I have owned several Canon products with few problems but when I did I found their customer service to be the best. The staff at the call centers were efficient. They emailed a paid shipping label and turned the camera around in a little over a week.
Call them with your repair problems…
Actually seems a bit pricey.
Here are some past auctions on eBay for this camera for you to judge yourself.
eBay link
Brilliant Photos might not exactly work with this thingie
Jamesbottomtooth;
Nope, pictures get stored on the SD card. At least that’s all I can do with them and I’ve had this camera since last Christmas.
Read up on reviews for Canon camcorders and you’ll see a lot of complaints about low-light performance. By “low-light” they’re not talking about just candle-light dinners - even your typical indoor lighting at night is pretty muddy with Canon camcorders (which is weird, cuz they absolutely NAIL the market in digital still cameras…)
Also there are a lot of references to motor noise being picked up in the audio channel of the recording. They must not isolate the tape drive mechanism from the mic well enough.
I was replacing a 10-year old top-of-the-line at the time Canon camcorder, but based on that, I went for a low-end Panasonic (PV-GSxx series…these days, the PV-GS80 or GS85) last year instead of this one and couldn’t be happier - saved a TON of $$ over a top-of-the-line model and got amazingly good video. A friend of mine didn’t listen to my (EXCELLENT 
) advice and got this ZR100 instead (a wee bit cheaper)…he’s not happy about not listening…he promises to be a better listener…
-RenHoek
BTW - this site has good specs/ratings on camcorders (not affiliated at ALL):
The % sales per hour graph above is interesting. It seems quantized. Looks like from midnight to 8am, number of sales is 4, 4, 0, 1, 1, 1, 5, 4, 3 for a total (so far) of 23. Kind of low for 8 hours.
Will this be shipped to me before Christmas?
Great little cameras, but they tend to be a hassle on longer trips or during a volunteer concert recording job–hard drive camcorders have come a long way in the last couple of years and allow for long recording times and minimal equipment. I look forward to when the ones selling for 900 now are on sale for 400-500.
I bought one of these last summer and it is great. This is about $100 less than I paid. It has excellent optical zoom and it was the only inexpensive camcorder I could find with an external microphone jack. For the money you can’t beat it.
I like Canon too, but this camcorder is so far from professional or “prosumer” that it barely makes the cut from “toy” to “low-end consumer.” So I don’t see the relevance of your pro experience. That’s like saying that a Corvette is great, so buy this 1988 Chevette!
Anyhoo, I have one of these, and it works okay. The motor for the tape is really loud, and is very noticeable on the recordings, but you could probably filter it out with some kind of post-processing.
Having used camcorders since the days of BIG VHS models to the latest mini DVD models, IMHO this is not that great a deal. I won’t go into all the reasons, but while Canon makes great consumer cameras, their camcorders are lacking.
And in 2008 these are now somewhat outdated technology [at the consumer level.] Digital cameras [and even hard disk camcorders] are replacing tape technology.
Many people are using their digital cameras on video mode. Each year fewer and fewer people are toting a digital camera and a camcorder, no matter how small the camcorder gets.
IMHO camcorder days are numbered. In this day of home movies taken with a digital camera and YouTube people don’t want to use camcorders. They do not want to go through the hassle of converting their camcorder videos for desktop PC use or to convert/transfer tapes to DVD. And like I said above, no one wants to carry two devices. As digital camera movie quality has improved, camcorder users have decreased.
I live in San Francisco and can use my observations of tourists as validation of my point. I rarely see people using camcorders. Most are using their digital cameras on video mode or a “miniature” camcorder that records on to flash memory.
I have three camcorders remaining, from the old days, so to speak. One is a very good Sony Hi-8 and another is a Sony mini DV similar to this Canon. I last used the Sony Mini DV about two years ago to make a motorcycle ride video. And the Sony Hi-8 has not been used for about 8 years. Sad though because that thing cost me about $1600 back in the day.
Like other Members have said, these tape camcorders can be had on eBay for less than $100 and those sellers are tossing in a case, extra tapes, batteries, etc.
Judging by the few comments many of you know much about what I have said. About six years ago this Woot would have been a steal, but now, meh.