Canon FS200

Miscellaneous Controls (6.00)

Image Effects

There are three preset Image Effects available on the FS200: Vivid, Neutral, and Soft Skin Detail. Each of these settings alters the image captured by the camcorder (we show examples of them in the Color section of this review).

Widescreen

The FS200 can shoot with a 16:9 aspect ratio (widescreen) or 4:3.

Markers

Onscreen markers appear to assist with framing your image. Markers can be set as a level (one line in the center of the screen) or as a grid and they can be white or grey.

Audio Controls (4.00)

The Canon FS200 has more audio features than most standard definition camcorders—if only because it includes a 3.5mm external microphone input and a headphone jack (shared with the AV-out port). None of the other three comparison models we used throughout this review offer these ports. The external mic input can be very useful, although the majority of videographers are likely to never even notice it (particularly novice users). Still, it is wonderful to see Canon including the port.

In addition to its audio ports, the Canon FS200 can also display audio levels on its LCD—although the levels cannot be adjusted. You can also turn on the camcorder’s wind screen feature to block out the noise associated with rustling wind. The camcorder’s built-in mic is well-placed at the front of the camcorder, just below the lens. This built-in mic records Dolby Digital 2-channel audio.

Editing (5.50)

The FS200 comes with the same editing software as Canon’s HD camcorders. The camcorder is packaged with four separate installation discs—two for the ImageMixer 3 SE video software, one with instruction manuals and music data, and one more featuring Canon’s Digital Video Solution Disk. This is far too many discs to provide with a camcorder and it just makes the installation process more daunting and confusing.

The most useful and important feature of the provided software is a video transfer utility that is part of ImageMixer 3 SE. This program allows you to copy videos shot with the Canon FS200 to a computer, and, thankfully it performs this task quite well. Since the MPEG-2 clips are saved as .MOD files you must use some sort of program or transfer utility to make them playable on a regular media player (the files can’t simply be dragged and dropped). The Image Mixer 3 SE software does not work with Macs, but iMovie is fully capable of importing any footage shot with the FS200.

Using the ImageMixer software to edit your videos can be a bit tricky, but at least the program has a timeline setup that is reminiscent of popular editing programs like Final Cut, iMovie, and Adobe Premiere. The editing options with ImageMixer are far more limited than these other programs, however, although you can make cuts, arrange clips, add audio, and create text or titles. The standard definition MPEG-2 clips taken with he FS200 should be no problem for a computer to handle (as long as it isn’t a very old model). This is one of the benefits of standard definition video over high definition.

On the Digital Video Solution Disk are two image organization programs (one for Windows and one for Mac). These programs do not allow you to import or edit videos and are solely meant for organization (they are a lot like Apple’s iPhoto program). Don’t be fooled when you see some of Canon’s provided software works with Macs—it is only the ImageBrowser program that is capable of running on a Mac OS. The ImageMixer 3 SE video software works on Windows only. For an overview of the software that ships with this and other camcorders, see our article: Video Editing Software For Your Camcorder.