My background in movie making goes back to when I carried a large VHS camera all over Spain some 20 years ago. Since that time, I have had a long procession of Canon and Sony cams, all of high quality. I have had the VHS, 8mm, super 8mm, mini-disc and finally flash memory. Perhaps the feature rich Elura 90 was my best one with its built-in hot shoe and threaded lens barrel.
Currently, I have had three Canon flash models the FS-10 with its 48X zoom, the HF-R10 with its 20X zoom and finally the M301. I feel that the M301 takes the most beautiful and sharpest videos of this group. The colors are outstanding.
The main reason I bought this camera is because of its advanced mini hot shoe and the fact that a wide angle conversion lens can be attached to the camera. I considered the Sony in the same price category but none of their cameras at the time had a input jack for a external microphone.
I consider an external mike a necessity for superb sound. Those built-in mike on camcorders result is something less than stellar in fidelity. The High D efinition and Dolby sound result in great sound and picture quality. My biggest disappointment in the M301 is that Canon did not build this camera to be backward compatible with its previous camcorders. My Canon Elura 90 has a 34mm lens and my new Canon M301 has a 37mm. So I bought a 34 to 37 Bower step-up ring so my old wide-angle lens should fit my new camcorder using the this step up ring, right ? Unfortunately, it doesn't fit. I don't know why Canon left her old lenses in the dust ? Guess this must have been a marketing decision wanting to sell new set of conversion lenses.
I guess they made the grooves in the lens barrel either too big or too little so they wouldn't fit. So I could only give it 4 stars instead of 5 because of leaving her loyal customers in the dust. They did the very same thing with their 35mm A1 camera. I have a close friend who has an A1 but he wanted to buy a new Canon digital camera but his old lenses don't fit the new generation of cameras so he is in the same boat as me.
I was able to attach my old wide angle lens using Duct Tape !! But it lost too much in quality so I had to take it off.
However, I must say that it makes great videos. Here's the link to my video that I made yesterday and uploaded to YouTube. This will give you an idea of its quality. I think I may return it for the Sony 160 camcorder which has much more power and also has a microphone jack. Here the link to my video made with the M301. Enjoy.
PS: I'm not sure why my link to my YouTube video didn't show up in the original posting but here it is in this update. I think that many people would want to see how it actually functions in the field before buying it. If you wish to see how videos look with this camera, go to YouTube and in the Search Box, enter WHITE STREET PARK and that will bring up my walk in the park using this camera. Enjoy.
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