Frankenstein was the last thing on my mind when I purchased the Canon FS100 a few months ago, but along the way this cute little camera has turned into a monster that is meant to be treated with caution. In this post I discuss certain challenges I faced with this camera and the solutions I found to those challenges.
I blogged about this camera in the past in the following posts. I recommend you follow me in my journey with this camera.
After using this camera for a few months below are a list of pros and cons that I personally found. Depending on your use bases this list of “pros” and “cons” may or maynot apply to you. After the
Pros:
- Tapeless – Hours of recording time with flash media and easy access and transfer video files.
- Portable – Small and light weight allows you to carry this everywhere.
- LED Light — Great for when you have low light situations (but not all that helpfup)
- Cheap — Purchased this camera for about $350. You can get is for less than that now.
- Video Quality – Although the data has been compressed, you cannot really tell it apart from similar tape based cameras.
- Modifiable To My Will! – You’ll see what I mean below.
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Cons:
- Image Detail – In still photo mode the detail of images is not that great especially when there is movement.
- Bad Low Light Sensitivity — If you don’t have adequate lighting in an area and you try to up the exposure in the camera, then you image becomes extremely “noisy.”
- Plug Needed To Transfer Files – If you want to transfer files from the camera to the computer then you have to plug it into the wall or else it simply wont connect to the computer.
- No Audio Levels Control — You can attach an external microphone to the camera, but it won’t do you any good because the audio peaks terribly.
- No Hot Shoe – If you want to attach an external light or microphone to the camera, you really have no place to put it.
- No Threading for Lens Attachment – If you have a wide-angle, fish-eye, or telephoto lens that you want to attach, you wont be able to since there is no threading in front of the existing lens.
- Too Light for Steadicam Merlin – I had purchased the Merlin with this camera. When balancing a camera on that contraption you want it to be slightly bottom heavy. The weights on the Merlin are in .25 lb pieces. The camera is about .5 lbs. I can either be equally balanced or too heavy at the bottom, thus the images seems to have a pendulum effect.
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What do I mean by “Modifiable to my will?” It means that I was able to modify the camera in ways that helped me get around the challenges have solutions to the cons I mentioned above.
Bad Image Detail In Still Mode
Understand that this is NOT a still image camera. Its a VIDEO camera, thus its strengths will be in its respective area. If you want to be able to take quality still images on cheap while still grow in your skill I would recommend purchasing one of Canon’s Powershot Digic II or Digic II cameras that have the ablity to get CHDK on them.
CHDK is an upgrade that gives a consumer Canon Powershot camera professional abilities. Couple of my friends, Usman and Basil applied this upgrade to their cameras and the results were awesome. I’ve blogged about that in the past here:
Amazing Timelaspe Using a Canon Powershot and More
If you want more info on the whole CHDK upgrade for Digic II and Digic III cameras, see CHDK Wiki
No Threading For Lens Attachment
Krazy Glue is my best friend! I purchased a step down ring where on one side is 37MM threading for the 37MM threaded lens that I have. Depending on the size of rings that you have you will need to get the appropriate step down ring and “Krazy Glue” it onto your FS100.
I purchased a step down ring from eBay for about $14.
Bad Low Light Sensitivity And No Hot Shoe For Attachments
This camera is a single CMOS chip camera, thus its light absorbing capabilities are limited. The on camera LED light isn’t all that helpful in practical situtaion. On top of that there is no hotshoe to attached an external light to the camera. I figured I’ll bring in my friend Krazy Glue and glue on a separate hot shoe.
I purchased a “Sima SL-20LX Ultra Bright Video Light” from Amazon for about $35. It came with a metal bracket and the light. I also purchased two hot shoes for about $11 each. The plan was to glue the hot shoe to the top of the camera. Since the top of the camera was a bit curved I needed something to straighten out the curvature.
The metal bracket that came with the light had some rubber on which I cut off with a knife and krazy glued that on to the top of the camera after which I krazy glued the hot shoe onto the rubber.
No Audio Levels Control, No Place To Place A Mic And Too Light For The Merlin
I still had the issue of the camera being too light for the Merlin and the audio levels control. I decided to purchase level’s control device called the BeachTek DXA-2S. It screws on to the bottom of the camera where the tripod would go.
The great thing about the DXA-2S is that it allows for a tripod slate or even the Merlin slate to be added on. It plugs into the Microphone input on the FS100 and then you simply control the levels using the knobs on the back.
The BeachTek DXA-2S comes for about $180 on Amazon.
Now that I can plug a mic into the camera with control over the audio levels, where to I place the microphone? This is where the metal bracket and the second hot shot comes in handy. I took the hot shoe and krazy glued the top part to the metal bracket that came with the light and then I Krazy Glued the metal bracket to the DXA-2S.
Only issue with this is that Krazy Glue isn’t strong enough to hold the metal bracket due to the strong leverage the extended part has on the Krazy Glued part. If you wrap tape around it and the DXA-2S then it will hold just fine.
In the end your rig will look like the first pictures in the post. A true Frankenstien of a camera. If any of you are wondering what sort of microphone that is, its the “Azden Sgm-2x Xlr 2 Barrel Shotgun Mic” — It comes for about $250 on Amazon and it’s a great microphone.
With the attachedk BeachTek DXA-2S, Azden Mic, and barrels of Krazy Glue, there is enough weight on the camera to be properly balanced on the Merlin.
If you don’t want to go the metal bracket glued on to the DXA-2S route, then another option is to simply purchase a pistol grip. It can easily give you more flexibility with your sound coverage and it looks down right cool! — Almost like a police baton or a real gun!
The pistol grip comes for about $7 on Amazon.
This setup can give you quite the freedom that you may need when recording on the go. Another option that can come in handy is that lets say the subject you are recording on camera isn’t comfortable with the bright lights in their face, you can use the pistol grip for the portable light.
These are my final thoughts about the Canon FS100. I believe this is a great camera even if you don’t want to go through what I did to get excellent capture of image and sound.
Understand that the camera isn’t the most imporant aspect of a recording setup. You need lights, microphones, lens, and be able to move the camera as well. Its not always about having the “best” camera.
For me and what I’m doing, this is the “best” camera for ME. It may or maynot be the “best” camera for you. Its up to you to decide.
To help you in that matter, I made a post over at MessageMastery.com on the question: What Camera Should I Get?
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