Product Details

Canon VIXIA HF200 HD Dual Reviews

Great Camcorder, Tripod Pack is cheap
by T. Hoffman , 2009-12-30

The HF200 is a great camcorder and everything i expected it to be. If you have a mac, this works seamlessly with iMovie, which is great because i know some people have some trouble with the .mts format. The tripod pack, is not great. I am most dissapointed witht the case, though, because i was planning on using the one that came as my camcorder case. It is cheap, poorly made, and inconvenient because it has a stupid tripod holder attached. As a result, i will have to dish out another 20 bucks or so to buy a nicer case. The tripod is a bit cheap, but it works just fine. NICE LITTLE SURPRISE: This comes with a 4GB SDHC class 4 card [gives you 20 minutes of full HD recording time], which i didnt expect since the picture says 2 gb . Overall, it might be better to consider a different bundle, but i am very satisfied with the camcorder. I have not yet received the battery because i think it is on backorder. Its the same model as the included battery, so nothing special, but somewhat essential because the included battery is not too long. The HF200 is a stellar camcorder.

Mac users beware.
by Norman Campbell , 2009-12-28

I've had this camcorder for a couple of days now and have spent much of that time trying to download my movies onto my very up to date MacPro. Apparently my Mac is not up to date as I thought. Having no luck opening anything but a couple of jpeg still photos I didn't even know I had taken, I contacted Canon and they tell me I need to update my IMovie software [I have the '08 version, need the '09] which is bundled in ILife at a cost to upgrade of $79.00 plus shipping and I will need to wait 3-4 days with 2 day shipping. So much for playing with my new camcorder over Christmas vacation.
The software Canon included with this camera is a CD titled "Digital Video Solution Disk". What this actually is, is an image browser for still photos. I thought I bought a camcorder, I have Photoshop CS 4, what use is this for me.
They also include 2 discs from a company called Pixela which are only for Windows. I was able to install the first disc on the Windows side of my Mac but could not finish the installation on the second disc since I have to enter the serial # of the camcorder which is on the box, not the camcorder [good luck to me if it's stolen and recovered by the police and we want to identify it.] I enter the serial # and it says it is wrong, it was right when I did the first disc called "Digital Video Solution Disk" on the Mac side. Since I only use the Windows side of this computer for one application I need for my business, I don't keep my virus software up to date and don't want to connect to the internet to resolve this on Windows. I really don't care for Windows and don't want to have to mess around with it and deal with a learning curve on my new little hobby. So I'm giving up on this till I update ILife
I sort of went over budget on this family Christmas present and now have to spend almost another $100.00 on a program [hope it works!]. For the nearly $600.00 I spent on this I feel I should have gotten a relatively complete, basic product. I had the fore-thought to buy the bundle with a memory card to go with this since it contains no built in memory, and thought I was going to have a functioning set-up.
With the growing popularity of Macs and the fact that they are preferred by creative types and have been around as long as PCs. I know many photographers and graphic designers and not one of them owns a PC. It seems Canon should get over any prejudice they have for operating systems. I would think especially on their high end products like this.
The video looks real nice when played back on the camcorder though.