The Canon Vixia HF S200 belongs to Canon's 2010 HF S series of AVCHD camcorders. The good thing about the camcorders of this series is that unlike the camcorders from Canon's 2009 Prosumer Vixia HF S1x series, they possess the EVF. And even though we liked the Vixia HF S1x series we just could not completely endorse the HF S10/S11 because of the same reason. Although the inclusion of EVF in the camcorders has given a steep rise of $200 to the price of these new series of camcorders, but if you look at the HF S200, you will feel that its worth paying, but at the same time the rise in price makes the camcorder expensive than its reasonably priced, EVF-free siblings and on a whole more expensive than most of its direct competitors. This hike in price could stop a lot of buyers from getting this system. Canon's 2010 HF S series of AVCHD camcorders has three models, each of which differs from the other by the abovementioned viewfinder and memory configuration.  [...]

Canon’s Prosumer Vixia HF S1x series launched in year 2009 was an impressive series even from many aspects, but still we just can’t support its HF S10/S11. The reason here being the missing features such as an electronic viewfinder and is appreciated by a lot of high-end camera buyers. Camcorders that have EVFs are rather easy to operate, while shooting videos and the EVFs are rather easy to see in intense sunlight. But it’s nice to see that finally Canon has opted to fit in an EVF in their high-end Camcorder the Canon Vixia HF S21 for 2010. But sadly, the HF S21 is priced $200 more than its rival EVF-fitted models. Canon's Vixia HF S21 series of AVCHD camcorders has three models for 2010, and the major difference in all these three models is of memory configuration and viewfinder. The major specifications for  [...]

Panasonic continues its dominance in delivering compact cameras having flexible lens with its all new Lumix DMC-ZR3. The Lumix DMC-ZR3 comes with a 25mm-equivalent wide-angle lens and an 8x optical zoom lens, apart from all this the camera gets a body that’s hardly an inch thick. The ZR3’s lens is the same that Panasonic’s ZR1 had; in point of fact both the cameras are almost identical. The Lumix ZR3 has around 14 megapixel camera, instead of the 12 megapixel and it now can also capture the video in AVCHD Lite format. There are some other feature enhancements here as well, but primarily there are only two major upgrades, and both of which according to us are needless. On a whole the ZR3 is a decent point-to-shoot camera and offers comparatively great image quality. The control panel for the camera is rather simple and easy enough to be understood by the out of the box users. The top floor of the camera houses a silver plastic Mode dial, which  [...]

The Kodak Playsport or the Kodak Zx3 is the completion of Kodak's Zx1. Now, while the Zx1 was a weather resistant camcorder, the all new Kodak Playsport aka Zx3 is proclaimed to be a waterproof camera up to 10 feet or can withstand water less than 9.8 feet's. The camcorder also has plethora of other betterments or updates that makes it a decent camera, both in water and on land. But if you consider the price of the camcorder there actually isn't anything serious to complain about, but still if you are looking for a wide range of features in your first camera then its better you keep your hunt on. But if you are fine with limited set of features and are looking for a reasonably priced HD pocket video camcorder capable of withstanding external environmental blows like water or sometimes windy environments, then the Kodak Playsport definitely is a great choice to go with. The overall design of the camcorder is a bit "rugged", which is reminiscent  [...]

The Sony Handycam HDR-XR550V priced at $1000, can be a real pain for some of the users, especially considering the accouterments of the camera. The Handycam HDR-XR550V has a huge a 3.5-inch LCD, G series lens, a 240GB hard disk, EVF, iris and shutter controls and mic and headphone jacks. Basically the HDR-XR550V and its almost identical sibling CX550V are the high-end models belonging to the high-end Prosumer line of Sony. The CX550V has somewhat different design than its siblings and also the recording media ability of the camera is a bit different. The design difference between the two cameras can easily be credited to camera’s storage type. This is because of the fact that the CX550V comes with 64GB of fitted flash memory and XR550V comes with a hard drive. The frontage of the camera contains a huge-barreled lens with an electronic lens and flash positioned on top of it. The trademark Sony’s stale a manual control dial is again present in  [...]

The Sony HDR-CX500V is one of the two siblings of the hard drive based Sony HDR-XR500V and Sony HDR-XR520V, but has entered the market six months after its flawed sibling entered the market. But the good thing this time is that the HDR-CX500V has got the much needed interface enhancement from its siblings. But thing here is that it still is not as compact as some of the other camcorders we’ve seen in the market, and on the other hand we don’t  think that a slight change in the layout and the improved interface is worth a tradeoff. But some users might go for the trade-off to save themselves from the operational annoyances, while the others will stay out and go for the same high-class performance and video in a bit more compact camcorders. The Sony HDR-CX500V also comes with its sibling CX520V, and the two camcorders only differ in terms of their memory, while the HDR-CX500V has 32GB of inbuilt memory, the HDR-CX520V has 64GB. Most of the capabilities  [...]

Priced at $279.99 the Flip SlideHD mini-camcorder is comparatively higher priced than the class to which the camera belongs. Though the immense 16 GB internal memory of the camera can be attributed the excess weight of the camera. The straight 3 inch wide touchscreen LCD of the camera also is responsible for the slight weight increase. The wide LCD screen of the camera not only is touchscreen, but also acts as a screen for viewing photos and videos, and “slide” opens at a comfortable angle. This Flip SlideHD also makes shooting and sharing videos an easy maneuver, so easy that almost everyone can do it. The humongous LCD screen of SlideHD is used for controlling most of the functions of the camera, as a result of which you will see a really limited amount of physical controls on the body of the camera. As a matter of fact there only are a couple of them. The first physical control is positioned on the right spine of the camera and is a small power  [...]