Canon LEGRIA FS306 Camcorder - Red (37x Optical Zoom, 2.7 Inch Widescreen LCD)

Having been the very happy owners of a bulky JVC mini tape recorder for the past eight years, it was a very sad day when we realised that it had done it's last bit of filming and left us for the great camcorder home in the sky! I'd planned on upgrading to a dvd disc type machine, but they are apparently obselete now according to all the tekkies out there. So, my plan scuppered, the challenge commenced. About October 2009 I started looking for a replacement. Let's just say the market has moved on. I've spent months trawling through reviews watching on Amazon for the reviews to click up, visiting the various local electrical stores (do your research on line - it's far more accurate than in store!!!!). Well I missed the winter recital, the very last family nativity, and the spring recital and I was adamant that not another event would go by unfilmed. I hesitated so long as I was desperate not to make a mistake, the market is huge, and there are far too many to choose from. In the end I took the plunge. I settled on the FS306 and didnt wait for it's successor which came out the following day! I don't need HD, i've not got the computer or tv technology to support it, and the quality of the FS306 is brilliant without it. I knew I didn't want a built in memory as our holidays are always inclimate and activity based and may affect the laser quality. It came out on top for lots of reasons, but mainly because of where I want to film, generally too many rows back with dim light or on skis. It has so far lived up to my expectations, i've filmed an indoor party and it's clear, with lovely sound, the picture is steady and bright and the quality is great. The controls were easy to use, it was dead simple to set up and even the kids can use it. It fits in the palm of my hand, it's neat, compact and would fit in a coat pocket - perfect for mountain terrain! I charged it on the 31st March, and yep, it's still got plenty of charge left in it. It probably does loads of quirky things too, but for me, point and shoot will do nicely thank you. I just want memories for my family. Overall verdict - go for it!

I have had the camera for three months now and it has worked well. I have created over 3 hours of excellent edited video on DVD.
However there are a number of problems.
The first is that the battery, supplied with the camera, failed within three months and is not covered with the Canon warranty as it is classed as a consumable. Canon tell me that if I had bought an additional battery - as a back up maybe - that would be covered for six months.
I had to appeal to Amazon and they refunded me the cost of a replacement battery. One brownie point to Amazon and a definite no-no to Canon.
The second problem. If you wish to edit your videos with software other than that supplied with the camera, you may have difficulty with the files you import from the camera. You need to be able to adjust some settings, (eg 'widescreen' as against '4:3' format) with your software. If you film in 'widescreen' format imported files will appear as '4:3' format in your software. Canon's advice when I contacted them about this second problem was basically 'we recommend you use the software supplied'.
The files created in the camera are numbered and that is fine. However more than one folder is often created and the files in the additional folders are numbered identically to those in the first folder. Your software may well refuse to import files with the same name and needs to be able to cope with this confusion. Fortunatly I have very good software and I am able to make the necessary corrections.
On a personal note I find the 'Zoom' control is not in a very comfortable position.

This is an excellent camcorder. Most amateurs will never need anything better than this. Simple to use, reliable, long battery life, fabulous picture and Made in Japan!

Here are some things that I would like to point out:

- - ZOOM: The zoom range is more than enough with a 37x optical zoom. You may find that similar priced models from other manufactures may have a 60x or even a 70x optical zoom. But this is not a good criterion to solely base your decision. I consider that the Canon lens is superior because it uses a larger sensor (1/6") that results in better images.
The focal length of the FS306's lens is 2.6-96.2 mm. If you use a smaller sensor (1/8" for example) you should bring the same lens closer to the sensor by around 0.8mm in order to retain the same view at the widest setting. Thus, the new range would become 1.8-95.4mm which corresponds to a 53x zoom (95.4/1.8).
So, don't let the optical zoom size fool you. There are more important things to look out when buying a camcorder.
In the HD camcorders, for example, where the sensors are much larger than the SD camcorders, you will rarely find an optical zoom above 12x.

- - SD SIMPLICITY: I love the Standard Definition video because it costs less to buy a camcorder, there is no need to use expensive high-end memory cards with big capacities, you can use an average computer to process the video, no need to buy expensive editing software, you can save considerable time while processing the video and finally the format is almost identical to that of the DVD-Video so it becomes really easy to share your experiences by burning them with minimal effort on a DVD.
Nonetheless, many owners today are a bit confused with the .MOD files produced by this model as well as numerous other models in the market. Having this in mind, I'll share my experience thinking that it could possibly help some other people.

