I bought this camera for the flash memory part. I really did not want to cary little tapes or cds or extra wires.
br /The camera is small, the size of a toilet paper roll, it fits entirely in the palm of my hand and weighs nothing.
br /The image stabilization is great, I get no shaking or bouncing.
br /It comes with a USB cable, an AC adapter power cord, HDMI cables, two software discs and a small remote. It has three settings for quality, the highest setting gives me an hour and a half of space on the camera, and the battery has a life of three and a half hours. This is displayed on the screen so you can be aware of how much time and space you have.
br /The software is to edit your video, it's simple and easy to use. You can write credits in different styles and have them scroll across the screen and you can cut your scene and paste it. You can also play with the audio. The features on the camera are also user friendly and the menu is a sinch.
br /There are some qualities that I didn't like. The camera is made of plastic, which adds to the weightlessness, but also makes it feel like a kid's toy. The lens is not a wide angle and therefore you can't get a lot into your frame unless you stand back, way back. It doesn't have a view finder, you have to look at the lcd screen. The position of the USB port could have been located somewhere else. To transfer the video to the PC you have to connect both the AC power and the USB.
br /Overall, the camera suits the purpose I bought it for, family moments and the occasional soccer game.
br /If you're looking for the same purpose, I'd reccomend this one, if you're a professional who shoots weddings or events, this is not for you.

This camcorder was purchased for me by a friend who makes professional films. That alone tells you that this is an excellent product.
br /It is so easy to use a toddler could make a good movie (provided they don't use it as a hammer!). Literally you point and shoot and it's in the can and the sound quality is excellent. In addition there are tons of features for those who like to do the techie stuff and get personal results. I haven't shot a movie since the days when Super 8 film started to get impossible to find. In those days camcorders were about the size of a bazooka. Well, I am glad I waited for this one to come along. The fact there are no tapes or discs to fool around with or purchase is another huge bonus. So, now I have about twenty years of filming to catch up with. Better get moving.

It is a tiny camcorder. It will easily fit inside cargo, jacket or baggy pockets. Of course with the extremely small size comes some limitations. This camera is not going to have the same picture quality as professional HD camcorders. But that said it is a very nice camera for shooting standard definition home movies. It has an excellent zoom. The battery and built in memory are going to give you about 3 1/2 hours of recording time. As for all the people who are complaining about trying to edit the footage (that is because they are not using Macs.) If you have an up to date Mac it is a breeze.
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br /I have an Intel Mac. I convert the footage with MPEG Streamclip (Which you can download for free at the Apple Web site.) And then it works fine with Final Cut Pro 6. I convert it to Quicktime and then choose the DV setting. It works great. It also works just fine without MPEG Streamclip if you are using iMovie 08'. The whole process is quick and painless. No going through the whole tape to log and capture the footage. So If you are looking for a tiny SD camcorder that you can take anywhere and edit it with newer Intel Macs, this is a great choice. I think you will enjoy this camera.

I had read a few disparaging things on the net about the Canon product in conjunction with Apple computers. I made the purchase because the Canon had all the features I wanted for the right price. I had no problems interfacing with my MacBook (intel) and shooting with the camera was very intuitive, as well as the menu setup. I have hardly had to glance at the owners' manual yet. Yea, I'll get to it to get more out of the camera. But I already have several videos uploaded onto youtube, I recommend this camera. Battery life seems real good, and the separate memory SD gives me flexibility. I can use the Transcend reader to USB the the SD to teh MacBook, without having to plug the camera into my laptop. Very convenient.

Decent battery recording time, video quality is excellent and the image stabilization really works with the long range optical zoom. Everything i'd expect according to vendor description is good. Don't have any problem with the software bundle with it on my Dell Precision 380 PC and work fine with Windows XP Pro. And, great price too.

Bought this video camera for my 9 year old daughter who wants to start her own tv show. This camera is very easy to use, lightweight, and extremely compact. We took it to the lake last weekend and I used it to film the kids tubing and waterskiing. The fact that the camera has built-in memory and lightweight made it the filming easy. Also liked the lens on it.
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br /I have been having some difficulty connecting this camera to my MacBook Pro (intel) but I'm sure I'll figure it out.
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br /Overall, this camera has been performing well, it's versatile, and the kids can use it without difficulty. I would purchase this camera again. Just wish Canon would do more for Mac users.

