 | Great for what it's made for.
rating: 4
I've been using this camera for the last few months, and I absolutely love it. But part of the reason that I love it is because i'm such a huge electronics nut, and i've never seen anything like this before. It's really tiny and a blast to shoot video with! (I didn't buy it for the digital camera aspect of it, and I rarely take snapshots with it)
There are, of course, a few things that you should be aware of before you buy it:
- This is not going to replace your higher-end digital camcorder. This thing would never replace my Canon DV camera. That's just not what it's for. But what it does do well is makes it so that I don't have to take my expensive Canon around with me everywhere.
-The quality really is pretty good. For it's size, I think it's really good. I was actually really suprised by the quality of audio that it picks up also. But be aware that you WILL hear the zoom in and out on the recording when you use it. (I think if you read a review of something saying the quality is poor, I think that person bought it to be their one and only DV camera)
-I use this thing for everyday, fun shooting. This would never be the only camera that I took on a trip to Hawaii. It would never be the only camera that I took to film my childrens first steps. But it is an absolutely great camera for fun shooting. When you want video of something that you just don't want to use a nice expensive digital camcorder for. For example: driving around with your friends, shooting silly video at work, taking to a party, etc. It couldn't be better for that.
I use mine with an iMac running Mac OS X, and it works perfectly. I plug it in, iPhoto opens, I import the video, then drag them into iMovie for editing. It's that simple on a Mac.
The Bottom Line: It's every single thing that I wanted it to be. It works so well for fun, everyday shooting that I find myself filming totally useless things, like walking into my friends' office to talk to him during the day. Stuff like that. LIke I said, it won't replace your high-end camcorder, but it is miles and miles ahead of any video recording mode on a digital camera. Just know what you want to use it for.
I really couldn't be any happier with it. I completely love it.
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Compact and Simple
rating: 4
If you want a movie camera with all the different features such as fading and a big zoom range then this probably isn't your option. But if you want a compact option that you can carry in your pocket and that does a pretty good job for family videos then this is a fine choice.
We have found that occassionally the autofocus takes some time to refocus when you switch to viewing something else, and if the battery fully discharges it can be ttricky to get the camera to start up again the next time it is charged. There is also some grainyness to the images in low light settings, but for normal usage this has not been too frequent. These problems aside we are more than happy with our purchase.
The camera also takes digital stills (note that if you take a photo while videoing the video image will freeze for about half a second.) While not up to the same standards as many dedicated digital cameras, we have found the image quality satisfactory and use this camera for most of our still photography as well.
You can edit video clips (merging clips or splitting them) on the camera itself, but this is timeconsuming (it takes about the length of a clip to re-encode it - so joining two 60 second clips will take 120 seconds.) For this reason we edit clips on the desktop (various 3rd party software programs are available to simplify this.)
All in all, an adequate solution for general family videos.
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Awesome
rating: 5
This Fisher FVDC1 CameraCorder is one more gadget in a long line that I've aquired over the last 25 years and it's just as cool as that Tandy PC-6 two-language programmable pocket computer from the mid-1980's!
If you take care of your electronics they'll last forever and you will need to care for this gem too. The battery & memory card covers are rather fragile but just use patients working them and you'll avoid any use of duct tape.
It took a bit of reading and some trial usage to find the right settings and now I am getting crystal clear photos .. the first photos were quite blurred from camera movment. ISO 400 seemed to do the trick for clarity -- faster shutter speed.
The video, on the other hand, well same hand but .. you know what i mean .. the video was clear with the default settings and creates quite an image in ample lighting. Otherwise the picture is a bit grainy but still looks good.
I would definitely recomend this product for those who can accept it for what it is .. a $450+ (at this date) palm sized video (1st) and digital camera (2nd) device that's really Cool most of all. I would not recommend it as a 1st experience in digital recording devices to folks.
You can't cry at the 512 MB card that comes with the camera and additional cards are quite afforable. The usual cradle worked fine right off on my system (Win2k Server) and the adapter for USB & power to use without the cradle works well also!
So .. gadget people - buy a FVDC1 today!
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Quite good for what it does, BUT....
rating: 3
I, in fact, have the Xacti C5 (the next generation Japanese model up from the one here), which, apart from the size and still image quality (5 Mega pixel vs. 4 Mega Pixel on the one here) is identical to the Fisher FVDC1.
Though there is some quite noticeable grain on the still images if you zoom in on the pictures you have taken, it does all that is promised, HOWEVER, it has extremely poor low light video performance. Daytime filming has reasonable quality, but filming under low light conditions is the worst I have ever seen in any video camera. Indoors will be a disappointment, people usually appear as silhouettes and the background is hard to make out. Filming at night or in a darkened pub or bar will render your expensive acquisition a glorified audio recorder.
[...]
Another issue was that, compared to Canon still image digital cameras, the ability to take pictures quickly was lacking, there was an approximate lag time of three to four seconds between shots. (Though that might be the SD card I'm using - though I doubt it.)
Having said that, I was very happy when filming out doors or under bright light. My old Sony DCR-HC30E would take great video, but then transferring it to iMovie on my computer and exporting it to a reasonably sized video file on my computer would be a time consuming exercise and a great deal of the quality would be lost in the process.
This ease of use of this product cannot be beat easily, truly plug and play, furthermore the sized is exceptionally convenient, though it is slightly awkward having to remove and replace the lens cap each time (unfortunately no built in lens cap/cover exists). Another desirable feature would be for it to be able to stand up on its own. Trying to stand it on a table in order for you to be part of the shot would require the use of something to keep it propped up. Not an easy task considering the shape of the base.
All up, it's a reasonable gadget that does as promised, excepting the other minor shortcomings, that I wish I could recommend. The only thing stopping me is its inability to film under low lighting conditions. Since it can't (no matter how much you adjust the ISO settings), I would strongly recommend that you hold off a few months (maximum a year) for the next generation.
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GET THE LATEST MODEL-- THE SANYO XACTI
rating: 5
I was very tempted to buy the Fisher CameraCorder, but the price was alittle high for what I wanted-- a digital camcorder to post videos on the web. After doing some research, I found the Sanyo Xacti [...]. Remember, the Fisher was released Nov 13, 2003 and is just getting over here now. The Xacti was released Aug 23, 2004, and fixes some of the bugs in the Fisher, with a larger LCD screen, updated CCD sensor, and image stabilizing technology. [...] I posted more info here if you are interested.
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