Anyone have experience with a Canon Vixia HF R400 VIDEO camera? - $170 @ B&H

[steve...]

B&H has it for $170 ($100 off with free shipping).

Ever since I sold my Kodak Zi8 I've been thinking about getting another video camera.

Would this be a good inexpensive camera for personal use or should I consider another model (in the same price range).

Full HD 1920 x 1080p Video
Canon 3.28 Megapixel Full HD CMOS Sensor
Record Directly to SD/SDHC/SDXC Card
Record in AVCHD or MP4 Formats
Capacitive 3" Touch Panel LCD
Genuine Canon HD Video Lens
53x Advanced Zoom
SuperRange Optical Image Stabilization
DIGIC DV 4 Image Processor
Baby Mode, Smart AUTO & Intelligent IS

[JoeH]

It is a reasonable quality camcorder, we have 15 of that model and another 30 of the prior R300 model that get lent out to students from the university library. So far only one has developed a defect that was replaced under warranty. From my testing of them as they were setup for lending and after returns, picture quality was good throughout the zoom range.

[Speedy]

What is this video camera of which you speak? I bought a video cam several years ago and used it for about 15 minutes. Since then I have used my iPhone.

[pRICE cUBE]

I have the prior model and it has been pretty decent and reliable. Lack of physical buttons and reliance of touch screen menus is annoying but that is every camcorder below $400 these days.

[Grateful11]

The R400 is the camcorder we were looking at getting but wound up getting a Canon Elph 330 and I'm pleased with the
results so far. I still prefer to use my iPhone 5 for video but with no optical zoom it's limited as far as what you can do.

We bought a new battery for our old Sony Digital 8 camcorder quite a few years ago and have maybe used it for an hour since then.

[JoeM]

I got the R300 last year. We don't use it much because the battery life is horrible. You get about 15 minutes per charge. I'd check the R400 to see if it's been improved.

[JoeH]

JoeM wrote:
I got the R300 last year. We don't use it much because the battery life is horrible. You get about 15 minutes per charge. I'd check the R400 to see if it's been improved.

The R400 comes with the next size larger battery standard from Canon, model 718. The R300 came with the 709 battery, Canon does not even sell the 709 this year as best as I can tell. Battery life with the 709 is about half an hour to an hour if you don't use the higher quality levels, the 718 battery about twice that. There is an even larger optional battery, the 727. You can get third-party batteries as well, but they won't charge or show capacity on the camcorder as the Canon ones have "intelligence".