Review on Canon VIXIA HF M30 Full HD Camcorder with 8GB Flash Memory (Discontinued): Premium Imaging and Ample Storage by Michael Tegan

Records stunning videos and good photos. With the right lighting. Sunny outdoor shots look fantastic. I got a nice video/photo of the midday sun coming into the house. Evening video/photo indoors with only neon lights was fine. I think all cameras suffer when the lighting isn't good enough, so I don't see it as a blow to this camera. Being able to take photos while filming a video sounds nice, but again if you don't have good lighting, the photos get grainy. The flash does not blink during movie recording. The touchscreen interface is complicated. You drag your fingernail up and down the screen to align the setting you want to adjust. Your finger also gets in the way of what you want to see, so it takes some getting used to making out what you want with just a sliver of text. While it can be navigated with practice, I still regularly overshoot the settings. Luckily, I only change the settings from time to time so frustration is kept to a minimum. The only regular use would be to access your saved videos/images. It would be nice if they could remap the zoom switch and all other menu navigation buttons. Image stabilization works great. This well compensates for slight movements that can occur due to inevitable hand fatigue and posture adjustments when holding the camera steady. I constantly wanted image stabilization, you can toggle it on and off, but when you turn off the power it automatically turns off, which is annoying. I was also annoyed that the option to switch the camera from built-in memory to memory card wasn't saved either; It actually turns off when you close the monitor or turn off the device. Why not make it a permanent setting? Small size is both good and bad. It easily fits in my pocket. However, sometimes it is uncomfortable to hold because you have to partially cover it with your palm. My wrist and back of my hand hurt from having to be in a long stretch. The included Imageviewer software is only useful because it takes snapshots of your video on your computer so you can see what the video is without opening it. I don't get this snapshot when importing with Roxio. Also the AVCHD file doesn't play in WMP 12 unless I import it with Imageviewer. The USB cable port is covered by this molded rubber cover that requires careful alignment to close. It's annoying because it's a commonly used part of the camera. It was necessary to stick it on the side that will be closed by the monitor. Despite these shortcomings, I'm still happy with the features for the price ($540 online without tax and with free shipping). I think $800 for a high end camera is too much to pay for my daily use. I wanted to save tripod, additional battery, additional SD cards. I also had to buy another computer to process the AVCHD files. My Intel Core Duo 1.87GHz, 1GB RAM, 320GB HDD just couldn't handle it. Playback was choppy, Roxio 2009 stuttered and crashed a few times. I had to convert to MPEG 2 or 4 to burn DVDs smoothly. I also reckon I'll probably have to buy a Blu-ray burner because the files are so big. You will also most likely need a PS3 to play ACVHD files. There's no point in buying an HD camera if you don't have all the extra equipment to record and play back those files.