Canon FS10

Performance

On opening the LCD, and after pressing the power button, it takes around 2.8 seconds for the camera to become operational, which is quite good. We found that the cam goes into a standby mode when the LCD is closed without shutting the cam down; this is to eliminate even the 2.8 seconds delay - a smart move.

The Canon FS10 performs as well as some of the lower-end models we have tested. In fact, the capture resolution is similar and so are the optics and the processor, so we are not surprised with the result. But it feels a bit disappointing as you tend to expect more for the considerably high price you are paying.

Though you may choose the widescreen option, the movies are always captured at a resolution of 720x576 at 25 fps in the highest quality mode regardless of what aspect ratio you choose. So if you have chosen a widescreen aspect ratio, the video will fill up your widescreen monitor and if it is 4:3 aspect ratio, you will see dark vertical bands on the left and right hand sides.

As stated earlier, the CCD has a resolution of 1.07 MP and the DIGIC DV II processor is HD 1080p capable, yet the movies are downsized to 720x576 or 414,720 pixels, which is less than half the possible CCD resolution. This is probably Canon's way of holding back the capture resolution in the FS10 and making the consumers purchase the more expensive HD series camcorders if they desire to record at a higher resolution.

The image quality is good in general while shooting well-illuminated subjects, but becomes noisy in darker conditions or when the zoom level increases. A weird thing about the images is that you can't help but notice a slight shroud of translucency over the images at all times; thus even a black object doesn't look as black. There is a noticeable under-saturation in the movie recording mode, whereas images have a fair amount of color saturation in the still image mode.

Still images can be shot at a resolution of 1152x864. The autofocus works very well, though focusing from one object to another is not as fast as one would like to have; you may lose the chance of capturing some precious moments due to this fact. Audio is recorded as Dolby AC3 48 KHz Stereo at a bitrate of 256 Kbps. We found that it is better to use the highest quality mode as the other two modes produced compression artifacts that cannot be ignored and the resultant video quality is anything but satisfactory.


The zoom works delightfully well as long as you use the optical or advanced zoom, but we expressly forbid you from using the digital zoom. Do not fall for the number - 2000x, you will be in for a huge disappointment as the FS10 becomes unusable here due to a heavy drop in image quality as well as focus.

The zoom rocker key is very responsive and a slight flick is enough to get it started, zooming very smoothly. We must tell you that the zoom motor is so silent that we could not hear it even in dead silence. Also, the zoom button is smooth and doesn't cause any disturbing noise when used. While there is no optical image stabilization, the FS10 offers electronic stabilization, and this works quite well to our surprise.

At one point of our test, we zoomed onto an airplane flying at the highest altitude using the handheld FS10 and when we played back the recording, it was quite good and we could actually see the airlines logo on the tail as well as the row of windows on the side. Motion blur is visible especially while capturing fast moving objects using zoom, but it is not really a problem when you do not use zoom, as long as the object doesn't move too fast.

As an example, while it is not a problem to shoot from a moving car or to shoot a moving car, motion blur will certainly be seen if you are trying to shoot close objects from a moving train. Shooting using the LED light in pitch darkness yielded good results and the LED light is therefore not just a gimmick.

We noticed one problem after the test while connecting the cam to the PC to retrieve the movies and snaps - you also need to connect the power cable to the FS10 and only then can you access the contents. This is a major disadvantage as you will find yourself in a tight spot if you are carrying the cam outdoors with your laptop, hoping to transfer or edit some captured footage while on the move.

After connecting to the PC, you are prompted whether you wish to burn the content directly to a DVD burner or whether you wish to transfer the files to the PC. If you happen to have a stand-alone DVD burner such as the Canon DW-100, you can connect it directly to the FS10 and burn the contents to a DVD, without a PC.

If you choose the PC mode, you can view the internal memory and external memory card as two separate drives and directly copy the contents to your hard drive to edit. The images are stored as JPG, while the movies are stored with an MOD extension, which can be played directly using a software DVD player such as Nero Showtime or CyberLink PowerDVD.

Canon bundles along the ImageMixer 3 software video-editing suite that lets you easily play, edit and manage these movies. It has file conversion capabilities to let you optimize the movies for internet, as Quicktime movies for playback in PMPs or as MPEG-2 files to play on the computer or a standalone player.

The files transfer at a slow speed; it took 2 minutes 41 seconds to transfer 1 GB, which translates to 6.63 MB/s. We recommend a card reader such as Kingston Media Reader FCR-HS219/1, which can do it three times as fast. Shooting for just over 14 minutes will create a movie file of 1 GB at highest quality i.e. 9 Mbps.

You can therefore record just less than 2 hours before the internal memory fills up, and then an extra hour when you run out of the 4 GB memory card. The battery outlasts the recording capacity (which is the case with most camcorders) and it lasts for around 5 hours, thanks to the limited number of moving parts. The files can also be converted into a DVD using Nero Vision or Nero Recode, which is most likely to be installed on your PC if you have these bundled with your DVD writer.

The Verdict

The Canon FS10 is an ultra-compact camcorder that will probably steal your heart at first looks. It is a good camcorder, though it does not perform any better than any of the DV cams or the miniDVD cams from Canon with similar specs, as the optics and sensor are similar. The colors seemed to be a bit washed-out and it had problems focusing on distant objects at the highest optical zoom.

However, I must add that even though it lacks optical image stabilization, the electronic image stabilization is not really bad and does a good job at keeping the image steady while shooting at high zoom levels. The image quality is decent and you would not be disappointed to take this with you on a holiday. Canon should provide a carry pouch with the FS10 to make it easy to carry it around, as that's how it is meant to be used - outdoors, not indoors.

There are three different models with similar specifications and form factors from Canon; the only difference is the storage capacity. While all the models come with an SD card slot and include a 4 GB SDHC card, the FS10, which we tested, comes with 8 MB inbuilt memory, the FS11 comes with 16 GB, while the FS100 comes with none. The FS10 comes in silver, the FS11 is dark gray, while the FS100 comes in three colors - silver, blue and red.

With a 2-year warranty, the FS10 is priced rather expensive at Rs.30,995, the FS11 is insanely expensive at Rs.39,995, while the FS100 is a little within reach at Rs.25,995. What we have quoted above is the MRP; the street price of the FS10 is much lower as expected - Rs.28,500. Since the rest of the specifications and performance are the same for these three, we feel that the FS100 is a better deal, as memory prices are so low, you can get an 8 GB SDHC card for just Rs.1,999.

Considering the fact that you can get a Canon product with almost similar specifications for less than 14k, except that it has a disadvantage that it uses Mini DV tape, makes this product less attractive even with the small form factor and considerably longer battery life.