- - PLAYBACK ON A COMPUTER: In order to view correctly the .mod files you can do some tricks or you could just use the free program "K-Lite Codec Pack Standard" and everything will be simplified. As far as there is an association between the .mod files and this program (right click on a .mod file and choose "open with", "other programs", "media player classic") the files will open and playback in their original format (16:9 anamorphic which looks like a squeezed 4:3 image). In order to view the files on 16:9 just change once (and the program will remember) the aspect ratio (View>Video Frame> Override Aspect Ratio>16:9 and make sure that "keep aspect ratio" is checked).
Then just double click on the video and you are in full screen mode. (Just remember to change the 16:9 back to default for videos other than .mod). And that's all you need to do to watch the .mod videos on your computer.
Just pay some attention with the numbering of the .mod files. Their numbering is not in the decimal but rather in the hexadecimal system i.e. your first 35 videos will be numbered as following:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 1A 1B 1C 1D 1E 1F 20 21 22 23 etc. etc. (Don't try to rename them... too complicated. Just write the correct order on a paper so that you know which file to open next). Btw, Cyberlink's Power Director not only imports .mod files but also puts them automatically in the correct order).

- - ASPECT RATIO: Please note that if you use this camcorder to shoot on 16:9 format, the resulting image would be an anamorphic 16:9 which looks like a 4:3 image squeezed horizontally, exactly like the widescreen movies we see on the DVD's. That's how it should be and that's how it is, as the videos on DVD's are always recorded in 4:3 format. During playback though, the anamorphic videos expand automatically and the image appears correctly filling the 16:9 TV screen. Thus, you should always consider your videos as 4:3 (if not set automatically, then set this option manually) when processing them on your computer in order to burn them on a DVD-Video, otherwise you will not preserve the whole image that was originally recorded and you will end up with a letterbox version of your film which is considerably inferior to the original anamorphic video.

- - DVD AUTHORING: I have the Power Director 7 by Cyberlink, which was pre-installed on my Compaq CQ61. This pre-installed version can import .mod files but does not support the Dolby Digital (AC3) sound that the files contain. Instead of upgrading to the full version of the program I preferred to make a small compromise with the sound. Thus, I have installed the excellent free program "MPEG Streamclip" (available both for Mac and Windows) which converts -really fast- the .mod files to Mpeg2 files with MP2 sound so that the resulting videos can be imported to the power director as well as to many other programs. (Just use "Convert to MPEG with MP2 audio" and also note also that there is no need to install the mpeg2 playback component). Personally, I also use this program to convert my Quick Time (.mov) videos from my digital camera into .avi's in order to burn them on DVD's and I use the "Batch List" to save considerable time. Chances are that most people will have a pre-installed program on their computer to produce DVD-Videos from .MPEG2 files with MP2 sound. (In my computer there was also pre-installed the Power2Go by Cyberlink which can also produce DVD-Videos from the above files).

Finally, let me mention that I haven't tried the included software and I cannot comment on that. I prefer to use the memory card in order to transfer the files rather than to connect the camcorder to my computer. As I have found a simple way to transfer my recordings on DVD's I prefer not to install it and then having to learn another software package.
After all, I was looking for simplicity when I chose this model. If you wish, you may complicate things by going deep inside the menus but for people like me who love simplicity, combined with good quality, this was the perfect choice. Use it in the auto mode and you don't have to worry about a thing. Press Rec and it starts recording. Press again and it pauses giving you now the chance to take some photos. Photos are not in 640x480 like similar models, but in 1024x768 meaning that they can be printed on a 4"x6" or 10x15cm paper. The big advantage is that you can take photos -using the powerful zoom (35mm equivalent range: 40-1676mm) and the really powerful macro- that you wouldn't have been able to take with a digital camera. Of course, you cannot compare the photos taken with any camcorder with the images taken by an average digital camera but apart from that I think that the photos are pretty good. As for the video quality, I have to say that I am very pleased with it. I found color accuracy, saturation, sharpness and noise levels to be very good under normal light but I would rather consider them as average in low-light conditions - something obvious that applies to almost all the camcorders. Taking into consideration that the camcorder has a really good low-light sensitivity I have to say that I was really pleased with the overall results.

My opinion? An excellent model for all the people who would like -simply and efficiently- to preserve memories!