .MOD files, which not all video editing software can work with. Also, the aspect ratio has to be flagged as 16:9, otherwise the files end up distorted at 4:3. I found a free utility called SDCopy that pulls the files off the card, flags them as 16:9, and converts them to MPG. Works like a charm.

Weak included software bundle, I never even bothered with it.

The battery is completely enclosed, therefore buying an extended (and physically larger) battery is out of the question.

The light is actually a bright diode, and the performance drops off quickly in low light.

Still pictures are one megapixel and not particularly impressive. Bright light snapshots are about the extent of it.

I found the battery/memory cover a lttle too easy to open accidentally.

It is standard definition, not HD. This is not a problem for me, but as the entire market is going rapidly to HD know what you're getting.

It's best to record only at the highest quality setting, fine details degrade considerably at the lower settings even if you do get a lot more recording time.

While a good range of options and controls is available, they are primarily accessed through a joystick menu, and the joystick is very small and a little awkward to use.

Panasonic PV-GS36
Panasonic VHS-C camcorder, don't recall the model
Sony 8mm

Haven't used