Customer Reviews

Fisher FVDC1 CameraCorder 3.2MP MPEG-4 Digital Camcorder with 5.8x Optical Zoom (Memory Card Not Included)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This camera is pretty cool for outdoor quick shoots that you want to take but dont want to waste film on. Also if there is something you want to shoot and go direct to computer avoiding the conversion time to mpeg4 ! You can get over 40 minutes of high quality mp4 video on a 1gb sd card , 60 min if you lower raise the compression.

Creates an mp4 , so it plays straight from computer no need to convert anything! what a time saver. Again , its an outdoor camera.... in low light there is too much digital noise... but the outdoor is great and the sound is awesome!

Great camera for the price ! Its not a DV replacement but a supplement for quick shoots or web email.

I've had one of these for about a year. Happy overall; supplementary 1GB SD card holds a ton of video & stills. Resolution is fine for general use. VERY handy size - slips in your pocket easily, controls are well placed. Gets a lot of attention when you use it. Problems: flash is too close to lens, so there is way too much red-eye. Video is very poor, really unusable, in low light settings.

People ask me about this camera. I have had this camera for over a year now and I am still very happy with the still pictures and video that I get with this very pocket size camera. It's looking a little worn from sharing the same pocket with car keys and coins, but it still performs like new. Battery life is real good. I carry a spare (the size of a book of matches) but is usually late in the day before needed. Macintosh users will like it because stills and video import automatically to iPhoto. No hassles! The dock keeps it charged and ready for action. For it's size it can't be beat!

Now that the price has dropped, I really think that this is a great camera. I has an sd card instead of tapes so you can either put the card into a reader and have it come into your computer directly, or you can attach the cable to the camera and copy the files that way. VERY portable...very stylish design. You can also take still photos with it, but I would probably not expect the most clear images.

The only real downside is the audio when you zoom in and out. The zoom makes a clicking that is very clear to hear in the audio. But if this is for home videos or "fast and dirty" shooting, the portability and lack of recording to tape more than makes up for that.

Cute convenient but must be used very in bright to light to make effective video have not had to use it outside yet included software can correct some of the problems. This item is not a fullfleged replacement for a standard camcorder but it is compact enough to take anywhere.

[BTW: The Fisher and Sanyo models are the same}

When I first heard about the Fisher Cameracorder I was truely amazed: this is what I have been looking for since my first digital camera with 15 sec video ciip capability: Combine a TRUE digital camera and TRUE digital camcorder.

Pros:

1. Very small and lightweight. Perfect to put in your pocket. Exponentially better than lugging around a bog dumb camcorder. Infact, I carry my Cameracorder everywhere I go. Can't say that about your camcorder, can you?

2. Easy to use.

3. SD memory cards are used everywhere and come in capacities up to 2GB+. Hours of record time at max quality, and you can just pop it into your media card reader on your computer.

Cons:

1. Taking a picture WHILE recording video results in a pause in the video and an audible shudder-click.

2. Quality of video, while better than digital cameras, isn't as good as dedicated camcorders. It is 640x480 30fps. It's ok tho.

3. Very poor low-light-level video and pictures. I have adjusted the settings so actual pictures turn out ok (but looking through the viewfinder is still dark), but these settings do not modify (amplify) video.

4. Adobe Premiere has troubles editing MPEG-4 (even though the newest version says it's compatible). It's very slow compared to other formats.

5. Quality of pictures is not that great. Don't just go by megapixel count. The lens quality makes and HUGE difference in picture quality. My Cannon ELPH took fantasic pictures, better than this camera. So did my Sony Cybershot with Carl Veis lens.

My Sanyo is having a problem where the screen will be totally dark (sometimes) when I first turn it on. I have to switch from REC to PLAY mode and take a picture for the screen to turn on. Also, for a couple months the Video Record and Playback functions were non-op. I think I may have gotten some water in the camera. It's been working correctly lately.