This camcorder is easy to use and the use of the function buttons right at hand when need to change to a different setting is great. Lighting for indoor settings could be better but over all this camcorder I would rate a 5 star. I love it.

Pros
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br /Lightweight
br /Small
br /Solid State Flash Drive
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br /Cons
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br /Awful unnatural light performance (worse than my $175 still camera on video mode)
br /No thread to attach filters
br /LED light is useless
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br /Do NOT buy this camera if you intend to use it in unnatural light conditions (anything other than sunlight with the exception of maybe studio lighting).
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br /I recently got this camera as a replacement for a Panasonic Mini DV GS-230 that was stolen from me. Although I had not had it long the idea of carrying tapes had started to bug me and I thought this would be a good opportunity to upgrade to something with a HDD. I was offered a few options from my insurer, one of which was the Canon FS11. I must admit the idea of a solid-state flash memory camera excited me as I intended to use it for snowboarding and vibration can trigger HDD cameras to power down to protect the drive. I searched in vain for a review on the FS11 with no luck so I decided to take the gamble and boy was it a bad one. Upon receiving the camera the first thing I did was charge it up to have a play, as it was night time I just did the basic walk around the house filming random stuff. While filming I noticed that in rooms that had light fittings over the globes that the picture looked very grainy with purple and green pixels appearing of which my first assumption was that maybe it was just the quality of the LCD. I copied the footage to my PC and in horror found that it looked just as bad. As I had not had my other camera for long I only had limited footage to compare it to which included some footage shot at night in my study, I decided to replicate the footage as I knew the light would be the same. I shot some footage of me standing in the study and the new footage was awful, I could hardly see the details of my face, I compared it to the footage shot on the GS-230 which looked flawless in comparison. The first thing I did was to call the insurer and organized to exchange it ASAP and fortunately I was able to. To be honest I imagine the FS11 would have probably performed a lot better in daylight but as an amateur/hobbyist I was looking for a good all rounder and the FS11 seemed far from it. I ended up paying an extra $100 and got the Panasonic SDR-H280 and so far I am really impressed with the performance, funnily enough both of the Panasonics I have had are 3CCD cameras which are noted as having excellent colour definition at the expense of poorer quality in low light, from what I have seen they both perform 100 times better than the FS11 did. As an amateur I, like most am restricted to a relatively low budget and as a result cannot expect to have the best of the best however, considering the price I would expect much better performance, Canon should be ashamed and I hope that anyone who buys one still has the ability to exchange/return it.
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We've owned the camera for about 3 months now. It is a great little camera, and the onboard flash memory seems to have more than ample storage for most needs. It is simple to use if you spend 10 minutes with the user guide to get the basics. One challenge for Mac owners though -- it does not ship with the necessary software for integrating with your Mac. You will most likely need to download and install a few third-party products to deal with the .MOD files and get them into a format that IMovie 06 and Quicktime 6/7 can understand. You'll need to budget some CPU cycles for each and every clip to be converted to a more compatible file format. Overall, we're happy with it and would probably buy another, but wish that Mac offered a few highly integrated true plug and play camcorders.

I ordered the Canon FS 11 after thoroughly searching for a good tapeless unit. After receiving the camera and charging it promptly, I started taking closeup and wide angle shots both around the house and other places where good videography was possible. I got down to do the video editing. I could not import the clips onto vegas 8.0, since the camera was not recognized with the USB attachment. I installed the Pixela software for windows after some difficulty with the activation part of the software, since the software would not accept the camera serial number. I got the problem solved after calling canon and the software people. I thought it was going to be easy going to be a breeze in creating the DVD. Boy was I wrong, I wasted two or three DVDs getting only aprtial footage and not playable on sand alone DVD player. To my horror, I found that hte software permits only 99 clips, no matter how long the videos are. My video clips were only few seconds long each. I was disappointed at the way the software is designed. It is not user-friendly at all. Also creation of the DVD is not intuitive. I had to go through so many hoops to get the vidoe clips onto a DVD. Finally I got a playable DVD, but with no sound. I strongly recommend the camera for novice users based on quality of images, but the software stinks. The company is not of much help both by phone or on their web site. Hope this helps other future buyers.

Nice overall camera but Canon is now using MOD files which are not recognized by most editing/movie making software. For example Movie Maker does not recognize it. Therefore you must convert the MOD files to MPEG/AVI which takes a great deal of time and an extra step. BTW you need to get your own software to convert it.
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br /They took the easy out of using an SD card.