Canon VIXIA HF M31 Dual Flash Memory Camcorder - 2010 MODEL

Great Camcorder! Overall, this camcorder is been great. I bought this camera for my daughter and she is very happy with it. It works great with I-Movie, but she had problems when she tried to edit her video clips in Final Cut Express. We had to download another software program called Voltaic to get it to work with Final Cut Express. After purchasing Voltaic, she had no issues editing her clips with Final Cut Express. One feature that she likes a lot is the integrated light. The light feature is great for indoor use under normal or slightly below normal lighting conditions. I am planning to purchase the external microphone. In summary, very easy to use camcorder with integrated light and it works great with I-Movie. For Final Cut Express users you need to download another software program to make it compatible. I would it gave this camera a five star rating but been unable to get it to work with Final Cut Express it bumped it down to four stars. Rating: 4 (Canon VIXIA HF M31 Dual Flash Memory Camcorder - 2010 MODEL customer review by Hector M. Colon Padro, 2010-09-05)

nice I like this Camera a lot, very easy to use, I am not at all advanced in tech thing, but this camera is easy for me, as of how good it is, I am happy so far, the only thing that bugs me is the little cap where you put the flash on, it keeps falling off when you take it out from a bag, thank goodness it's attached to the camera, otherwise I will have to look for it all the time. if I find anything els that I don't like, I will write again. Rating: 5 (Canon VIXIA HF M31 Dual Flash Memory Camcorder - 2010 MODEL customer review by YTS, 2010-08-26)

ok easy to use, light and probably great for the price. I wish it took more smooth picture when you move the camera to take panaromic view. Rating: 4 (Canon VIXIA HF M31 Dual Flash Memory Camcorder - 2010 MODEL customer review by anan, 2010-08-21)

Excellent choice for the money, with a couple of flaws This is a solid camcorder. The image quality is excellent in all lighting conditions, and the camera, while only 3.3 MP wowed me with its image quality. If your top priority is video quality, you might wanna give this one a look before you look at the HF-S20. While the HF-S20 has more features, its video quality is about the same as this camcorders'. That's not only my .02 but many who have reviewed this against the HF-S20 have come to the same conclusion. So if you don't need a huge advanced feature set, you could save youself $300 or so and buy this one. A couple of gripes... first off the camcorder defaults to the lowest video quality setting so your first order of business (if you want a higher quality video) should be to adjust that. I'm not a huge fan on the menu system and how you interact with it. Different settings to adjust video quality and image settings are spread across several different menus. Having to scroll through the menus is somewhat cumbersome. Also the paper owners manual is rather insufficient. The copy provided on the disc is more detailed. As with all camcorders, I advise giving that a thorough read for using the camcorder. Paying special attention to the advance feature set. Also, you want to make sure you invest in a larger battery pack. The battery supplied with the camcorder is rather insufficient. So I would budget in an extra $100 for that. All in all though, once you get the hang of where things are and how to find the different settings, you will be pleased that you bought this camcorder. Rating: 4 (Canon VIXIA HF M31 Dual Flash Memory Camcorder - 2010 MODEL customer review by S. Vogt, 2010-08-05)

Excellent Amateur Camera This camera is outstanding for the price. It provides very nice, clear picture quality, and there is plenty of forums and support sites outside of canon for all aspects from video to audio help. There are only 3 things that are a minor pain. First, the touch screen takes a little getting used to. I don't know if there is a way to change the sensitivity, but mine is very slow at responding and when it does it moves really fast. Second, the battery that comes with the camera as sold doesn't last very long, but there are replacement batteries to include after market ones that work just fine. Lastly, and my biggest complaint, the location of the tripod screw for attaching to an accessory or tripod is just perfectly placed so that you have to completely detach the camera to get the battery in/out. The reason for this is the screw is placed literally less than an inch from the rear of the camera. I have tried attaching this to a JuicedLink CX231(*1) audio converter, a external camera bracket mount(*2), and a quick detach plate for a tripod and even with just a simple small bracket mount, the battery cannot be changed without completely separating the camera. This is most definitely not a reason at all not to buy the camera and I LOVE mine so far. So far the only solution I can think of is just keep a high capacity battery in there, like a BP-819, at all times. Supposedly the batteries have no memory, and the camera does not draw power from the battery if plugged into the wall plug, so you should be able to leave the battery continually plugged in with no problems. If you are looking for exceptional audio to compliment your movies (which you should) you might want to look at either Beachtek, or JuicedLink audio adapters to accompany this camera. And there are plenty of other accessories and upgrades available making this a very useful camera for someone looking to do short movies, youtube, or even just home movies. Hope you find this review helpful, and I would have done a video review, but I don't have a second camera to video tape this one. If anything changes for the worse, I will be sure to come back and update, but I don't expect it to. *1- [...] *2-[...] Rating: 5 (Canon VIXIA HF M31 Dual Flash Memory Camcorder - 2010 MODEL customer review by Daniel Spagone, 2010-07-28)