SD camcorders are still lurking around even though world has moved to HD quality recorders. Some people still stick to SD devices if they don’t care much about quality and want to save disk space. This device that we got from Canon is an SD recorder with pretty good video quality. The camcorder can record movies or shoot photos and there is also an option called Dual Shot which lets you switch between video and still capture and you don’t have to change modes. However you can click photographs while you are recording a movie. On the bottom door are the battery and card slot. You can’t put in another battery for more life and the built in battery gives you recording of about an hour and 40 minutes. The Canon FS200 is user friendly and even newbies won’t need much time to get used to it. There is a 2.7 inch display screen and next to it there is a five way joystick. Apart from this, there are a set of buttons below  [...]

This camera from Canon belongs to the SX xxx IS family and hence it looks quite similar to the SX100 IS and SX110 IS which the manufacturer brought to the market earlier. This new product has been shipped with some improvements in features like 10 mega pixels instead of the standard 9 mega pixels. Apart from this, the unit uses Canon's Digic 4 image processor, the battery life is improved and so is the red-eye correction. Motion and face detection features have also been improved to give you better quality. The controls behind the camera are pretty much the same as the predecessors which include exposure compensation, menu, display and face detection. There is a big three inch LCD display behind the camera and also the four way navigation button. The button has four buttons are short cuts to timer, flash, focus (macro, normal and manual) and ISO sensitivity. The navigation button is too sensitive be wary or else you might end up mishiting. Other than this there is a playback button  [...]

SD940 IS is the next installment after the SD780 IS from the same manufacturer. It is still the same compact and lightweight camera. SD780 IS had a viewfinder, this one doesn’t have that space is taken up by a bigger LCD for better viewing. We thought the camera was really comfortable when using it for shoot pictures. Even large hands won’t have problems handling this device. We were a bit disappointed with the four way navigational button and we often ended up hitting the middle button when using the four way button because it is a bit small. The help system was great while using the camera as it gave us tips and hints while clicking. Other than this, the help system also tells you what shooting mode you are in. We appreciate Canons effort in accommodating the help system in a small screen like this. The camera has three modes for shooting which are movie, program/scene and smart auto. The latter picks from twenty two different scenes and  [...]

HG21 is another simple to use HD camcorder from Canon. It is just like HF11 from the same manufacturer however the HG21 records to internal memory and the earlier model records on hard drive. If you don’t mind the weight and a shorter battery life then get a hard drive based camcorder or else go for flash drive based ones. Flash drives are now preferred all over but they come at a higher price. So apart from the storage medium is there anything else different in this product? Will this make a good buy? The answer is yes. HG21 has a 120 GB hard drive and HF11 model had a 32 GB internal flash memory. We were glad with the 11 hours rated battery life for the camcorder. HG21 also has a view finder which is now becoming rare. The controls are all located on bezel of the LCD which can be a bit difficult to use, especially the five way joystick button. The screen is 2.7 inch big which is neither smaller nor bigger as compared to most camcorders in this range. The

SD980 IS is a revamped version of the previous SD960 IS from the same manufacturer. The SD960 IS has serious drawbacks on its end and they have been resolved on this product which includes a touch screen and bigger LCD and longer zoom range for the wider lens. The physical controls have been improved and so is the video & photo quality but we feel it could have been better considering the competition that other players are offering in the market. If you are fan of touch screen cameras you will certainly love the SD980 IS. This is the first outing for Canon in touch screen camera business and we must say they have done the job well. The screen is responsive and quite quick in registering our touches. The camera is not all touch screen and there are a few physical buttons on the device. In fact the touch screen is used only for shooting features and for the rest; you will  [...]

This is the third offering in the Vixia S1X family other two being HF S11 and S10. All three of these give you full HD recording at 1920X1080 pixel resolution and all these three models share the same features such as faster, larger f1.8 10X HD lens, high resolution and relatively large 1/1.26 inch 8 MP CMOS sensor, which also has high end capabilities, like the capacity to boost manually gain up to 18dB, fixed 100 and 70 IRE zebra stripes, color SMPTE bars, a button which is user assignable which is also the dial control. The only thing that is different is the internal memory. HF S11 gives us 64 GB of memory, HF S10 had 32 GB and HF S100 had none at all. Other than the additional storage space, this camcorder has features like Dynamic SuperRange OIS, which gives you better quality while at wide angles and walking and a mode for Advanced Snapshot which gives you the capability to pull 4 second clips from the playback and capture mode in videos. There are pair of micro phones which are  [...]

This camera is not an entry level model, but it is meant for photo enthusiasts. If you are a newbie, then stay away from this camera because it has all the advanced features which might confuse you. It has the same traditional layout of buttons like white balance, metering, autofocus, ISO sensitivity, drive mode and flash compensation. There is also a M-Fn key which can be used to surf through the options of AF point and Canon also gives you the LCD illumination button. We found the buttons a bit hard to press and when it comes to smaller buttons it gets tougher. There is a switch for the start/stop button for movie capture and Live view some thing that we were looking for since the days of 5D Mark II. Other than this there is a switch to lock the thumbwheel along with the sliver ring on it. The joystick is still there but it is prone to accidental pushes, we would have liked if it was a bit sturdier. The AF options have been increased for photo enthusiasts to select  [...]