Canon DC100 Camcorder Review

Ease of Use (6.0)
The Canon DC100 is an easy camcorder to use – but certainly not the easiest – and ease of use is vital at the entry level. At first glance, the On/Off/Mode switch is right in the center of the back of the camcorder and impossible to miss, which is good. However, the location of the Record button, just to the right, is not immediately obvious, because it lacks the customary red marking or “Rec” label. Because of this lack of the most basic of signposts, you’d be advised to give Aunt Maude a quick tour of the DC100 before handing her the camcorder.

Another issue that Canon should address is the slightly awkward placement of the touch pad on the left side of the camcorder body. There is no elegant way to navigate through menu and function options without turning the camera sideways and compromising your view of the LCD. The reason is that the LCD either opens to 90 degrees, placing you at an angle to view either the screen or the touch pad, or flips to rest inside its cavity, which makes for comfortable viewing but leaves the VCR controls upside down. A no-brainer fix would be to place the touch pad on the back of the camcorder. I think cluttering the back with another control would be the lesser of two evils in this case, making the DC100 an easier camcorder to use.

The DC100 does feature an Auto Mode, as any entry level camcorder should, but, once again, it’s not as immediately visible as on comparable Sonys, which feature a prominent “Easy” button. On the DC100, the Auto switch is on top of the camera, out of sight when you’re holding it in a shooting position. Finally, the DC100 has a touchpad rather than the joystick of its higher-priced DC cousins. While touchpads are not terrible, we like the trend towards mini joysticks, which enable you to navigate functions literally without lifting a finger.

Finally, as with the DC10, navigation of menus is not as quick or intuitive as it could be. For example, when you are at the bottom of a submenu, you would think that the fastest route back to the top would be to press down once more. Instead, Canon forces you to press up until you have returned to your starting point, an exercise that could cost you valuable seconds during a shoot. So while this is a fairly easy camera to use, make sure you tell Aunt Maude where the Record button is before handing her the DC100 – especially if you want to make sure she catches your once-a-summer flying belly flop.

Handling (6.0)
The DC100 is similar to all the other Canon DC camcorders, except for one significant design feature: it has a touchpad rather than a joystick. This difference is one of millimeters, but its impact on handling is sizeable. A joystick is much easier to handle and allows you to navigate through menus with aplomb. The DC100’s four-way touchpad lacks the same responsiveness.

We were not even that impressed with the top model, the DC40, to begin with. Its hand strap is too low and the navigation control is on the left side, requiring the shooter to turn the entire camcorder body around in order to see it. The DC100 also has these faults. All in all, this is not the camcorder I would want to have if I were running with the bulls in Pamplona.

The rest of the button placement is fine. It has a great zoom toggle. The record button is well-placed, however, it should have had some red coloring on it somewhere, the universal symbol for "record."

Portability (6.25)
The Canon DC100 (51 mm x 86 mm x 123 mm or 2” x 3.4” x 4.8”) is marginally smaller and lighter then the top-of-the-line DC40, but all the camcorders in the DC line are very close in size. Practically, this camcorder does fit in a pants pocket – but not comfortably. You’d be hard pressed to sit down for lunch at a wedding with this unit in your pocket, unless you wear baggy cargo pants to formal events. On the plus side, relative to the DC40, this camcorder is a little lighter at 410 grams (14.5 oz.) vs. over 16 oz.

As with the other DC camcorders, the DC100 also suffers from a non-expandable battery, which is tucked into the LCD cavity. Because of this space-saving placement, the camcorder can’t accommodate a longer life battery, so the only option for extended shooting situations in the field is to purchase another 81 minute battery.

LCD/Viewfinder (6.5)
The LCD for the Canon DC100 is located on the left side of the camcorder and can be opened either along the bottom of the frame or via a scalloped cut-away positioned along its back edge. It measures 2.7 inches and has a paltry 112,000 pixel resolution: although the Canon DC40 has a similarly-sized LCD, its pixel count is 123,000, a more acceptable number. The resolution on this screen isn’t going to produce great images for monitoring manual controls like focus, and users may struggle to attain a crisp image. The screen tended to solarize quite quickly when rotated, and users may find that this will impede the positions they can shoot in.

The electronic viewfinder on the DC100’s back appears to be designed as an afterthought. This miniscule secondary viewing device cannot extend or swivel away from the camcorder and its hard plastic eyepiece doesn’t help, even with the dioptric adjustment lever located beneath it.. In addition to its small size, the position and overall design of the viewfinder made engaging this option a further aggravation. Its one benefit is that, with manual controls and menu navigation accomplished through external controls, it lets the user alter settings without opening the LCD screen. This is a distinct benefit over the touch-screen LCD interface systems found on Sony camcorders. Actually engaging these features while shooting through the viewfinder, however, was a task that pretty much eliminated any benefit it may have had.

The notorious enclosed battery design.

Battery Life (9.3)
The Canon DC100 ships with the EP-208 battery. This is the same battery that ships with the top model, the DC40, so at least you know you’re not getting hosed on the entry-level model in that regard. It’s still not a good battery, however. We tested it for endurance by shooting continuously with the LCD open, the backlight on, and the electronic image stabilization on. No zoom or manual controls were engaged. In total, the battery lasted 93 minutes and 43 seconds (1 hour, 33 minutes, and 43 seconds).

We must mention here that the DC100 employs a closed battery design, hidden inside the LCD cavity. This means that the camcorder cannot accept expanded batteries. You will be limited to this 93 minutes, and another 93 if you decide to purchase an additional EP-208.